Recession is over spend like a real american. |
| $100 a month |
| ~35-40% of gross counting 401k with matching. |
| Less than 5% |
| At the moment about $40K on $180K income. Goal this year is $70K. |
| Nothing right now. When DD starts public school - I will start saving again |
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I make $100K a year and am a single mom. I save 15% of my income in a 401K (plus a 3% match from my company) and another 3% in the college fund, which will go up when my kid is in public school next year. I plan to pay off my house before I retire so I won't have to worry about a mortgage, just other living expenses. I'll also have a small pension.
Pre-kid, I saved about 25% of my salary. I miss those days.
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I make 90k and save $18k per year in my 401k, plus $6500 per year in savings, at least $2400 in college savings for the kids, $10k in Roth IRAs and at least $1500 in extra mortgage payments. That adds up to more than $38k which is more than 40 percent of gross.
If I can do that with 2 kids and only one of us working and a sub $100k salary those of you with HHIs in the hundreds of thousands and less than 20 percent are doing something wrong. |
So you live on $52,000 a year with two kids??? |
Well, if they're saving enough to retire on then more power to them. Life is to be enjoyed (if done responsibly) |
40% is not enough for Obama. He wants more from you. |
We pay a much bigger percentage of our incomes in taxes than you do and can shelter and get less breaks than you do. Maybe I should judge you for not earning as much as I do? |
Minus taxes, yes. Youngest is not quite one yet so doesn't cost much. But it's pretty easy and we live well (eat out, go on vacation etc). I find myself staggered that people spend such ludicrous amounts of money here. I genuinely can't understand what you are spending it on (though our housing costs are low). |
You can judge me however you want, but it doesn't mean one jot to me. I'm very happy and my family has everything we need. I'm also glad that my family understands the value of money and knows how to spend it on what's really important. Regardless of your crazy justification about paying more taxes than me, the bottom line amount that you have available to spend or save is likely many multiples of what I have, and yet, you chose to waste it or live an extravagant lifestyle instead. |
<facepalm> This might (MIGHT!) be true if you only include income taxes. But that would be idiotic. Counting all of the other taxes, the first PP's tax burden is significantly higher than yours. |