How much do you save a month in proportion to your earnings?

bronzemonkey

About 40% of my take-home salary (£650) is "surplus" that is saved in regular savers and savers.

However, pretty much all my take home pay sits in some form of high interest account for most of the month. I put almost all expenses on 0% credit cards, so I can still make some interest on the spent money while the payments on my expenses are delayed.

Salary all goes through current accounts with 1st Direct, Abbey and A&L to meet their monthly income requirements and get access to certain reg savers or 0% CCs, and everything that spills over their high rate limits goes into Kaupthing Edge.

Still, I got into the smart saving pretty late. Unfortunately I missed out on over 6 years of ISA allowances and it was only when I heard about this site that I realised how much money I was losing by having it badly placed. You're lucky, and smart, to be thinking about what your best options are already! Good luck.

obsessed_saver wrote: »

Here's a useful website to calculate what your tax and NI would be:

http://www.listentotaxman.com/

Thanks for this link, really useful!

Pendle_Gazza

Wow, I'm amazed at some of the responses and high percentages. I earn a fair amount, but I'd say I can save around 25% of my monthly money, maybe 33% in a rare good month.

Do you not have cars, kids, mortgages, fuel bills etc. to eat it all up? :rolleyes: Or am I doing something wrong? If the latter, please, PLEASE can you tell me the secret?!

torbrex

I dont have kids, car is paid for, mortgage is almost gone and the regular bills are all budgeted for, including an allowance for food and fuel.
I use Microsoft Money to do my forecasting and then adjust my savings based on what is left after all the bills are gone, I have my regular savers and another account that I put any surplus into as and when.
It is all down to self disipline, I decided that I had to have something to show for all my years of work and debt free early retirement is going to be it.

Paul_Herring

Pendle_Gazza wrote: »

Do you not have cars, kids, mortgages, fuel bills etc. to eat it all up? :rolleyes: Or am I doing something wrong? If the latter, please, PLEASE can you tell me the secret?!

Essentials:
Car used for ~90 miles a week. I pay for services, insurance, some of the petrol.
No kids
No Mortgage
No other debt carried from month to month (I have CC bills but they get paid in full each month.)
All bills come under a £400/month rent.

Anything left after that is fair game for either booze or saving - I tend to skew the proportion to saving

ScarletBea

I save about 25%-30%, since I have rent and mortgage.

My mortgage's not in england, and I do wonder how english banks allow people to pay their mortgage early! That's not allowed in Portugal, you need to pay within the agreed period (mine's 30 years). They might give you 5 years off, I think (still a long way from now, so haven't investigated), but defnitely not now, even though I have the money available. This means loads of lost interest for them, so of course it's not allowed...

And this doesn't take into account holidays and presents and stuff, that comes out of the savings.

Cazza

Take home for OH and I is just over ££3,100. Mortgage is £650 per month; we manage to save £600 per month "proper" savings and £350 per month other savings towards once a year bills such as car insurance & tax, Christmas and a holiday.

LittleMissAspie

Pendle_Gazza wrote: »

Do you not have cars, kids, mortgages, fuel bills etc. to eat it all up? :rolleyes: Or am I doing something wrong? If the latter, please, PLEASE can you tell me the secret?!

My car has been off the road for years and is now being restored by my mechanic. So no running costs at present. My MIL has lent us her car but we only pay for fuel on it and don't use it very often. Both of us cycle to work and to the supermarket/shops.

No kids.

No mortgage but rent is 630 a month between us.

£20 a month on diesel for the MIL's car.

Rose_Crow

30.7% so far this month. I'm another MS Money fan. The forecasting is a brilliant tool.

No kids (phew!)
No mortgage (yet! live with parents)
Car is paid for - currently using around £140 a month on petrol, but I go to my OH's every other weekend which is 100 mile round trip. Also the car is a hobby of mine, so I do a lot of travelling with her.

Neonoptic

Just over 50%. £500 per month.

DB999

approx 1400 per month, been doing that for last 7 seven years- saved nearly 70k, after spending some of it.