What %age of your household gross income do you save per year?

[scrabbler1]

Even though I am already ERed, I still calculate a percent saved based on my investment income (mostly dividends and interest but includes some cap gains distributions) and my expenses. For 2010 it was 47% and for 2011 it was 51%.

In my working years my % saved did not vary as much as I thought despite my twice voluntarily cutting my salary to reduce my weekly work hours. In the two years I was working FT after I paid off my mortgage, it was in the high 50s. For the next several years, it fluctuated more because investment income became a larger share of my total income but was still between 40% and 60%. (The year I bought a new car it dropped to 18%.) The year I cashed out my company stock it and ERed jumped to 91%!

 

[sunnysideup]

Yes, seeing the survey is motivating. Based on my monthly asset builders and 401k contributions, I am saving about 35%. But I should be saving more being this close to retirement,and so I am going to do something about it!!!

 

[plex]

About 75% of gross this year. Counting paying down student loans as saving as well. Bit more than usual because it's only a partial earning year but I'm still maxing the 401k, which defers nearly 50% by itself. Still plan on saving 62.4-67% for the years after that, but never will reach the 70's due to taxes.

 

[rodi]

If you count just savings we save 26%. That's $22.5k into my 401k. $6k into hubbies IRA, $10K split between the boys' 529's and some extra into taxable accounts.

Not included is the company match on my 401k. It's 4% of my salary. The question was how much we're saving, not how much we're accumulating. I don't contribute that match, my employer does.

Also not included is the extra principal payments we're making on the mortgage. We pay an extra $2100/month there because we both feel more comfortable pulling the trigger on ER when we don't have a mortgage to worry about. (Reducing all our fixed costs and planned expenses while we have income to reduce it. Also plan to get new windows and replace DHs truck before we pull the trigger.) Hopefully we'll be mortgage free with a new, paid for, truck in the garage in 2 years.

If you include the extra principal - it's closer to 44%.

Even after we pull the trigger we'll still be tossing $10k/year into the 529's. So savings won't stop... sort of... it will be moving money from one account to another.

 

[ziggy29]

We put in for my 401K + HSA + 2 Roths + a little extra into a taxable brokerage most months. That probably comes to about 1/3 of total income, give or take a bit. It probably gets close to 40% if you include the company 401K and HSA match (which I think is reasonable since both are fully vested).

 

[martyb]

I max my TSP @ $22,500, which is 27% of my pay. Wife does 20% of her pay, but that contribution only amounts to around $5000 per year. Total, we do about 32% of our gross pay. I get no employer match, wife does get 5% plus profit sharing. Once I retire and we re-combine our households (currently reside seperately most of the week & pay for 2 apartments), we're going to do our best to have close to 100% of wife's income into her 401k for her remaining 3 yrs of work.

The reason we max my TSP with no employer contribution instead of her 401k is that I have much more faith in the TSP than the employer's plan long-term.

 

[W2R]

Once my house was paid off, the extra money I was putting towards the principal went towards my retirement nestegg. That amount plus maxing out my TSP is easy to track/document and averaged 60% of my gross salary. I also had a Roth and taxable investments. Basically I didn't have a percentage goal, but instead saved every nickel I could find. My saving rate wasn't out of some sort of misplaced virtue, as much as facing the very grim reality of what I needed to do to attain my goal.

It was worth it, too!

 

[ChadR]

I haven't checked in about 6 months but up to that I've been averaging 30-35% per year of gross income.

 

[45th Birthday]

ERd but still earning more than we spend. This year, will save 20% of gross, with two kids in college. Last year, it was 33% with only one in college. Year before that, with both still in high school, it was 37%. Muni bond income has been dropping with falling rates, crimping the top line somewhat.

 

[2035]

I max my TSP @ $22,500, which is 27% of my pay. Wife does 20% of her pay, but that contribution only amounts to around $5000 per year. Total, we do about 32% of our gross pay. I get no employer match, wife does get 5% plus profit sharing. Once I retire and we re-combine our households (currently reside seperately most of the week & pay for 2 apartments), we're going to do our best to have close to 100% of wife's income into her 401k for her remaining 3 yrs of work.

The reason we max my TSP with no employer contribution instead of her 401k is that I have much more faith in the TSP than the employer's plan long-term.

Don't say her contribution is "only 5,000" every bit counts and it represents her hard work and talents.

 

[WestLake]

About 40% of pay at work. About 30% of rental income.

 

[Badger]

Ooops! Voted too low. I forgot about investments other than 403b. Some are done automatically others are done once a year. It should have been the 41+% category. I guess in a few months when I retire we will have to learn how to spend money since we can't take it with us later.

Cheers!

 

[Mike1968]

I have scheduled for this year:
401k max of $22,500 including 1st year of Catchup contributions (~40% of Gross)
401k company match of 4%
Roth IRA Max of $6,000 (includes catch-up contributions). Funded from Savings Acct.
HSA Max of $3,100 (Single) Pre Tax from Payroll
Taxable accounts- I fund when I feel like it from the Savings Acct.

I haven't figured out the exact gross and net percentages.
I am comfortably in the 15% Tax Bracket

 

[Amethyst]

Income taxes and mandatory deductions (including paying into my pension) take 40% of our income. (Husband's pension is fully taxed - and neither of us qualifies for SS). So, should I calculate our savings/investments based on the 60% that we can actually touch, or the original amount - which, to me, is an illusory number?

Amethyst

 

[W2R]

Income taxes and mandatory deductions (including paying into my pension) take 40% of our income. (Husband's pension is fully taxed - and neither of us qualifies for SS). So, should I calculate our savings/investments based on the 60% that we can actually touch, or the original amount - which, to me, is an illusory number?

Amethyst

The OP can correct me if desired, but my understanding was that "gross income" means the original amount, which is indeed an illusory number for all of us.

 

[ProGolferWannabe]

Roth IRA Max of $6,000 (includes catch-up contributions). Funded from Savings Acct.

I don't think funding an IRA from a savings account would be appropriate to count when determining the % of salary that you save. You are just shifting assets you have already saved from one investment vehicle to another.

 

[ProGolferWannabe]

I am amazed at the amount/percentage of income that people are saving here. I just did a back of the envelope calculation, and came up with 33% of gross (38% if you include employer contributions). No wonder the economy can't get any legs under it--all you guys savings 50%+ of income are killing us!! LOL

 

[Grainiac]

The OP can correct me if desired, but my understanding was that "gross income" means the original amount, which is indeed an illusory number for all of us.

Illusory indeed. Ours: a bit over 70% of net and a bit less than 50% of gross.

 

[bo_knows]

I'm 30, and we put away ~25% of our gross income. However, we're paying double mortgage payments to pay it down, on top of triple payments on student loans (which disappear this summer, yay!). I'm envious of those who dump 50% into savings. Reading these forums makes me feel like a schmuck, knowing that our income is 170k-ish. Living in a high-cost area is brutal though. Our modest 40yr old townhome was 400k! Cripes. We'll be getting out of dodge whenever we retire... hopefully cashing in on some equity. Unfortunately, our home is one of our main investment vehicles.

 

[foxfirev5]

In our case the % went up this year. DW retired last year and we're saving the same amount of $ on less income . The plan is to save less and enjoy ourselves more. However, old habits die hard.

 

[eridanus]

This thread started one on ERE.

What Percent of Gross Income Saved? « Early Retirement Extreme Forums

It's inspiring what some on ERE save (though some figure it as net instead of gross). Without including P of the P&I, and not including extra principal payments, I saved 32% of gross (line 22 on the 1040).

 

[Letj]

We max out on our 401K ($50,000) and Roth IRA ($12,000).

How do you do that? My plan allows me to only do 15% a year up to15,000 and my employer contributes profit sharing up to 15,000.

 

[eridanus]

Sounds like a solo 401k.

 

[Skyward1]

I'm currently at approx. 31% but will soon pay off my house and then up it to roughly 50% for the time being. Unfortunately I really don't like my house/neighborhood so I'm itching to buy in another area and will likely spend more than this house and may finance some of it so the 50% may be short-lived.

 

[mickeyd]

Since I retired several years ago, my "savings program" consists of transferring any cash over $1000 in my checking account each month to my savings account. I always do this after I reconcile the checkbook.