Is saving 10% of your take home pay enough?

[svodla]

In a first job out of uni (postgrad). Take home £3k a month and only managing to put away £300 a month at the moment. Spend a lot on going out and enjoying London and seeing the world. Rent and bills for a room in London are £1,200 for context.

The stealth boast is strong with one!

Yes it's enough. If something comes up, go out less.

What is a stealth boast, sorry?

It's not much is it ....

Ignore the bitter posters here. Well done on getting such a good job straight from university. You must have worked hard

Make sure you're putting money into a pension. Much better than general savings.

What is this diamond shoes thing on MN? It just makes you sound like a prick.

As with always on these threads I ask what amount you're allowed to earn up to before you can post on MN. Still never had an answer.

Stop putting women down for earning decent salaries. We don't need this type of behaviour from other women.

Personally at that stage of life I would think you should save more than ten percent if you can afford it. It will take you a long time to save a deposit and get out of renting if you only save £300 a month. You can of course choose to prioritise socialising and enjoying life but you might regret it in the future. It also depends what your future earning prospects are like. If large pay rises are likely then …

I think if you can save more, then save more. It's not really rocket science. If you don't want to, then don't. If you have the capacity to, but don't want to then what exactly do you want from this thread?

Validation

What does the savings need to cover?
We have 2 pots. One "unpredictable, expected spends" - so, new tires, a new washing machine. Stuff we know we will need but not when.
One for stuff we will spend this year - so a holiday, car service&mot, Christmas.

I started off saving a small amount, but put half of every payrise onto the savings amount. It will soon add up.

What are your long term plans? If they're to leave London then I'd not feel bad spending money enjoying your time there. If it's to buy a house, especially in London, you need to be saving more and the amount to be in line with the time frame.

For a single person I would say no. 3k a month with no one else to support- you should be able to save more and prioritising savings to get on the property ladder at some point. For a family, I would say that £300 is reasonable given the higher outgoings.

Make sure you are in your worlplace pension scheme, the contributions you make now are likely to be the most valuable (per pound contributed) of your life.

Are you paying into a pension already? If not, do that. If yes, I would say aim to save £500 and you've still got a good amount to spend and enjoy yourself.

When single I saved just over a quarter of my monthly salary, after accounting for future bills like service charge, utilities etc. So every month I was probably putting away 45% for future use.

I take home £2.2k but I’m not in London. I aim to save at least £500 a month but I only spend about £150 on going out the rest is on rent and bills. Id say £1.5k on going out is quite frivolous but at the end of the day it’s up to you

only managing to put away £300 a month at the moment. Spend a lot on going out and enjoying London and seeing the world

I'm sure as a graduate you can see why you are 'only' managing to save £300

In your first couple of years out of uni 300 is fine as I think you should enjoy spending For a while as you were a student for so long
After a couple of years aim for more, say 500

Ignore people who are jealous, you're doing great. You know you have wiggle room and could save more if you cut your spending budget. But 10% is great. Where do you save it? Pension is a great place to start, or split it in half and pay the other half into another savings account for house/car etc whatever you're working towards.

The 50: 30: 20 allocation is a simple rule of thumb to aim for ....

50% needs; 30% wants; 20% savings and investments.

Is £3k a month a lot?

I would be saving more but i'm a saver.

Enough for what? No one can answer your question

Posted too soon

Decide what you are saving for and how much you need to save then only you will know if a rate of £300 per month is enough depending on how long you want to save for

£3k less £1,200 = £1,800 to spend. Less £300 into savings and you are wasting spending £1,500 a month. That is rather a lot, even in London.

You should be able to save a lot more than £300 a month, but it depends where your priorities lie, doesn't it?