What percentage of your salary are you saving towards retirement?

[ItDontMeanAThing]

Calculated this year by year for the last 22 years of w*rk, which is all the years I had a PC. Funded the IRA and 401k to the limits, put the excess into a taxable account. Retired in late '08.

YEAR % Gross % Net
2008 33 44
2007 33 44
2006 30 40
2005 20 27
2004 29 40
2003 22 34
2002 Lived off savings while unemployed for 8 months
2001 22 32
2000 22 33
1999 32 48

[teejayevans]

Govt gets 22%
Not counting re-investment of dividends, etc: ~50% savings
Which leaves me 28% to live on
TJ

[GregLee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by arebelspy Quote: Originally Posted by GregLee 0% here, for the last 20 years. Before that, I saved a little, but without pension and SS, I'd be sunk. What age did you retire?

See my signature: 68.

[arebelspy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GregLee See my signature: 68.

[eyeonFI]

Now I save about 35% of my gross. Pre-kids it was closer to 60% of gross. (can't wait for the daycare costs to go away).

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Seriously, that's just amazing. I have never come close to 50%. I was super proud of myself whenever I crossed the 40% line.

Spouse and I both had full-time jobs during that era.

We had also (*gasp*) actually paid off our mortgage by selling what seemed to be insanely overpriced mutual funds. (This was a 10-year fixed at 6.625% with only a few years left so it wasn't that much of a financial decision.) Our daughter had just started elementary school and was still not sleeping through the night, with 1-2 parental wakeups almost every midwatch.

So for much of that time we were walking zombies with no debts and few outside activities. Our entertainment expenses consisted mostly of going to the park or the beach.

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoraM What country do you live in? Here in the USA that would be quite hard to achieve unless you had outside investments generating income (ibonds or muni maybe). We gross ~200K a year but before we get a chance to save the government has taken over 24% of it through taxes (fed, state, SS, medicare). So even living on $0 we could only save 76% of gross. We do save 51% of gross, which I think is pretty darn good.

US of A. Not a high cost of living area. Still in a growing metro area though. I don't have any rentals or side biz income, and I didn't include any interest, dividend or cap gains payments, otherwise we would be over 100% "savings rate". I'll also note that our income is nowhere near $200k, so we aren't "cursed" with the high tax burden that you have.

The trick in the math here is that we get a couple thousand here and there from employer contributions to retirement plans. They are savings but not part of our gross salary.

Probably closer to 70% savings rate if we strip those out. Income tax and SS/medicare is roughly 10%-ish of gross. We live on about 20% of gross income. That adds up to 100%, with each category being correct within +- 3% I would say.

[ziggy29]

If you include my employer 401K match (which is 100% vested), between the 401K, two Roths and other taxable savings it would be 30% or so of gross (pre-tax) income.

[Edit to add: Even though it's *possible* some of it will be available for retirement, I am not including the $6K going into my HSA each year as it is fully intended for health care expenses and anything available for other purposes is simply a bonus.]

[Aviator]

45% of Gross

[Bimmerbill]

It was 18% but had to drop down to 5% due to divorce in process.

[tmm99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ItDontMeanAThing Calculated this year by year for the last 22 years of w*rk, which is all the years I had a PC. Funded the IRA and 401k to the limits, put the excess into a taxable account. Retired in late '08. YEAR % Gross % Net 2008 33 44 2007 33 44 2006 30 40 2005 20 27 2004 29 40 2003 22 34 2002 Lived off savings while unemployed for 8 months 2001 22 32 2000 22 33 1999 32 48

DontMeanAThing,

How did you calculate the saving% of Net with 401K contribution?

Thanks.

[tmm99]

Including 401K contribution, 32% of gross the last few years. Aiming for only 30% of gross this year (I got the bugs to spend! I might indulge even more, but I will see...)

[Webzter]

Last year, -3% of net.

This year, 0% to-date but we'll see what the second half of the year looks like!

Previous years, 40% of gross (no rental income, not including employer matches)

[sailor]

We crossed the negative line last month when we bought the new home.
Right now I'm bleeding at about 4% annual gross income.
It's an interesting exercise to see our saving rate dropping from roughly 45% to the negative territory (DINK->DI1K->SI2K->SI3K-> new house)
I hope to be back in black after the old house sells (hopefully soon) and 3 kids start transitioning from private to public schools.

[W2R]

Now that I am retired, I am saving 51% of my income. I am trying to spend more and save less so this will decline. You can't take it with you, as the saying goes.

When I was working, I saved more than that, because I was in an unusual situation (recovering from starting over with negative net worth at age 50).

I would suggest contributing the maximum to one's 401K and then also saving 1/3 of take-home pay. I think this is probably plenty for most people to save and still manage to retire early.

[studbucket]

Right now we're in paying-off-debt mode, so the number's ~10%. In 8 months, after the pay raise and the debt payoff, the number will jump up to 30-40% of gross income. That's what I'm really excited for

[Calgary_Girl]

Even though I've become a SAHM and we are living off of one income, we are still socking away approx. 36% of DH's gross salary. If I was still working, it would be closer to 50%. C'est la vie.....

[tmm99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R Now that I am retired, I am saving 51% of my income.

Wow. So your income consists of pension, SS, dividends and such?

[Webzter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmm99 Wow. So your income consists of pension, SS, dividends and such?

Moderators and administrators of the ER forum also get a very generous per diem allowance of all the spam they can read! It can be lucrative to resell if you can find a willing buyer on ebay.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Webzter Moderators and administrators of the ER forum also get a very generous per diem allowance of all the spam they can read! It can be lucrative to resell if you can find a willing buyer on ebay.

Yep. The mods run a lot of online ads to try to move product. We're all very familiar with their pitchpig spokesperson: