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View Poll Results: What percentage of your gross yearly income do you save for retirement? "Income" = payche
0% - 2% 3 2.46%
3% - 5% 1 0.82%
6% - 8% 1 0.82%
9% - 11% 8 6.56%
12% - 14% 5 4.10%
15% - 17% 7 5.74%
18% - 20% 5 4.10%
21% - 23% 10 8.20%
24% - 26% 7 5.74%
27% - 29% 4 3.28%
30% - 32% 13 10.66%
33% - 35% 8 6.56%
36% - 38% 6 4.92%
39% - 41% 5 4.10%
42% - 44% 11 9.02%
45% - 47% 1 0.82%
48% - 50% 7 5.74%
51% - 53% 3 2.46%
54% - 56% 3 2.46%
57% - 60% 2 1.64%
More than 60% 12 9.84%
Voters: 122. You may not vote on this poll

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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?
Old 11-02-2005, 04:02 PM   #141
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack_Key
I save nearly 60%, living on a 15k budget. If you are interested to see how I can do it, read my blog, http://retireat37.blogspot.com, sorry for the plug

More particularly, I detail my budget here: http://retireat37.blogspot.com/2004/...5k-budget.html.

Regards,
Jack K.
He he... your $15k only includes your share of the household expenses. I guess in that case, I get by on $15k a year, too.
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?
Old 11-02-2005, 04:26 PM   #142
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?

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Originally Posted by justin
He he...* your $15k only includes your share of the household expenses.* I guess in that case, I get by on $15k a year, too.
And don't forget, there is no health insurance expense in that budget because he's in Canada.* And, he only allocates $50 for summer vacations.
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?
Old 11-02-2005, 04:27 PM   #143
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?

My individual budget also includes no health insurance - 100% paid by employer (this is America, after all).

That is assuming I ignore my wife's expenses. Somewhat disingenuously

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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?
Old 11-02-2005, 05:12 PM   #144
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?

Quote:
Originally Posted by justin
My individual budget also includes no health insurance - 100% paid by employer (this is America, after all).

That is assuming I ignore my wife's expenses. Somewhat disingenuously
Justin Galt ?!?
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?
Old 11-02-2005, 05:26 PM   #145
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?

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Originally Posted by moghopper
Justin Galt ?!?
No. Not for the most part.

I was making light of Jack_Key's budget (it's posted on his blog) - it excludes his wife's expenses and income. I'm the sole breadwinner for my family for the most part, so if I exclude my wife's expenses*, I suddenly have tons of extra money every month. You know, cut all my utility bills in half, house payment gets cut in half, etc.


*which is bordering on the ridiculous in my situation (not Jack_Key's necessarily)
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?
Old 11-02-2005, 06:23 PM   #146
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?

It is something to be considered....

If my S.O. moves in and sells or rents out his house, (which needs to happen before FIRE) both of us will significantly reduce expenses.

In the case of a married or (living in sin) couple it makes more sense for the budget to be considered jointly - no way are we going to start worrying about splitting the grocery bill, etc., but we do each have separate finances, and both of us have to be comfortable with the situation before we both ER....



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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?
Old 11-02-2005, 07:02 PM   #147
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sheryl
In the case of a married or (living in sin) couple it makes more sense for the budget to be considered jointly - no way are we going to start worrying about splitting the grocery bill, etc., but we do each have separate finances, and both of us have to be comfortable with the situation before we both ER....
I agree that married couples should have joint budgets. Too much stuff is shared.

When my wife was just my girlfriend, and we lived in sin, I got tired of constantly keeping tabs of who owed whom for what (groceries, water bill, rent, etc). I set up a spreadsheet for her and I to use. We would record purchases on there like groceries, then allocate it to each of us. Occasionally we'd settle up so that no one owed the other anything. When we got married, the spreadsheet was retired.

Now she just spends my money without paying me back.
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?
Old 11-02-2005, 07:03 PM   #148
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?

Quote:
Originally Posted by retire@40
And don't forget, there is no health insurance expense in that budget because he's in Canada.* And, he only allocates $50 for summer vacations.
$50 a month makes $600 a year, that's my share, so for the two of us, its $1200.

Jack
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?
Old 11-02-2005, 07:07 PM   #149
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sheryl
It is something to be considered....*

In the case of a married* or (living in sin) couple it makes more sense for the budget to be considered jointly - no way are we going to start worrying about splitting the grocery bill, etc., but we do each have separate finances, and both of us have to be comfortable with the situation before we both ER....
We actually just do that (we don't share every single bill, see my personal $15k budget as our household $30k budget, divided by two). But as you say, we both have our separated finances and I didn't want to include my wife's finances on my blog, to simplify things for me.
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?
Old 11-02-2005, 07:27 PM   #150
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack_Key
I save nearly 60%, living on a 15k budget. If you are interested to see how I can do it, read my blog, http://retireat37.blogspot.com, sorry for the plug*

More particularly, I detail my budget here: http://retireat37.blogspot.com/2004/...5k-budget.html.

Regards,
Jack K.
Condo (shared)
- Mortgage: $190 (includes life insurance)
- Taxes: $80
- Insurances (furnitures): $13
- Condo fees: $68 (includes insurance, heat and warm water)
- Electricy: $15 (electricity is cheap in Quebec, does'nt include heat and water, see above)

These are eye-poppers! For $373*2, or $726 Canadian, Jack and his wife have a condo, including heat!

Is this Montreal? What type neighborhood?

Quebec is beautiful, and these prices are wonderful. Tough for a US Medicare recipient, but pretty good otherwise.

Ha
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?
Old 11-02-2005, 07:38 PM   #151
 
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?

Quote:
Is this Montreal? What type neighborhood?

Quebec is beautiful, and these prices are wonderful. Tough for a US Medicare recipient, but pretty good otherwise.

Ha
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?
Old 11-02-2005, 08:12 PM   #152
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?

Quote:
Originally Posted by HaHa
Condo (shared)
- Mortgage: $190 (includes life insurance)
- Taxes: $80
- Insurances (furnitures): $13
- Condo fees: $68 (includes insurance, heat and warm water)
- Electricy: $15 (electricity is cheap in Quebec, does'nt include heat and water, see above)

These are eye-poppers! For $373*2, or $726 Canadian, Jack and his wife have a condo, including heat!

Is this Montreal? What type neighborhood?

Quebec is beautiful, and these prices are wonderful. Tough for a US Medicare recipient, but pretty good otherwise.

Ha
We live nearby downtown in a city with a population of about 500,000. It's actually a very pretty neighborhood (one of the costliest area in town), and even if the condo is not a palace (rather small, 700sq.f. two bedrooms apartment), it's nice. The condo we bought $85k three years ago (1CAN=0.85US$, so approximately US$72k) now has a market value of about $110k. The same condo in a suburb, say 10 miles from downtown would cost less than $70k today. Electricity is cheap (about 1000$ / year to heat it, despite very cold winters), city taxes are rather cheap (about 1000$/year), but we do have our share of high costs: high income tax, a total 16% tax on goods and services, high gas price (about 30% higher than yours, thanks again to taxes), etc. But we don't have to plan for Medicare, since health care is mostly public, universal and "free". Also, our average income is much lower than the average american, an university professor, for instance, makes about $60k a year.

Comparisons are always very interesting between countries such similar in essence and nearby like US and Canada, but its difficult to have comparables figures. In my opinion: it is easier for the poors in Canada, but riches and mid-incomes get less for their worked hour in Canada. In general, we produce less output by worked hour, unions are very strong (particularly in Quebec), entrepreneurship and success is seen with suspicion and innovation suffers from that. Thus, the economic prospects are not that good here and most people just invest in actively managed mutual funds with high MRR fees (2.5% and higher for most of them) that mainly invest in the canadian market, which yield lower yields than the US market (except for this year, where energy prices increases favored Canada).
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?
Old 11-03-2005, 07:12 AM   #153
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Re: What percentage of your gross income do you save?

Are you a university professor? Or are you saying the average american is?
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