In my case, my private employer matches 100% of the first 6% I save (vested immediately). DW's public school system doesn't match. So combined with my 10% annual contribution, I do consider that "I'm" saving 16%/yr. Combined with DW's 10%, "we're" saving about 13.5%/yr.
We've never contributed the max amounts though, as each family's situations and priorities can be different. In our case, with both of us having [non-COLA'ed] pensions available in our mid-late 50s, and the combined amounts (~$100k) will likely cover our retirement living expenses (along with continued employer access to health benefits), we opted to pay off our mortgage before we turned 50, as well as fully fund both of our children's college educations (including living at college). We managed to do this while also saving 10% of our combined salaries over nearly the past 25 years (currently ~$650k). So while we don't save nearly the large amounts I read so much about, within the context of our other financial goals and means, we've balanced things out in a way that we're comfortable and confident in our ability to ER, while still providing a nice debt-free headstart and LBYM example to our children.
