What percentage of your salary are you saving towards retirement?

[kumquat]

Since my salary is $0, I believe any answer is "undefined".

 

[packrat44]

~30% between 401k, Roth IRAs and taxable

I thought you retired years ago?

 

[Sandhog]

18.2654% in 401k 8.0429% in Roth IRA. Want to save more but not enough income and too much payables.

 

[arebelspy]

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?

 

[obgyn65]

Sorry if this sounds presumptuous, but the answer in my case is $100-$150k / year.

 

[Trawler]

Over the past 10 years avereaged 33%. Past three around 40%

 

[militaryman]

20% of gross household income goes into 401K's and 1% employee contribution towards a pension that will result in a cola'd pension that equals 26% of household income @ 57yrs old -- plus the 6+ % that goes towards SS -- So all told I guess we save about 27% of our gross household income towards retirement ---

 

[Aiming_4_55]

About 50% of gross for me, but that will slip a little in future years as kid's expenses (activities, vacations, etc.) will go up.

 

[Jamtin34]

This was my range for most of my working years. I exclude 401(k) matching funds and any growth in the 401(k). I also exclude the company stock (ESOP) which was contributed to our retirement plans at no cost to the employees.

Me too. About 60%.

 

[robbridg]

My wife and I are saving 46.4% of our gross income.

 

[deserat]

Hmm - right now I save 75-80% of my after tax income. My husband saves approximately 30-40% of his. We've been doing a combination of this for 6 years now (how long we've been married) - before that, I saved about 25-30% of my income.

He will have an active duty military pension - I will have a Reserve one and a small one from a civilian employer - I had to be more serious about my savings as I have a more diverse situation with regard to current income and future retirement income streams.

 

[devans0]

My LBYM life started in earnest (bad pun intended) from figuring out how much I would get from retirement, and living off of that. Any money beyond that went into retirement funding.

 

[FUEGO]

Our total savings divided by our gross salaries = 77%.

 

[DoraM]

Our total savings divided by our gross salaries = 77%.

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.

 

[arebelspy]

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).

Many people in this thread, I think, counted outside income (income producing real estate, etc).. such as the guy above that had 108% as his answer.

It's just a difference in the question: what percent of your total income do you save versus what percent of your work income do you save

(and of course some used gross, some net, etc).

The question was pretty open ended, so people took it however they felt like applied to them most, but I'm sure there are some that counted otherincome saved versus just gross income from w2 jobs.

 

[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]

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]

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]

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]

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.