What percentage of income is reasonable after bills etc?

FredG

About 45% left for me individually after paying all bills, debts and commitments.


I do eat into that to pay more off outstanding debt though.

alleycat`

Anything from almost nothing (circa 5%) all the way up to 60% left.

Some months are just bad months.
I can't be the only person who pays annually for certain things(?)

So long as your savings are going up and you are also making enough time to enjoy your life then you are on the right path.

GoldenShadow

pollypenny wrote: »

Do not stop paying into your pensions whatever you do!

On the other hand, we were very cautious when we moved for the kids to go a better school. We didn't go for our favourite four-bedroom new build, but a three-bedroom which needed some work.

We are so glad we did. Interest rates shot up under Thatcher and, at 15%, we might have lost everything. Have you allowed for rate rises, OP?

Our factoring in rises is partly why we are borrowing a fair chunk less than the lender says they would lend.

My 'bills' include things that can be cut like Sky and a dog walker (this I have budgeted at £300 a month but my OH and Mum can let them out between themselves most of the time). Also over budgeted a bit I think for groceries and utilities because I would rather over than underestimate them. Our only vices are the dogs (pet insurance is £130 a month, food about £50 a month). We have nothing on credit cards, no loans etc (both cars owned outright) and intend to save the bulk of whatever we have left over. We are also going for at least a 3 year fix (hoping to change it to a 5 which his now available at the same rate) so my plan is settle in, budget properly and build up the biggest savings pot we can.

I've just had a mini (5%) pay rise and my pay really should go up a good 30% in 18 months and another 30% within a year or two after that, but I want to make sure we are careful and can afford it now.

VestanPance

I have 57% of my take home pay remaining after paying all bills(including food shopping) each month.

Lunar_Eclipse

Anything surplus is a bonus.

It's an interesting question, because what are you going to do if all the replies are 'no, that's really not enough.' Who cares what anyone else thinks of your expenditure.

I have no idea how much we have leftover currently, if anything. It used to be a very healthy percentage, until we added school fees. Thankfully that's for a relatively short period of time in the big scheme of things and we miraculously survive/thrive year-on-year God willing.

chocoholic_chick

When we first bought our home 9 years ago our joint income was half of what it is now so we were probably lucky to have 5% left over after paying bills.

Now after our bills are paid we are left with 52% of our income ( and that's overestimating for things like annual bills, food and petrol etc. ) We then overpay on our mortgage, loans and save each month for holidays and have an emergency pot so after that we're left with around 18%. This might not seem much but is enough for us, we can still go out each week if we want for this. I guess the % isn't the most accurate as, like others have said, it will be vastly different depending on what your income actually is.

FreddieFrugal

Yes, as people have already said. You can't compare by looking at percentages. We all have different expenses and different incomes making a percentage comparison meaningless.

So what I'd say is, everyone should have a bare minimum in savings, an emergency fund. That fund should cover all of your basic costs for 6 months at least. By basic costs, I mean the things that you can't easily either reduce or stop paying entirely. So fuel costs if you run a car, car tax, insurances, mortgage or rent, basic food costs, loan repayments.

Not including anything like Takeaways, or clothes or going out, that you could reduce or do away with altogether if you had to in dire straits. (I mean don't buy new clothes...not doing away with modesty all together!)

Once you know what that amount is, work out how long it would take you to save up that emergency fund based on your current left over money. Ideally, you want to be able to save your emergency fund in a year or less.

Now if you can do that, fantastic for now. But you need to consider what figure you'd need to cover 6 months with increased costs, such as thinking about having children.

If with those increased costs you could still get to your emergency fund in a year or less then you are doing well.

Now what if you had a pay cut, or one of you lost their job. Could you cover the basics based on half salary with support from your emergency fund for long enough to find a new job? Say up to a year.

If you can, then you're probably fine.

If you can't do any of those things then I personally would be worried and would be looking to reduce my expenditure immediately.