How much of your earnings ought to be put aside? Asking how much you should save is akin to asking, “How much should I consume,” even if different experts will give you a percentage.
Main Points
- Each person will have a distinct budget and saving requirement.
- Building an emergency reserve is the primary objective of saving.
- Use the 50-30-20 Rule to create a budget.
- You shouldn’t invest money that you’ll need in five years on the stock market.
- In order to live the life you wish to live tomorrow, balance your expenses today.
How hungry you are will ultimately determine the answer to the food inquiry. (However, you should never refuse pizza or tacos.) The same principle applies to finances: if you determine the type of financial life you want to lead, you will be better able to determine the steps necessary to get there.
Saving a portion of your income is a good place to start, but there are many more factors to consider in order to discover the solution that is right for you.
Having a thorough understanding of your spending is essential before you can determine how much you should be saving.
Everybody Has a Different Budget
For the majority of people, generalizations like “save 10% of your wage each month” are too “one size fits all.” You actually outperform more than 25% of American employees if you save anything.
The truth is that someone with significant student loan debt is in a significantly different financial situation than someone with no debt and a six-figure income.
Therefore, you should truly get a handle on every part of your budget before you focus on how much to save. Additionally, you might be shocked by how much fun (really!) it can be if “budget” is the “B-word” to you.
What should you do first? The 50-30-20 Rule is used.
The 50-30-20 Rule:
Many experts, like the CFP® specialists at Facet Wealth, advise distributing your income using the 50-30-20 Rule as a starting point, regardless of how much money you make and what debts and liabilities you have.
- 50 percent of needs (housing, food, utilities, insurance, transportation)
- 30 percent for wants (vacations, shopping, dining out)
- 20% will go toward investments and savings
Think of these as tips or a good rule of thumb rather than as strict restrictions. For instance, if you don’t have any emergency savings, creating an emergency fund can be more urgent than taking on further debt.
It can make more sense to cut back on your savings and direct more of your income toward paying off debt after you have three months’ worth of emergency savings.
Because your budget is flexible, you’ll undoubtedly make adjustments when your priorities and circumstances alter.
An Additional Word On Budgets
Having a solid emergency fund is one of the best ways to feel more at ease so that when a tire blows out or the roof begins to leak, the unexpected expense won’t be as terrible.
According to a recent research, around 50% of Americans don’t have an emergency savings large enough to pay for a $400 bill. So, if you only have that much saved up, you’re already ahead of the game, though obviously, more is always preferable.
A good emergency fund should have enough money in it for most people to cover costs for three to six months. The generalization will change, though.
It’s possible that you won’t need as much money in your emergency fund if there is another income provider in the home. On the other hand, you might want to save more if you are financially responsible for someone else, like a child, or if you work in a risky sector of the economy or for a company with a high turnover rate.
Naturally, taking care of unforeseen financial emergencies is just a portion of your financial life. For instance, you might want to save and invest more than 20% of your income (if that’s possible) if you’re saving for a home, investing for retirement, have a variable income, and need to set up a financial trust for a child with special needs.
Of course, you can save less if your finances are stable, you have no debt, and your retirement is covered by a pension and Social Security.
Calculating how much of your salary should go into your employer’s retirement plan, such as a 401(k), is a simple computation (k).
You should have at least that much deducted and invested on your behalf if your business matches employee contributions up to a specific percentage. If not, you’re passing up “free money” from your company.
Remember that relatively few people express dissatisfaction over having too much money saved for the future. However, a lot of retirees lament not saving enough money.
The next choice is where to deposit the money once you’ve determined how much you need to save.
Places to Save
Where you save and invest is one maxim that should be adhered to religiously.
If you have money that you won’t need for at least five years, invest it in stock-based ETFs. Anything short-term, like saving for a car in two years or creating an emergency fund, should be kept in an account that offers interest.
Even though interest rates may be low right now, you still need to be sure that you have access to funds in case of an emergency.
For the money you’ll need in the next five years, there are five sensible ways to generate interest.
- Savings accounts
- Savings and money market accounts at the bank
- Vouchers of Deposit (CDs)
- Bonds (savings, municipal, Treasury, and corporate) (savings, municipal, Treasury, and corporate)
- Bond funds and money market funds (through a brokerage)
Before selecting an account or savings vehicle that earns interest, examine the following information.
It can be challenging to decide how much money to save and invest while juggling your other financial requirements and aspirations. You can make the financial decisions that will enable you to live the life you want to live today and tomorrow with the assistance of a CFP® professional from Facet Wealth.
