What percentage of your salary are you saving towards retirement?

[dooo42]

Just curious how much people are putting away.

 

[REWahoo]

Just curious how much people are putting away.

I had coffee and a danish for breakfast, a cheeseburger and fries for...

Oops. Sorry, wrong thread...

 

[steelyman]

Well, I am on the final push towards ER (will be submitting my resignation this coming Monday!), and for this year I am socking away 60% of my gross salary. Couldn't keep that up for long, though...

 

[Klubbie]

13% to 401K plus a 5% company match so 18% total. Another 8-9% into Roth IRA/taxable savings. So a total of around 26-29% or so.

 

[aaronc879]

It's difficult to say exactly but i'll give it a try. The easy part: 33% goes into 401K pre-tax. I'm left with about $32,000. ~20% of that goes to taxes leaving $25K(I rounded down). Of the $25K, $5K(or 20%) goes to ROTH IRA. Leaving $20K. Approx. $8K of that goes into cash savings for large future purchases and some will end up as retirement money but don't know how much. If I don't count any of the cash as retirement money then I guess i'm at a minimum of 53%(33% pre-tax,20% after tax). However $5K of that $8K will probably end up as retirement money so that's another 20% putting me at up to 73%. That's on an income of around $48K/yr pre-tax.

 

[rockyj]

For some time we have been doing:

~20% 403B supplemental
~11% Roth
6.25% Employee contrib to pension

May tighten the spending belt and add some more as we are coming down the home stretch.

 

[Shawn]

About 55% of my before-tax salary, and 80% of my after-tax salary.

 

[hankster]

~30% between 401k, Roth IRAs and taxable

 

[SecondCor521]

I save 108.8% of gross salary, depending on how you define things.

How? My gross salary is only a percentage of my total income, and I spend only a small percentage of my total income. Basically I spend somewhat less than my other income.

2Cor521

 

[arebelspy]

About 60%. We LwayBOM.

This may have been interesting as a poll.

 

[chrisaukcam]

Re: Percentage

Geeze I am a piker compared to the rest.

company matches 50% of first 6% so that means 9%

And then I actually did an extra 2% on top of that since they did the 2% rollback on the payroll taxes so that means a net of 11%

Plan to retire at 60. I think that I will able to swing it.

 

[Retch The Grate]

I do about 30%, it varies from year to year as once I fully fund my 401k and my Roth I don't have a hard and fast goal, some years just have more expenses to cover. I'd really like to get it up to 50%, but I don't really have any areas I'm willing to squeeze more than I already am and the Bay Area is expensive. Ah well.

 

[martyb]

35% from my salary to my TSP, no matching from Uncle Sam, my employer. 20% of my wife's pay into her 401k. I guess that's a total of around 42% of our combined income into tax-deferred 401k type accounts, plus whatever we can scrape up into our Vanguard Roth IRA's. Yep, it's tight...

 

[Nords]

For a couple of years in the late 1990s, spouse and I were saving over 80% of our take-home pay.

It wasn't that we were especially well compensated. It's that we were both either working or parenting, and those two activities were still cutting into time that we would rather have spent sleeping.

Halfway through the year 2000 spouse found our "dream home", and shortly after that our savings rate plummeted.

This post crunches the numbers on how much you'd have to save for how long to be financially independent:
How many years does it take to become financially independent? | Military Retirement & Financial Independence

Scroll down to the tables assuming 5% or 6% rates of return, or use the handy formula at the end of the post with your own projections.

 

[supalong52]

I should be saving over 80% this year after taxes. I spend < $30K a year, but make over $275K. Probably a little extreme, but my job is not really sustainable for the long term if you want to have a life.

 

[Animorph]

I like 15%, excluding employer match, starting with your first job. That's what I recommended to DS. Should be able to pull an early house downpayment out of that and retire in your 50's while maintaining your lifestyle. Obviously dependent on investment returns and salary increases, so adjust lifestyle as necessary by switching to inflation-only spending adjustments as retirement approaches instead of increasing to match pay raises.

Wish I had done that. Instead I had to depend on stock options. A little luck is always good.

 

[Ronstar]

35% in my 401k - not much $ working 3 days a week

 

[palomalou]

33% of gross.

 

[sally123]

I'm doing 10% to the company plan with 100% match and 5% to 401K, that's 25% pretax. Then ROTH IRA and the same amount for investiment. I think total ~35%.

 

[Major Tom]

My savings rate varied greatly while I was working - from zero up to about 30% of gross at peak. During the years I was saving nothing, I was buying and selling houses, the profits from which ended up going into my taxable account, so I was saving in effect, but not into tax-deferred accounts.

I've always looked for opportunities to either spend less, save more, or take advantage of promising investment opportunities - just not necessarily all at the same time.

 

[chinaco]

It has not been a consistent % over the years. But if I were to guess, it ranged from 30% to 60% for the last 20 years.

This does not include my pension.

 

[scrabbler1]

It has not been a consistent % over the years. But if I were to guess, it ranged from 30% to 60% for the last 20 years.

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.

 

[devans0]

I max out my Roth 401k and my Roth IRA plus a 5% company match of my salary to my 401k. This w***s out to be about 50% of my gross pay, or after taxes, about 250% of my net take home pay.

 

[GregLee]

0% here, for the last 20 years. Before that, I saved a little, but without pension and SS, I'd be sunk.

 

[Sam]

I should be saving over 80% this year after taxes.

For a couple of years in the late 1990s, spouse and I were saving over 80% of our take-home pay.

So how was the instant noddle? Seriously, that's just amazing. I have never come close to 50%. I was super proud of myself whenever I crossed the 40% line.