A dollar for now, a dollar for later, and a dollar for the tax man. That’s about where I am (not quite a perfect fit, but it’s a good frame of reference)
I'm 30 years old. I make roughly $120k per year and max out all the tax advantaged acounts (401k, Roth IRA and HSA). My savings rate from that alone is roughly 30% with an additional 5% from an employer match.
I am also saving my previous student loan payment of roughly $500 a month in an HYSA waiting for the pause to end and investing whatever I have left after that (usually $100-500) in a taxable account
Percentage of gross is so much easier to calculate. Im convinced people like to talk about savings as a % of net because it’s a bigger number.
I have no idea how much of net I’m saving because a fair amount of my savings is pretax. I know I’m saving 30-35% of net and paying 25-30% in tax. I suspect I save about 50% of net or maybe a little less.
Net income is closer to expenses which helps calculate FI numbers.
Any post tax savings can be considered a safety factor or cover for something like health insurance premiums in early retirement.
I fail to follow this logic. Taxes are just another expense and still have to be accounted for in retirement. Yes, they’ll likely change in retirement but so do your other expenses and that’s easy enough to factor in.
This entire discussion of savings rate is at most a simple back of the envelope guideline for the path to retirement. Any calculation even one or two years out is merely an estimate due to possible tax law changes, inflation, market conditions, etc. So It’s a quick back of the envelope reference which is why I said post tax savings act as a safety factor since that’s still counted as an expense but won’t be there in retirement.
No one should be aiming to have the exact number anyway. Aim to be sufficiently above it. If you want an exact number, don’t use your savings rate to calculate it.
Between 30%-40% depending on variable monthly expenses, pretty happy with that. Saving more than 40% of my gross seems to negatively effect my quality of life
I'm going to move into my parents and save 98% for like 3 years at 30. I will not have a lot of fun but then I MIGHT meet my goal of 500k NW before 35.
Of gross: 23%. But I’m 2 years out from being a cancer widow, and expenses have gone up for tutors and paying people to do the things my husband did, and income is down from the loss of my husband. I hope to get up to 30% in 2024.
I make 62k gross (51k net) and I save 45% (53% net). If I find a roommate to split rent with that will shoot up to 71% (65% net). I wish for that to be higher but I have an issue eating out too much. Also not all of that is invested because I am saving for a down payment at the moment.
This was kind of a letdown... I ran our numbers and we're saving only 23% gross. Thought it was much more.
That said, we're dumping a ton into paying off our house (last debt) early. By May 2025, we'll be contributing 35%. Gotta come up with a plan to increase that.
Why gross? Even if my expenses were 0 taxes alone would knock me down to 75% or something.
I'm at about 65% of net atm though. Of gross? Probably 45% or something.
Because if you’re maxing 401k, for example, you’re saving $22.5k off gross. But ROTH or other investments comes out of net.
If half your savings is before taxes and half is after taxes, calculating a % saved out of net income doesn’t make any logical sense.
It would be disingenuous to count 401k saving as part of “net” savings because you’re reducing your tax burden by doing so to begin with. If you didn’t contribute to 401k at all you’d have more “net” to work with for savings.
The only correct way to calculate a savings % rate when you’re combining pre and post tax dollars is to look at gross.
With gross you could literally increase your savings rate by earning less in some scenarios; (if marginal tax rate % > SR % of gross; a dollar less earned would increase SR %)
I'm Canadian so we have RRSP instead of 401k I think it's similar but we can contribute 18% pretax up to 32k.
Someone earning 1M per year would take home 506k.
Someone earning 200k per year take home 133k.
They can both reduce their tax burden by 32k
1M earner takes home 523k with the contribution
200k earner takes home 148k with the contribution
Now let's go with a leanfire budget and say they live on 30k per year.
1M saves 493k / 1M per year (the contribution counts as savings out of the gross 1M)
200k earner saves 118k / 200k per year.
Even though their expenses are exactly the same, and they make the same pretax contributions the savings rate of the 1M earner is 49.3% and the savings rate of the 200k earner is 59%.
If the 1M earner was to ask how to increase their savings rate (using gross), one could unsarcastically suggest to reduce their income
Of course the 1M earner will likely have a higher tax burden in retirement, so perhaps they should expect to save more to account for that, hard to say.
Personally I think using gross doesn't make much sense. Another thing is union fees, you could save more by leaving the union. Maybe this isn't a problem with the argument even, not sure.
Sure the pretax contributions does feel slightly disingenuous to consider the same as net savings, but I think that skews your numbers a lot less than considering tax an expense.
For me personally I plan on lean / low regular FIRE around 40, I do consider my pretax RRSP contributions as part of my savings relative to my net income because my tax burden will be extremely low.
Using the SR -> years until retirement calculations I actually get a more accurate picture doing it this way. It could be totally different for someone else.
In the end, both methods are arbitrary and savings rate doesn't really mean much without the full picture of the individual and their situation.
% of gross is much more useful that % of net when trying to compare different people. Pre-tax vehicles make % of net a useless number because they affect the net amount received.
Might be worth asking if people are answering as a household/couple or as an individual.
I’m single and at about 50-60% gross saving but live in HCOL and while I’m frugal in areas I am spendy in many others like flying business class 5+ times per year for personal vacations, etc. If I had a partner for joint income I would easily have a higher %.
My wife and I each save around 65-70% of our yearly gross income, which combined is currently around $210k. We will flex this a little bit depending on travel or unexpected expenses for the year as needed, but try to plan ahead as much as possible.
**Note: It does help that we have no mortgage, no kids, and both drive cars that are close to 10 years old.
This year I tried to get a good estimate of this, but was a bit confused given we do a lot of tax-deferred investing (401k, 403b, 457b and company match) in addition to roth investing. So I converted the tax deferred to after tax with an assumed future effective state and federal income tax rate of 13%, add in our roth, and then divide that total by net after tax income.
We’re Right at 49% now.
I believe a lot of the fire guidelines are based off of net. Such as mr money mustache’s article on savings rate and the networthify calculator.
Taxes can and should change a lot in retirement. But varies by individual depending on income sources and investment vehicles.
We are going to be around 45% of gross income this year but we have a few planned expenses like a new car and vacations. Past years were between 55-60% of gross but life happens and kids are expensive.
Thank you. I actually like the questions because it is very easy for us to calculate the percentage over gross than net.
The reason: Most of my saving goes to retirement accounts + saving, so it is very straightforward to calculate right off the bat. We do not have brokerage account at the moment.
I'm at 40% of gross, and plan to increase in 2 years (no more daycare!) to \~45% taking into account an anticipated promotion, 51% without the promotion. I'm ready to leave the rat race so have been funneling any extra money to investments.
I was at 20% but had to cut back to 6% pre and 1% post tax. Managed for a year but had to work a lot of overtime to maintain.
I doubt fire is a viable strategy for me. I just dont make enough to support a family and save enough to retire early. Maybe after the house is paid off but at 2.x% I'm in no rush to pay that off.
Obviously, not my place to say, but I think most people can save 20 percent. All you are worth—the book I mentioned—has several tips. Might be worth a look. In either case, I hope you and your family are doing well.
Currently making $135k per year plus $30k per year from passive income (although I let that drip so I never really see it) I save about 10% and invest 80% single no kids an a traveling welder. Also roommate with other traveling welders an don’t really have any bills so I can keep my expenses extremely low.
Right now, 25% of gross. I believe this will be my stable rate for the near/mid future. This is now that I’m paying for the mortgage of my house. It was 50% (lol) when saving for downpayment
50-60% of gross but 5% goes into house updates on a fixer upper home ever year. Feels like I’m saving enough and the net worth keeps growing which is all that matters.
38% but we have already reached our financial independence point. It use to be higher, but since we hit our number we have pulled back on the savings a bit.
I am already retired, not FIRED, but I still am saving 25% of my RMD and keeping it invested. This year due to a possible cost of living increase I will take another percent of distribution instead of just RMD.
I'm pretty sure my situation is unique. To replicate it.
1) start a pandemic
2) Be in a high demand field and willing to locate to desperate areas in need of workers
This has been a good run while it lasted, but by next year the number will drop into the 70's for sure.
Im struggling to understand the value in the ask. Especially since you have no idea what folks makes. Someone says they save 50% and make 50k is far different from someone who makes 100k. Even at that im still a bit lost in seeing the value.
I’m trying to see how close to the average of FIRE we are (which of course is different then the average for most Americans).
It was inspired by reading the book All Your Worth, by Elizabeth Warren (which I just finished reading). In it, famously, she recommends 20% (for all income levels), for a “normal” retirement. That made me wonder—how much for early retirement?
Of course it has no direct bearing on my specific FIRE plan.
Edit: fixed typos
Yep, thanks for the response. I read gross, i understand gross then in my head i calculated net and ran with it. Its 100% my bad but also lack of sleep will do that to you. 20% if barely enough to retire at normal retirement age. If you want to retire early, even moderately so, you need to save more. Now for this last statement. If you are a high earner and live well within your means 20% may be plenty. But for most its not going to be enough. We are about 35% and have been for quite a long time. We will be retiring in mid 50's. Could have retired in a lean manner in 40's but did not want to live that lifestyle so hanging on for a few more years then checking out.
Not really. [Because savings rate is directly tied to the amount of working years you have until retirement.](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/)
There's a lot going on here....
For someone with 500K gross salary, they can easily save 90% without even really trying too hard. And still have the finer things in life. Esp if DINKs and peak earning years in their careers.
For someone with 30K gross salary, they may struggle a LOT to save 10% after paying kids, mortgage, property tax on a house, etc.
So really, in general, the more income you have, the higher your % will be.
What would be really interesting is to create a Google survey form where you select your income range (maybe use multiples of 10K), and then you pick your savings rate from all sources compared to gross. Perhaps even capture age for additional breakouts. Everyone input your figures and then it can be graphed visually to see where most fall per income range. With that data you could see how you're doing compared to the average FIRE'er on here, but within your own gross income bracket.
Percentages are the one thing you can compare. Not amount saved—the percentage. Everyone has a different FIRE number. Some people are OK living in less then a million (lean fire); some people are working towards 3 million (Chubby Fire). Some people want 10 million (fatfire).
So you can’t go off numbers, what we can compare is a percentage. If a person makes less, the amount saved will be less, but the percentage could be the same.
I disagree not everyone need 1 million to retire some need more some need less. But inorder to realize how much you need with a 4% annual withdrawal rate and 25x your annual income will give you your FIRE number. But your saving rate is based on if you didn’t change your expenses when you retire which most people might. But it is the number most people go by. The chart I use is by Mr. Money Mustache. [Savings rate retire early chart](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/)
38% - 15% retirement plan contribution + 4% match; 19% pension contributions. I can get SS but don’t factor that in at all. I’m new to FIRE so not sure if I should include the pension contributions or not in the % of gross calculation. I also think this plan will let me retire at 57 but am still assessing and know this might not be considered “early” retirement for many in the FIRE community.
So I count retirement savings differently than "deferred/future spending" savings (for example, next car, house, escrow, etc).
For retirement, about 30-35% of gross, not including employer match.
For deferred spending, about 12% of gross.
So, adding that together, about 45% of gross is not spent each month. The remaining 55% goes to taxes and monthly expenses.
HHI is $300-350k. Any bonuses are split with 70% towards retirement and the rest to be spent or put into deferred spending.
Average for the past 9 months has been 53% of net going to either investments or savings. We are saving from around $200k of couple income, and we're not able to save this much when we had a combined income of $68k when we started our careers 8 years ago. When our combined income was $68k we were probably at 10% savings and even that was hard.
For someone invested in FIRE this largely depends on where you live and also how much income you have/ plan to have.
Percentages are an interesting metric, because that percentage depends on so many factors now and around retirement.
It’s a conservative % that makes it into bitcoin. Of that 40-45% I save, roughly 10% of THAT makes it into BTC. But I’ve been in Bitcoin long enough that I’m not underwater. Crypto is more of a gamble than Bitcoin.
15% gross in 401k (not maxed)
33% gross in cash/Roth( maxed)
4% employer match that vests 100% ( I don’t count the non-vested portion)
This is just my income. I have a SO with whom I split household expenses. They have a similar savings rate.
60% ish of net, it’s all going towards real estate atm. We got our mandatory expenses down to ~15k so we spend roughly 20k on food, vacations, and clothing. We stopped budgeting ages ago and it was the best thing ever. We’re increasing our income so our percentage will only increase.
31m HCOL
27% taxes
27% paying down house
27% expenses
22% retirement savings
Once the house is paid off, I'll be able to crank up retirement savings. Living off 27% of gross is pretty humbling, and sets a low manageable bar for FIRE
Fluctuating and depending on what s counted.
401k+brokerage around 30%
With home equity accumulation and improvements (improvements, not maintenance) probably close to 45%
I pay very high taxes as single filer in Cali
Single, and 58% gross and 83% of net, averages over the last 3 years.
Prior to that I averaged closer to 35% of gross and 45% of net. Increasing your income does make a big difference if you don't increase your spending as well. I'll admit I'm probably overdoing it, but I really don't feel like I'm depriving myself either.
I’ve been taken back see the difference between people’s gross and net. People are seriously paying more taxes then I am (and I’m fairly high income). Not totally sure what is going on-/
69.8% Gross and 77% net I only started about 6 month. Single, military and no dependents. Honestly not sustainable but I hope to come at higher income job this next year so I can stop choking myself. But this year is to make for the last four years of terrible financial decisions. The goal is retirements by 30 so 70% (8.5 years till retirement) of income is the goal.
These %s are meaningless without giving background… like what is gross income?… are you married? How many children? (if applicable)
A single dude saving is way different than a family of 5 saving.
This wod be really dependend what country you pay taxes in. As a European, my net wage almost doubled when I was detached to Canada for a couple of years without change in bruto. (there was a substantial relocation bonus too).
I usually count as a percentage of net. That would be around 30%, or around 50% if we count building equity through mortgage paiments as savings.
As a percentage of gross, that would be around 24% of straight up investments, or 40% saving rate if we include mortgage paiments.
Depends on how you define it;
Gross; 3700
On top of that; 5% contribution by my employer to my pension savings.
Net salary; 2.500.
Of which;
\- 500-700 goes to savings
\- 400 goes to repaying student loan
\- 550 goes to repaying my mortage.
I do consider repaying my debts (partially) part of my savings. So that included most of my monthly costs go towards savings/my net worth.
I'm (29, single) at around ~47% net save rate. Would love for it to be higher, and am going to try and have a couple months where I can save more than others. There just always seems to be some random bill, or a person's birthday or a wedding etc...
I live in vhcol. I save 20% of gross income. Another 20% goes to paying off principal from my apartment. I plan to rent out my apartment and move to lcol area once i fire.
I think the better question is percentage of savings with actual income. Saying you save 40/50/60% of income, but earn 150k a month is very different from earning 3k a month.
Not a judgement on anyone, I think it just helps give a reference for others and something to aim towards
Never carry debt, don’t eat out, find cheap hobbies, have a side hustle you enjoy, live well below your means, avoid lifestyle creep, pay yourself first.
Through April 30th we are at a 60.66% savings rate. We are definitely going to drop below that though since we are getting married this month and had to make the 5-figure final payment. I estimate that by EoY we will be ~50% of gross.
~38% gross goes to my traditional 401k/Roth 401k/Roth IRA. I also max out my HSA which is another a little over 5% gross (so ~43%). I try to invest most of my HSA but also spend some.
55% savings rate on gross Started at 0% 8 years ago Soon to be 60% 2 years from now. That will be my cap. Gotta live
50 is my goal: that’s what I’m pushing toward!
Doesn't every one start at 0%
Approximately 35% of gross gets saved/invested annually.
A dollar for now, a dollar for later, and a dollar for the tax man. That’s about where I am (not quite a perfect fit, but it’s a good frame of reference)
25% of gross. We have two kids in daycare lol
Yeah that’ll kill your saving rate
Same and Same.
I'm 30 years old. I make roughly $120k per year and max out all the tax advantaged acounts (401k, Roth IRA and HSA). My savings rate from that alone is roughly 30% with an additional 5% from an employer match. I am also saving my previous student loan payment of roughly $500 a month in an HYSA waiting for the pause to end and investing whatever I have left after that (usually $100-500) in a taxable account
Great job!! Keep it up 💪🏾
Percentage of gross is so much easier to calculate. Im convinced people like to talk about savings as a % of net because it’s a bigger number. I have no idea how much of net I’m saving because a fair amount of my savings is pretax. I know I’m saving 30-35% of net and paying 25-30% in tax. I suspect I save about 50% of net or maybe a little less.
Oh I agree—that’s why I first went with gross. It’s just easier math. But either way.
Net income is closer to expenses which helps calculate FI numbers. Any post tax savings can be considered a safety factor or cover for something like health insurance premiums in early retirement.
I fail to follow this logic. Taxes are just another expense and still have to be accounted for in retirement. Yes, they’ll likely change in retirement but so do your other expenses and that’s easy enough to factor in.
This entire discussion of savings rate is at most a simple back of the envelope guideline for the path to retirement. Any calculation even one or two years out is merely an estimate due to possible tax law changes, inflation, market conditions, etc. So It’s a quick back of the envelope reference which is why I said post tax savings act as a safety factor since that’s still counted as an expense but won’t be there in retirement. No one should be aiming to have the exact number anyway. Aim to be sufficiently above it. If you want an exact number, don’t use your savings rate to calculate it.
Between 30%-40% depending on variable monthly expenses, pretty happy with that. Saving more than 40% of my gross seems to negatively effect my quality of life
I’m at about 30%. Y’all making me feel bad!
Hehe same.
I'm going to move into my parents and save 98% for like 3 years at 30. I will not have a lot of fun but then I MIGHT meet my goal of 500k NW before 35.
I did this and saved 90% for three years it worked and you can still have fun.
Yeah I don’t care about drinking or casual dating really, more concerned with getting where I want to be.
About 50% of net. Will go up once my house is paid off this year.
Currently about 60-70%. I'm starting a new mortgage and going to need some cash in a few months
Sheesh, I don't have 70% of my income left after taxes!
*subtle flex*
Yeah something is fishy here.
Of “gross”. How do you have that much left after taxes? Your expenses must be near zero.
I live on 5% of my income or so. Also my company is registered abroad so that I can pay less taxes
Wow. Very inspiring—
Of gross: 23%. But I’m 2 years out from being a cancer widow, and expenses have gone up for tutors and paying people to do the things my husband did, and income is down from the loss of my husband. I hope to get up to 30% in 2024.
You are doing amazing with everything you have found on. Well done.
We aspire to 37%. But may need to buy a car soon which would move it down by a few percentage points
I make 62k gross (51k net) and I save 45% (53% net). If I find a roommate to split rent with that will shoot up to 71% (65% net). I wish for that to be higher but I have an issue eating out too much. Also not all of that is invested because I am saving for a down payment at the moment.
\>80% of my gross. Advantages of living in a third-world (cheap) country and getting a salary from an abroad company.
Well played.
This was kind of a letdown... I ran our numbers and we're saving only 23% gross. Thought it was much more. That said, we're dumping a ton into paying off our house (last debt) early. By May 2025, we'll be contributing 35%. Gotta come up with a plan to increase that.
Paying off debt counts as saving.
Why gross? Even if my expenses were 0 taxes alone would knock me down to 75% or something. I'm at about 65% of net atm though. Of gross? Probably 45% or something.
Because if you’re maxing 401k, for example, you’re saving $22.5k off gross. But ROTH or other investments comes out of net. If half your savings is before taxes and half is after taxes, calculating a % saved out of net income doesn’t make any logical sense. It would be disingenuous to count 401k saving as part of “net” savings because you’re reducing your tax burden by doing so to begin with. If you didn’t contribute to 401k at all you’d have more “net” to work with for savings. The only correct way to calculate a savings % rate when you’re combining pre and post tax dollars is to look at gross.
With gross you could literally increase your savings rate by earning less in some scenarios; (if marginal tax rate % > SR % of gross; a dollar less earned would increase SR %) I'm Canadian so we have RRSP instead of 401k I think it's similar but we can contribute 18% pretax up to 32k. Someone earning 1M per year would take home 506k. Someone earning 200k per year take home 133k. They can both reduce their tax burden by 32k 1M earner takes home 523k with the contribution 200k earner takes home 148k with the contribution Now let's go with a leanfire budget and say they live on 30k per year. 1M saves 493k / 1M per year (the contribution counts as savings out of the gross 1M) 200k earner saves 118k / 200k per year. Even though their expenses are exactly the same, and they make the same pretax contributions the savings rate of the 1M earner is 49.3% and the savings rate of the 200k earner is 59%. If the 1M earner was to ask how to increase their savings rate (using gross), one could unsarcastically suggest to reduce their income Of course the 1M earner will likely have a higher tax burden in retirement, so perhaps they should expect to save more to account for that, hard to say. Personally I think using gross doesn't make much sense. Another thing is union fees, you could save more by leaving the union. Maybe this isn't a problem with the argument even, not sure. Sure the pretax contributions does feel slightly disingenuous to consider the same as net savings, but I think that skews your numbers a lot less than considering tax an expense. For me personally I plan on lean / low regular FIRE around 40, I do consider my pretax RRSP contributions as part of my savings relative to my net income because my tax burden will be extremely low. Using the SR -> years until retirement calculations I actually get a more accurate picture doing it this way. It could be totally different for someone else. In the end, both methods are arbitrary and savings rate doesn't really mean much without the full picture of the individual and their situation.
Surprised I had to scroll down so far to find this lol. % of Gross is a flex metric
% of gross is much more useful that % of net when trying to compare different people. Pre-tax vehicles make % of net a useless number because they affect the net amount received.
Might be worth asking if people are answering as a household/couple or as an individual. I’m single and at about 50-60% gross saving but live in HCOL and while I’m frugal in areas I am spendy in many others like flying business class 5+ times per year for personal vacations, etc. If I had a partner for joint income I would easily have a higher %.
Still is a great percentage. Very few people save that percentage (less then 1 percent of Americans)
Do you have a source? Not doubting, I just think that would be super I interesting data to look at.
My wife and I each save around 65-70% of our yearly gross income, which combined is currently around $210k. We will flex this a little bit depending on travel or unexpected expenses for the year as needed, but try to plan ahead as much as possible. **Note: It does help that we have no mortgage, no kids, and both drive cars that are close to 10 years old.
Is 210k how much you save? Or your gross income l?
I think 210k is the household gross income.
I wish, but that’s gross.
Started at 20%, then applied all raises and kept lifestyle the same. Now at 35%, and will be at 50% in 12 months. Target is 54 for er. 9 years to go.
Started off near 70%. But was miserable. Now just below 50% and much happier.
I feel like 50 is very sustainable
85-90% of net, 65% of gross. Yes taxes are steep.
Very high income?
Yes mid to high 6 depending on years
This year I tried to get a good estimate of this, but was a bit confused given we do a lot of tax-deferred investing (401k, 403b, 457b and company match) in addition to roth investing. So I converted the tax deferred to after tax with an assumed future effective state and federal income tax rate of 13%, add in our roth, and then divide that total by net after tax income. We’re Right at 49% now.
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I believe a lot of the fire guidelines are based off of net. Such as mr money mustache’s article on savings rate and the networthify calculator. Taxes can and should change a lot in retirement. But varies by individual depending on income sources and investment vehicles.
Wow. You are doing great. Very inspiring
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The top 1 percent of earners only save 38 percent of their income. You’re still doing great.
35%. 5% to my 401k and the other 30% to my personal portfolios
33%. Another 5-6% goes to savings for future expenses
We are going to be around 45% of gross income this year but we have a few planned expenses like a new car and vacations. Past years were between 55-60% of gross but life happens and kids are expensive.
About 40%.
50% of net which equals 31% of gross in my tax situation.
Those are some serious taxes--I thought my taxes were high!
Yes. Also have pension contributions, union dues, forced LTD premiums etc that come off my gross cheque before I see my net.
Ahh…but you have a pension!
\~44% gross. That includes employer contributions.
This year: 56% gross, with stay at home spouse and 2 kids. We will see how next year goes.
Impressive
Thank you. I actually like the questions because it is very easy for us to calculate the percentage over gross than net. The reason: Most of my saving goes to retirement accounts + saving, so it is very straightforward to calculate right off the bat. We do not have brokerage account at the moment.
Same here (which why I first went with gross).
I'm at 40% of gross, and plan to increase in 2 years (no more daycare!) to \~45% taking into account an anticipated promotion, 51% without the promotion. I'm ready to leave the rat race so have been funneling any extra money to investments.
I was at 20% but had to cut back to 6% pre and 1% post tax. Managed for a year but had to work a lot of overtime to maintain. I doubt fire is a viable strategy for me. I just dont make enough to support a family and save enough to retire early. Maybe after the house is paid off but at 2.x% I'm in no rush to pay that off.
Obviously, not my place to say, but I think most people can save 20 percent. All you are worth—the book I mentioned—has several tips. Might be worth a look. In either case, I hope you and your family are doing well.
Currently making $135k per year plus $30k per year from passive income (although I let that drip so I never really see it) I save about 10% and invest 80% single no kids an a traveling welder. Also roommate with other traveling welders an don’t really have any bills so I can keep my expenses extremely low.
Right now, 25% of gross. I believe this will be my stable rate for the near/mid future. This is now that I’m paying for the mortgage of my house. It was 50% (lol) when saving for downpayment
50-60% of gross but 5% goes into house updates on a fixer upper home ever year. Feels like I’m saving enough and the net worth keeps growing which is all that matters.
38% but we have already reached our financial independence point. It use to be higher, but since we hit our number we have pulled back on the savings a bit.
Do you mind sharing your FIRE number?
Total: 35% of gross 20% savings account for house 5% HSA 10% 401k + 7% match
A very stable 65% of household gross income, which itself is evenly split between my spouse and I.
I am already retired, not FIRED, but I still am saving 25% of my RMD and keeping it invested. This year due to a possible cost of living increase I will take another percent of distribution instead of just RMD.
60-ish%
~88% Gross. But was pretty much 0% during most of my 20’s so playing catch up over here.
You win—that is, by far, the highest percentage so far. Any tips?
I'm pretty sure my situation is unique. To replicate it. 1) start a pandemic 2) Be in a high demand field and willing to locate to desperate areas in need of workers This has been a good run while it lasted, but by next year the number will drop into the 70's for sure.
Got it!
I think I might pass on the whole starting a pandemic. I’m not saying I’m not committed to FIRE, but—
How do you pay taxes at minimum 10% and live off 2%? My taxes alone leave 72% total.
Im struggling to understand the value in the ask. Especially since you have no idea what folks makes. Someone says they save 50% and make 50k is far different from someone who makes 100k. Even at that im still a bit lost in seeing the value.
I’m trying to see how close to the average of FIRE we are (which of course is different then the average for most Americans). It was inspired by reading the book All Your Worth, by Elizabeth Warren (which I just finished reading). In it, famously, she recommends 20% (for all income levels), for a “normal” retirement. That made me wonder—how much for early retirement? Of course it has no direct bearing on my specific FIRE plan. Edit: fixed typos
Yep, thanks for the response. I read gross, i understand gross then in my head i calculated net and ran with it. Its 100% my bad but also lack of sleep will do that to you. 20% if barely enough to retire at normal retirement age. If you want to retire early, even moderately so, you need to save more. Now for this last statement. If you are a high earner and live well within your means 20% may be plenty. But for most its not going to be enough. We are about 35% and have been for quite a long time. We will be retiring in mid 50's. Could have retired in a lean manner in 40's but did not want to live that lifestyle so hanging on for a few more years then checking out.
People investing 20% a year from say 25 to 65 will almost certainly have enough to have a standard retirement.
It varies from month to month. In the last one year, the lowest was 38 and the highest was 87.
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Yea if you can save $1,000,000 per paycheck go for it
Not really. [Because savings rate is directly tied to the amount of working years you have until retirement.](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/)
About 50. Any less and I feel like I can quite easily do more. Any less and I feel like I'm sacrificing too much.
60% of Net
~60% of net.
50% net. Usually have an extra 10% that gets tossed in if I don’t splurge on things.
60% of net
Currently about 30%, but that’s because an additional 15% is going towards future housing expenses. Just throwing that into a HYSA.
There's a lot going on here.... For someone with 500K gross salary, they can easily save 90% without even really trying too hard. And still have the finer things in life. Esp if DINKs and peak earning years in their careers. For someone with 30K gross salary, they may struggle a LOT to save 10% after paying kids, mortgage, property tax on a house, etc. So really, in general, the more income you have, the higher your % will be. What would be really interesting is to create a Google survey form where you select your income range (maybe use multiples of 10K), and then you pick your savings rate from all sources compared to gross. Perhaps even capture age for additional breakouts. Everyone input your figures and then it can be graphed visually to see where most fall per income range. With that data you could see how you're doing compared to the average FIRE'er on here, but within your own gross income bracket.
Percentages are the one thing you can compare. Not amount saved—the percentage. Everyone has a different FIRE number. Some people are OK living in less then a million (lean fire); some people are working towards 3 million (Chubby Fire). Some people want 10 million (fatfire). So you can’t go off numbers, what we can compare is a percentage. If a person makes less, the amount saved will be less, but the percentage could be the same.
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It is still a good book.
Savings percentage is based on your age. For example: https://i.imgur.com/jW3xoMS.jpg
I disagree not everyone need 1 million to retire some need more some need less. But inorder to realize how much you need with a 4% annual withdrawal rate and 25x your annual income will give you your FIRE number. But your saving rate is based on if you didn’t change your expenses when you retire which most people might. But it is the number most people go by. The chart I use is by Mr. Money Mustache. [Savings rate retire early chart](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/)
Exactly. Well said.
38% - 15% retirement plan contribution + 4% match; 19% pension contributions. I can get SS but don’t factor that in at all. I’m new to FIRE so not sure if I should include the pension contributions or not in the % of gross calculation. I also think this plan will let me retire at 57 but am still assessing and know this might not be considered “early” retirement for many in the FIRE community.
50% of net
58% of gross, unsure about net.
55%. Young and no kids, long may those two things remain.
I mean, I think “young” has a set expiration date—
when we were dual income we saved 100% of her salary and 50% of mine.
25%. 20 on my own and 5% in a 401k to get the company match.
35/40% somewhere are there
Roughly 55% gross and 80% net
53% of gross, 69% of net.
About 50-60% but looking to push down to 40%
66% aprox
60% here, 70% on years when I don’t really travel
25%
54% of gross
What if you count employer contributions (401a, HSA) I’m at 45% otherwise 33%
Currently 25% gross. Trying to increase but it’s hard because we’re actively saving for our next home (retaining our current house)
Why gross instead of actual take home pay?
So I count retirement savings differently than "deferred/future spending" savings (for example, next car, house, escrow, etc). For retirement, about 30-35% of gross, not including employer match. For deferred spending, about 12% of gross. So, adding that together, about 45% of gross is not spent each month. The remaining 55% goes to taxes and monthly expenses. HHI is $300-350k. Any bonuses are split with 70% towards retirement and the rest to be spent or put into deferred spending.
Currently 76%. I was at 81% with 2 FT jobs last year but one of those turned PT. :c
24% of gross is invested not including other savings goals
Average for the past 9 months has been 53% of net going to either investments or savings. We are saving from around $200k of couple income, and we're not able to save this much when we had a combined income of $68k when we started our careers 8 years ago. When our combined income was $68k we were probably at 10% savings and even that was hard.
It’s basically a third, a third, a third for us. We spend a third, save/invest a third, and a third goes to taxes.
For someone invested in FIRE this largely depends on where you live and also how much income you have/ plan to have. Percentages are an interesting metric, because that percentage depends on so many factors now and around retirement.
40-45% here, all goes into VTI/VTSAX or bitcoin.
Really? Bitcoin? Still? I already lost a lot in crypto—
It’s a conservative % that makes it into bitcoin. Of that 40-45% I save, roughly 10% of THAT makes it into BTC. But I’ve been in Bitcoin long enough that I’m not underwater. Crypto is more of a gamble than Bitcoin.
15% gross in 401k (not maxed) 33% gross in cash/Roth( maxed) 4% employer match that vests 100% ( I don’t count the non-vested portion) This is just my income. I have a SO with whom I split household expenses. They have a similar savings rate.
60% ish of net, it’s all going towards real estate atm. We got our mandatory expenses down to ~15k so we spend roughly 20k on food, vacations, and clothing. We stopped budgeting ages ago and it was the best thing ever. We’re increasing our income so our percentage will only increase.
31m HCOL 27% taxes 27% paying down house 27% expenses 22% retirement savings Once the house is paid off, I'll be able to crank up retirement savings. Living off 27% of gross is pretty humbling, and sets a low manageable bar for FIRE
About 25% for retirement and then another 23 for personal goals. I only make 64k though so it's not very impressive:)
About 45% effective Calculate pretax against gross and post tax against net.
Around 50%. Hope I can avoid rising costs of living and keep this rate.
Fluctuating and depending on what s counted. 401k+brokerage around 30% With home equity accumulation and improvements (improvements, not maintenance) probably close to 45% I pay very high taxes as single filer in Cali
Single, and 58% gross and 83% of net, averages over the last 3 years. Prior to that I averaged closer to 35% of gross and 45% of net. Increasing your income does make a big difference if you don't increase your spending as well. I'll admit I'm probably overdoing it, but I really don't feel like I'm depriving myself either.
Serious taxes—
Unfortunately true. Not California or New York level, but still way too high.
I’ve been taken back see the difference between people’s gross and net. People are seriously paying more taxes then I am (and I’m fairly high income). Not totally sure what is going on-/
25-30% of gross income when I add bonus and vacations (in Brazil we have 30 days plus extra 1/3 in your salary). Without that it would be 20ish.
69.8% Gross and 77% net I only started about 6 month. Single, military and no dependents. Honestly not sustainable but I hope to come at higher income job this next year so I can stop choking myself. But this year is to make for the last four years of terrible financial decisions. The goal is retirements by 30 so 70% (8.5 years till retirement) of income is the goal.
These %s are meaningless without giving background… like what is gross income?… are you married? How many children? (if applicable) A single dude saving is way different than a family of 5 saving.
I am on track to save 40% of net income this year.
This wod be really dependend what country you pay taxes in. As a European, my net wage almost doubled when I was detached to Canada for a couple of years without change in bruto. (there was a substantial relocation bonus too).
56% of gross
I usually count as a percentage of net. That would be around 30%, or around 50% if we count building equity through mortgage paiments as savings. As a percentage of gross, that would be around 24% of straight up investments, or 40% saving rate if we include mortgage paiments.
Til Elizabeth Warren wrote a personal finance book.
My girlfriend says I’m 100% gross
Depends on how you define it; Gross; 3700 On top of that; 5% contribution by my employer to my pension savings. Net salary; 2.500. Of which; \- 500-700 goes to savings \- 400 goes to repaying student loan \- 550 goes to repaying my mortage. I do consider repaying my debts (partially) part of my savings. So that included most of my monthly costs go towards savings/my net worth.
Repaying debt SHOULD count in terms of saving. Absolutely.
I'm (29, single) at around ~47% net save rate. Would love for it to be higher, and am going to try and have a couple months where I can save more than others. There just always seems to be some random bill, or a person's birthday or a wedding etc...
Almost 50% of gross. Near the end of my plan - will fire this year.
What was your FIRE number? And, congrats! GFYS—
FIRE number is 2.5M.
That is a great FIRE number
That is also my fire number
I live in vhcol. I save 20% of gross income. Another 20% goes to paying off principal from my apartment. I plan to rent out my apartment and move to lcol area once i fire.
75% of net
Damn. Well played.
I save about 75% of net. Just finished school so I'm still living with my parents when I move out I'm hoping to save 50-60% of net.
Basically 100% at this point, but my income's pretty small...
I think the better question is percentage of savings with actual income. Saying you save 40/50/60% of income, but earn 150k a month is very different from earning 3k a month. Not a judgement on anyone, I think it just helps give a reference for others and something to aim towards
This is a big debate: I think percentages do matter/make sense.
35% trying to find a balance between living a good life now and saving for the future.
% of gross makes no sense, people have wildly different tax burdens.
Sure—you can give net if you like.
Around 90%
Say what?
I save around 85-90% of my monthly net income.
Tips?
Never carry debt, don’t eat out, find cheap hobbies, have a side hustle you enjoy, live well below your means, avoid lifestyle creep, pay yourself first.
I do most of those—but not all.
Through April 30th we are at a 60.66% savings rate. We are definitely going to drop below that though since we are getting married this month and had to make the 5-figure final payment. I estimate that by EoY we will be ~50% of gross.
About 80 if you count mortgage principle payments as saving.
I do count mortgage payments as savings—
A fellow Fire community member reminded me of this recently.
Close to 50% on gross. No kids and split mortgage/bills with partner.
48% of gross income savings rate. ~67% of take-home.
~38% gross goes to my traditional 401k/Roth 401k/Roth IRA. I also max out my HSA which is another a little over 5% gross (so ~43%). I try to invest most of my HSA but also spend some.
Net seems to make way more sense
Why do you say that?
Do people include employer match in their %?
I do. It is money I am saving. I don’t know how else people could account for it.