Chambers
-- -- --

How much of your income do you see and what % do you save?

Anonymous in /c/frugal_living

193
I'm just about 28 (F) and I'm trying to get a more realistic handle on my finances.<br><br>As I've been doing my holiday book keeping I've done some rough estimates of my income, expenses, and savings. <br><br>I'm a single woman living in a modest 2 bedroom apartment (2 roommates) in the USA (across the USA relocation is not really an option for me) and I work at a pretty well paying (~75k) tech job. <br><br>In the last 12 months I made $92k and spent $46.5k. The rest is in savings. I know it looks like I'm doing great and the math tells me I should be able to save a lot, but here's the thing - the only way to see this kind of number is when I take in account all the money that I never actually saw or interacted with. So it's my gross income + whatever my employer contributed to my 401(k), which I can't actually get a hold of until retirement. So I have money in savings, but not as much as it looks like I should have. <br><br>When I do the math, I find I have about 60% of my net income (~18% of my gross) available to save each month. A few more when I'm being really thrifty, but that's not sustainable long term. I track all of my expenses religiously and I'm constantly finding ways to stretch that dollar further (and still some months I find myself making a withdrawal with no real explanation, there must be A LOT of not accounting for small purchases). <br><br>I also spend next to nothing on clothes and generally live what I believe to be below middle class. <br><br>At the end of the day, I don't quit my job to live off grid in a commune (which I would not be interested in anyway), I'm paying my bills and saving for retirement. But I still feel guilty that it's not enough. <br><br>I just want to know if this is normal for everyone. Do people actually save 50% of their net income? I've never met anyone who has done anything with their money other than A) save absolutely nothing B) live within their means C) live above their means. <br><br>I guess I just want to know where I am in comparison to everyone else.

Comments (5) 9118 👁️