Your avg yearly savings over the course of your career

[dvalley]

So I had this silly idea that I wanted to see how much I saved on avg every year since I started working (after college). I didn't want to over complicate it so I just divided my current savings+investments by the number of years (16) since my first real job. I came to $22k per year.

Of course, for the first 8 years of my career I thought as long as I fully funded my 401k I was 'all set' for 'a retirement'. The next few years I started saving in maximum overdrive until the big D happened which took more than a few things out of my life; some good and some bad

 

[ejman]

So I had this silly idea that I wanted to see how much I saved on avg every year since I started working (after college). I didn't want to over complicate it so I just divided my current savings+investments by the number of years (16) since my first real job. I came to $22k per year.

Of course, for the first 8 years of my career I thought as long as I fully funded my 401k I was 'all set' for 'a retirement'. The next few years I started saving in maximum overdrive until the big D happened which took more than a few things out of my life; some good and some bad

Interesting approach. Following the same methodology I come up with an average of $54k a year.

 

[heeyy_joe]

$17k

 

[aaronc879]

I averaged about $16K savings per year with an average gross income of around $35K/yr.

 

[Letj]

$44K. This includes employer and my contributions as well as growth.

 

[aim-high]

Some crazy returns have made it more than my lifetime earnings.

 

[ProspectiveBum]

$22K. $44K for our household. No crazy returns here, unfortunately. We've been plowing the IRS maximum into our 401Ks since the mid-90s, with precious little real growth to show for it (one reason I've moved everything I can to index funds that track the market).

 

[scrabbler1]

Not counting any 401k matching funds or 401k earnings (just my 401k contributions), and not counting the windfall from cashing out my company stock when I ERed in late 2008, I averaged about $42k in annual wage income from 1985-2008 and averaged $21k in savings and reinvested earnings from my taxable account's investments.

 

[Senator]

Do I count my paid off house? Or my paid off rentals? Or the rental equity?

Just taking investable, liquid assets, I am at $42,500. But as of 7/30 I have already saved a bit over $95K in 2014 (not counting any returns) and August rent is not counted in that.

The goal is to save $150K each year until I retire.

 

[calmloki]

Having very little earned income but rental real estate for years really skews things. After subtracting our home value and 25% of the rental property value (a rough approximation of what we would have after selling and paying the tax and fees on them) I come up with a net worth figure that, after dividing by my years since the age of 18, is more than 4 times the most I ever made working for someone many years ago.

 

[BBQ-Nut]

I always contributed the max to my company's 401k and went extra when I qualified for the IRS allowed 'catch up' amounts. That, plus monthly auto deposits to savings account and brokerage account for after tax accummulation - hmmm....about $42K/yr

 

[iam21177]

I kind of had two lives.

The first one I was married, made about $25k annually, had a spouse that never made over $10k. We could barely save $200/month and had zero savings at the end of the year.

After a divorce, I lived on my small income and I also put myself through graduate school while maintaining a mortgage. I stopped all retirement contributions. However, my work still contributed 14.2% to my 401a even at 75% time, so that was a bonus.

After graduation, I remarried. Together (with my new salary and spouse), we are able to put away $75k a year in pre and post tax accounts which does include the 14.2% our employers gift to us. So far we've been able to keep up this rate (and increase it yearly) for the 3.5 years we've had our money together.

So my savings contribution has fluctuated greatly over my working adult life.

 

[dvalley]

wow lots of responses, thanks for playing Honestly, I thought I'd get the typical response of 'this is a useless metric' but glad to see so many responded. I do wish you guys had posted the no of years too (I know it's easy to reverse calculate the networth but we have the whole networth thread where so many post it anyways) I was hoping to see the number of years (on avg) one typically has to spend working to get to a certain networth say $500k or $1M etc. Doesn't mean much because different income, savings rate etc but trends are trends and do have some value.

As for what to include in the networth, that's really up to each individual. Since I live in my house I don't calculate its equity. However, if I had investment properties I would.

 

[sayhey24]

36 years ~ $38,800

 

[Surewhitey]

I'll count my married life of 17 years @ $61,764.

Otherwise, it is $42k...

Future me plans to average $36,585 @ 60 (assuming 50% growth in 16 years)

I'll be 44 this year.

 

[robnplunder]

73k/year for 27 years. Some years were really good. Not so much for bubble bursting years (dot.com, housing/mortgage).

 

[iam21177]

I tried to use that metric but it was too complicated for my scenario. However, the combined power of two salaried individuals who are on the same financial page is wonderful.

 

[BellBarbara]

47.5 for the two of us. We are about equal in savings.

 

[obgyn65]

My career has been short, and I lived in Europe many years where salaries are much lower. On average, over 20-25 years, I would say $100-150k per year.


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[eta2020]

about:
30% various taxes
50% saved
20% live on

I will not go to exact numbers

 

[NgineER]

7 years - $60k per year savings, including employer match

 

[photoguy]

I just divided my current savings+investments by the number of years (16) since my first real job. I came to $22k per year.

I have on my spreadsheet the same number but as a daily average (net worth/days since start of work). I don't think it's useful for much other than making me feel good. I also compute for each year.

I did notice that my average has been steadily increasing over time.


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[ProspectiveBum]

Yyu unhygienic

Edit: Oops! This was a pocket post from my phone.

 

[truenorth418]

I saved about $45,000 per year, which was about 70% of my after tax income.

This accounts for proceeds from the sale of a condo and some other miscellaneous additional to work-related income.

 

[retire2020]

30 years…. 93K/year