I Should Be Saving How Much?!

I don't remember most of the stuff I did in 2002. Guess I should have stayed home that whole year and only ate oatmeal?

I think "save what you can" is a better idea than saving a set amount. A set amount can be great if you can afford to do that, but that seems unrealistic for many people in today's economic situation. If you can save something consistently, that's the ticket, but not everyone could save 20%. Or 10%. My mom and dad used to save $10 a month. That's what they could afford to do, and they did it every month. Later, they were able to set more aside, but my mom always said "At least we tried to set $10 aside each month, and it was a good practice and helped us." I know as far as home ownership goes, when my husband and I were house hunting in early 2008, we were told we could borrow up to five times my husband's earnings at the time, and we both exchanged glances and shook our heads. Five times his earnings was not the direction we wanted to go. Instead, we went below what they said we could do and bought a fixer upper in a rural area (not where many people were buying--home ownership was expanding in a different area near the city, not in the area we looked at). It was a home built in 1980. We had a range we set in our own minds as to what we were hoping to look at, and this home was not the most expensive house on the list nor did it have the most square footage. We stayed small and more affordable. We moved out here without me having a job; I looked for one once we were already here, and the home loan was not based on my part of the income. We have done a few fix-up things but nothing major, and we're both working hard to pay down debts and expenses.

I never spend more than I make. I was able to save for retirement, kid's college and other things by following these simple rules. Pay yourself first. If you wait until the end of the month, the money is always gone. Secondly, everytime I received a raise or extra money, I put at least half into my retirement/college funds. If I never had the money, I'd never miss it.

This article is written only for the ones that are lucky enough to have a job and for that matter,a good paying job to be able to save the 20% + without feeling the burden. What advise is there for the ones on $8.00 hour jobs and for the ones don't have and cannot find one? any ideas??

How is it possible to save on $8.00 an hour jobs that they are forcing us to accept? another space-filling on the internet from the writers....

It can be done. not all 20% can come from your own pay. If your compnay matches then that counts as well. Right now I put in 6% to my company 401K with a match up to 5% and I put 10% gross directly into savings 6+5+10 = 21%. You just have to make sure that your debt to income ratios are in line. If they aren't then that is your first prioity. I wouldn't go past 25% DTI for the mortage.

Help yourself by helping other people eliminate their grocery expense. People are desperate to save and now there is a solution better than any coupon. Of which stores are cracking down on coupon use making it very difficult to save big money. My family has cut back in all areas but still continued to struggle. I am so thankful because someone shared with me an opportunity to eliminate my family’s grocery and gas expense. If this would help you check it out: http://www.groceriesforfree.biz/gaz

Why save when inflation is going to eat up the purchasing power of your money? When there is inflation, spend-spend-spend and get as much debt as you can handle, because next year, you will be paying back the debt with dollars that are worth 10% less...so that 10% of purchasing power that got lost is lost by the banks and not you. If you don't know what to buy, try buying GOLD and holding on to it. Then you will really see what is happening to the value of your dollars that you are "saving". There is no saving with inflation...there is only losing.

For people who think that only "people who make $150K a year" can do this, I also should mention, that there have been times in my life when I haven't made much money or any at all. I had an accident that left me paralyzed, and didn't see any disability money for several years.

I was taught to pay myself first.I set up an automatic transfer to a savings account,attached to my checking so it was free, of only $25 a month, initially, giving myself permission to use it if needed. Somehow, I never "needed" it, even though I would end some months with a balance of less than $2 in my checking, I just prentended I didn't have that money in savings. When I got a slight pay increase, I pretended I didn't get a raise, and had the difference transferred into my savings account. Every time I looked at my savings account balance growing, I was more motivated. I then added another $25 a month autotransfer the middle of the month, and didn't miss it. On a very rare occasion, I would need to tranfer a few bucks out to pay for an unexpected expense, or something like tires, but I HAD it. I did this all fresh out of college, making student loan payments, car payments, supporting two horses, two dogs, two cats, and paying off more than $14K in unsecured debt, paying my own rent utilities, etc.

Presently, I do the same, but since I was able to purchase my own home at 29, due to the above, so I have property taxes. Now, I set up a Christmas club account, with an automatic transfer. They disperse in November and I pay my December and March taxes (the whole year) with the Christmas Club money. I'm thinking of adding enough to cover home owners insurance as well, because their is a processing fee to make monthly payments. It's only a dollar or so, but why give them my money, if I don't have to.

Save more for retirement and the S&P is going to 1,450 by year end.... Sure Babe....So losing 35% of our IRA's and 401K portfolio's in the the past 3 years wasn't enough? Wall Street now wants to turn us upside down and shake out what little loose change we may still have..... As insanely generous as that offer may be, I think I'll have to decline.

article is for a dreamer. To many Americans live beyond their means or are struggling because of "lack of work" and you suggest how to trim the fat and save. What .....is this article intended for the richer of the masses?...It definetly isn't for the poor and struggling.

First of all you need a job to sock anything away unless you are a politician !!!!!!!

Since none of the things these so called "planners" are telling us to do seems to really work they say just to save more. That makes their job a lot easier. Stocks have gone nowhere, real estate is in the tank. In the mean time we are told that prices are stable. What a joke. Everything I buy is getting more expensive .....everything.

Sure, go ahead and make the rich, "richer". The big insurance companies and banks want control over all money, if you saved 90%, they would want the other 10. This scum wants to do away with the Social security system as they have the traditional retirement accounts over the past 30 tears. Money is power And they control all retirement accounts.

Buy well made things instead of junk.
When we started out my wife and I got the cheapest pots and pans. From then on every two years we bought another set of $170 riveted aluminum non-stick coated pans. Within a year the non-stick was peeling and handles started popping off. We finally shelled out 5X as much for triple ply stainless. We needed ten years to break even. So far we had 22 years and only one has failed.
I can relate the same lesson with cars, lawn mowers, Washers, etc. Always pop for that extra half horse power mower or the 3 ton instead of the 2 1/2. air conditioner, especially if your need is right on the line. The stronger models will have to work less and last years longer. A little quality saves you a lot in the long run.

These articles crack me up. Dude, we're selling books on the internet so we can buy gas. 10% of our income...what planet do you live on anyway?

I've read so many comments on here that say it can't be done.....saving 10 - 20% that is. And, then I've read so many comments on here that have proven those people wrong. Not all of them have a high paying job, but they still managed to cut their costs wherever possible. Just because you couldn't figure it out, doesn't mean it can't be done. If you have a low paying job, then learn a new skill. If there aren't any good jobs where you live, then MOVE! How long are you going to stick around looking for a good paying job if you haven't been able to find one in the past year or more? It's up to you to change the course of your life......stop whining about it and blaming everyone else. It's not our fault that you don't have enough money to put away. Do what you gotta do to improve the quality of your life. Sitting around, complaining about it on a message board isn't going to get you where you want to be in life! Only you can change your current position.....no one else can do it for you.

I had two great uncles who worked as hard as they possibly could and saved everything they made for their entire lives. Despite having plenty of money, they always lived in poverty. Today, they are two of the richest men in the cemetary.

Well this is one of the better articles Ive seen Yahoo post in a long time. At least he isn't telling people to sell their vacation condo or fire their dog walker like other articles. He is just saying quit or cut down on spening money on crap that has or will have no value. I see a lot of people at work come in every single day with coffee from Tim Hortons. Yeah, it is only $2 but thats $500/year out of $30,000/ year salary. Thats just one small thing but that $500 could be saved or used to pay off debt. You could even make that 1 additional Principle& interest payment on your mortgage payment per year which knocks off about 8 yr.s on a 30 yr.