To ask what % of your income you save?

[MorallyBankrupt]

I keep reading thread on saving and people say they have £50k saved and they save £2k a month, or people saying they can only save £50 a month and really worrying.

However, if the people saving 2k a month have a household income of 5k then as a % they are saving much less than people who say have 2k income but save £1200 a month.

So really, to understand how people priortise saving don't you need to work out the percentage you save compared to others?

At the moment we save 33% of DH's salary as we are trying to save for a deposit... He thinks this is too high as it means we are going without everything other than basic food and bills. He would prefer 20% and 'to live a little'.

I have a small income but also small costs, I save about30% of my income each month
DH has a larger income but also larger costs, he saves about 15 - 20% of his income each month

I have no pensionand am aware that if DH and I are not still together when I am a pensioner then I will struggle.

thoseclementineshoes, I like your name! Where's it from? I am currently eating a Clementine, they are the nicest of the oranges

I do think we have sacrificied having a life... But we spent years spending everything and saving nothing :(

I save (Inc pension contributions ) about a third of my income, DH about 50% - we are both lucky in that we earn ok salaries, have little debt (only a very small mortgage & my student loan) and due some prudent decisions in the past (both bought houses very young, made good profits when we sold to buy together, good investments) we are quite comfortable as well as being quite sensible about spending within our means , well I am anyway
We use our savings for large purchases and sometimes save a bit more or less dependent on what's left over at the end of the month. December isn't a good month for saving

Knitted-
to get a percentage on a calculator just tap in the full amount (eg 300) hit the the x key, then the percent you want to find of the amount (eg 20) then hit the % key and equals.

I try to budget 50% for needs, 30% for wants and 20% for savings and we have to pull back each year. When I was lower income I budgeted 20% needs, 0% wants and 80% for savings. I did this for a year until I save up enough for a deposit and after buying my place saved around 15% of my income and spent the rest.

Before anyone asks, saving 80% involved working 3 jobs. While it wasn't fab I would do it again as it put me ahead and gave me options.

12.8% of take home pay. My dh thinks it should be more and always nagging me about it. But I like days out and wine :)

Ha ha, that looks like we specifically made a decision to save 12.8%! No, we dd an amount out to the savings account each month and I just worked out what % it was.

we both do pensions, we overpay the mortgage which is kind of a saving as we did use some of the money for our holiday and then I put away £50 a month. I try to keep some wages back at the end of the month but the cost of living is crazy and with christmas coming up.

I save in total about 15-20% of my take-home (after pension contribs), depending on the time of year and other commitments. Some of it goes into short-term 'rainy day' savings which pay for holidays, big home maintenance projects and a chunk off the mortgage each year. Some I put in long-term investments for the future. Some goes into a fund for DS.

If I was, like the OP, trying to get on the housing ladder or wanted to pay off the mortgage quicker then I'd probably save more because we don't exactly scrimp by on what's left. When I bought my current house 20 years ago, yes, I lived on baked beans and didn't go out much because I was overstretched and it needed a lot of work doing. It's all a question of priorities, I suppose, and those change depending on where you are in your life..

I'm saving approximately 16% of my monthly income by regular monthly deductions/DDs but also other cash sums per week towards our next holiday

I actually worked myself out a budget yesterday on the train! I'm saving £50 a month at the moment to cover the summer holidays when I won't get any bursary but will still have rent to pay.

Hopefully next year I'll be working and then I will start trying to save for a deposit on a flat.

thank you very much, both of you for that!

I have worked out that as a couple we save 33.3% of our salary and personally I save 50%.

Probably 20% of my income, helped by input from MrNC's in months when the credit card is high. So about 5-10% of joint income and frequently spent.
However we've actively decided to invest money in doing up the house for the next few years followed by paying off mortgage, so our 'savings' are about 2k - enough for a new car if necessary or similar emergency. With luck in 10 years we'll be able to save more for the kid's university funds instead...

That's after paying for MrNC's unemployment insurance, family health insurance, life insurance, and all the sort of stuff that means we don't need to rely on savings so much. We're lucky.

We overpay our mortgage by £100 a month

And normally we save £250 a month, however we are expecting out first baby so have shelled out a bit and we needed new boiler so we are only saving £50 a month and paying out £200 a month towards what we had done to house.

Mortgage is due to get cheaper in Jan due to fixed rate ending at last! So will have an extra £60 a month to either save, overpay mortgage further or spoil the child lol.

Personally I have already decided on a Disneyland fund...

Oh and me and DH work in same place and do the 'sharesave' scheme. He
Puts in 150 a month and I put in 50 ATM to increase to 150 after 2 more ears...

And I pay 8% of my wage into a pension as does DH and work pays in a further 10% so that's pretty cool.

I earn 18k ft and DH earns 23.5k ft
Not much but we are

1. very tight
2. future thinkers
3. obsessed with the idea of disneyland
4. Northern... It's cheap lol

I think whilst other people's situations can give you a guideline, the elephant in the room really is that your DH isn't happy with it.

There's no point in forcing him to save 33%, causing massive resentment, arguments and risking breaking up over it.

Better to save less and live more. Noone has ever lay on their deathbed thinking "I wish I'd saved up some more".

Personally I try to save around 15% but me & DP are happy with that. That's the main thing.

We save between 25% and 33%
I'm crap at saving, luckily dh isn't.

"There's no point in forcing him to save 33%, causing massive resentment, arguments and risking breaking up over it."

A lot of people prefer the instant gratification of 'jam today' and they're (ironically) often partnered with people who would prefer 'jam tomorrow' the delayed gratification of a decent place to live. Yes, they have to negotiate a happy medium but the inconvenience of having to go without short-term, I would say, is nothing compared with the forehead-slapping disappointment of missing out on getting your own place because 'jam today' guy wanted to go on a spending spree.

Exactly Cognito! I don't think I'll be 60 and thinking 'oh God I really wish I'd had that Chinese takeaway'.... But if I'm 60 and still renting I'll be annoyed, I'll be thinking about all the money I wasted on takeaway as I pay off someone elses mortgage :(

Oh, did this thread start off as an aibu?

After tax 50% of my income is disposable. I save 25% of this and have done for 5 yrs. Although my savings make me feel safe (ish) - life is for living and i dont want to scrim and save all my life.

We save about 15-20% of my DH's salary (I am a SAHM til I get a job!) at the moment but that actually gets eaten up often by things like paying for repairs to pass the MOT/our very modest summer holiday so not sure if they count as real savings?!
But OP I think its also worth bearing in mind that although its great "owning" your own place, it doesn't always feel that secure - what if one of you loses your job or can't work for a while due to illness etc..? Then it all begins to feel very worrisome and insecure to have a mortgage to deal with (especially if its a large one like ours is).
I admire you very much for saving 33% but i do think its worth having a life if you have a choice..

I really don't think I would be that bothered if I am still renting at 60 if I have enjoyed my life . I suspect most people who rent are not doing so because they eat a lot of take aways.

About 15% of DH's salary, divided into his pension, share saves and our savings account.

However, I save all my part-time salary for our holidays.

Nothing, and don't have anything saved either...boo