How much money did you save each month when you were 25?

[alkemyst]

Because he/she can and it makes great financial sense?

I could live at home. Most probably could. Most are.

People are refusing to grow up...I don't get it.

You do realize this is going to create the same inflation we have not recovered from that started when wives figured out why can't they work too.

In the beginning it was the single income family with some nice stuff, vacations each year, a home....then wives started bringing in that extra new car payment a year, the pool, vacations overseas (sometimes two a year), etc.

In less than a decade that family with a single income didn't have that nice stuff, sometimes had to skip a vacation, usually rented.

It's happening again. You have 'kids' staying at home until their 30's. They claim they are saving (and not saying the OP is not), but I know guys like this and they have nothing in the bank save maybe $10k. They have always had the newest hot car, clothes, go out each night, etc.

However, most aren't meeting 'women', they are seducing girls. They wine and dine them and do things in their cars and sometimes hotels...then go back home and game all night.

I really don't get it.

They claim "my parent's would be cool with me bringing a chick home", but any chick is not going to do a 'sleep-over' and have to deal with meeting the parents on the consumation of their dating.

I had my first house at 23. I worked two jobs growing up and then whatever hours I could get here and there that fit in with studying. I screwed myself a bit with a divorce and going back to college at 30 for another Bachelors...but things are looking up financially now.

I have never been absolutely broke, but yeah moving back home would have had me living like a king [prince].

 

[alkemyst]

found your problem.

right now i put 10% into retirement every pay period.

This is smart. Most still haven't caught one that retirement is no longer a short-lived endevour.

You have a great shot at retirement being as long and even longer than all your real working years.

I know a lot of older dudes that were banking on hitting 70-73 and now they are entering retirement really healthy and being told 80-90.

Pulling an extra 7 to 20 years out of a fixed plan is sending some back to work part time or simply not retire.

Now that said, most of them could have probably retired years ago and lived simple. Most want to live better though in retirement than they did working like a dog.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

This is smart. Most still haven't caught one that retirement is no longer a short-lived endevour..

Unfortunately (or fortunately) we never know. We don't know either how long we will love OR what (like SS) will be around. Because of that it is very difficult to know how much one should save.

So we all just have to make a guess at how much to save and hope we got it right.

 

[thegimp03]

Between 401k and my savings about 50% of my take home pay. I had relatively (to this area average) cheap rent, no car payment or student loans, and didn't buy stuff I didn't need.

 

[thepd7]

You don't need anything on hand to buy a house. I bought with nothing down and closing costs rolled in.

Not in the last two years you didn't. Even FHA is 3.5% down.

Also, he will damn sure need something: to make more than $60k if he's going to buy a house in any decent area of NorCal.

I'm 23 and I've been socking away between $1000 and $1400 a month for about 4 years. No I don't live at home.

I bought my townhouse last year with my savings.

Could you expand on this? Were you at home when you were saving this much? What job did you get at 19 that allowed you to save $1000-$1400 per month while living on your own?



OP, I'm 25 and live in Boston (not quite as expensive as NorCal but close) and I save about $1300 per month plus 401k (probably another $600-800).

You are doing pretty good saving $800 per month, I'd say what you need to focus on now is making more money.

 

[hofan41]

when i was working off 60k a year i was able to save 20k/year while paying 1k rent. start tracking your spending and see where you can save more money.

 

[thespeakerbox]

as much as you can.

 

[IronWing]

At 25, I had a negative savings rate as I was taking out student loans to cover expenses. If I recall correctly, 25 was when I hit absolute bottom financially, selling off damn near everything I owned (which wasn't much) to cover rent and food. I had gone one semester w/o a promised research assistantship and had to scramble to get a student loan, which came in very late as I applied late since I didn't think I'd be needing it. The next semester the RA kicked in and I was able to start rebuilding and start paying back the student loan.

 

[Imp]

wow still living at home and making bank, that's straight ballah.

If you are saving over half your paycheck and can afford more than a $600 car payment, why?

Oh, the car payments would be significantly lower than that...

I would like to move out, but if I did, I'd go from stupidly loaded to living paycheck to paycheck overnight in the name of personal growth. There's no real excuse, I just lack an immediate and urgent incentive.

 

[Skillet49]

My fiance and I are 23 and we put about 30% of our combined income into savings.

 

[rcpratt]

Well I'm only 22 but I put $933 in my 401k every month on average and save about another $1000-$1200 on top of that, which either goes into a 3% high-interest checking account just starting to invest some of it now that I have a good emergency fund.

 

[Gibson486]

I am 27....college loans rape me. I do not save.

 

[alkemyst]

percentages mean nothing people.

"hey I live with 20 dudes and I am able to save 50% I make a year...420 for life!"

 

[alkemyst]

Oh, the car payments would be significantly lower than that...

I would like to move out, but if I did, I'd go from stupidly loaded to living paycheck to paycheck overnight in the name of personal growth. There's no real excuse, I just lack an immediate and urgent incentive.

How would the payments be lower? You'd have to put a ton down is the only way. If that was the case then again...

you last comment is one of not wanting to grow up.

At your claimed savings, you wouldn't be a paycheck to paycheck person unless you were like my buddy in high school that insisted anything less than a $10k/month apartment in NYC is a waste to move out for.

AFAIK his parents are still supporting him.

 

[BassBomb]

Not 25 yet... so far not saving a whole lot because of cost of tuition

 

[Rumpltzer]

I was in grad school when I was 25. I didn't save anything, I was getting a ~$20K/year stipend and that allowed me to pay my rent and live, and I would also to leave the country once or twice a year to wander around Asia. I figured I'd not have enough time to do it once I had a job.

Turns out, I still have enough vacation time to leave the country once or twice a year even with a job...

 

[PowerEngineer]

Being single when I was 25-30 years old, my salary split into three thirds: one third to the government(s), one third to live on (owned a house), and one third to savings. That gave me a good jump on retirement, which made it easier to afford the higher costs of wife and kids later on.

Frankly, I'm not sure how anyone (even now) can afford to buy a home in the California housing markets (which is one of the reasons I didn't move there).

How much you save depends on how willing you are to accept delayed gratification. I suggest that you contribute to your 401k (or whatever) up to the point that you get matching from your employer, then max out an IRA contribution (Roth if contribution not tax deductable), and then additional into 401k up to the 15% limit. My two cents...

 

[Powermoloch]

^ i found my lost twin

 

[Mr. Lennon]

Being single when I was 25-30 years old, my salary split into three thirds: one third to the government(s), one third to live on (owned a house), and one third to savings. That gave me a good jump on retirement, which made it easier to afford the higher costs of wife and kids later on.

Frankly, I'm not sure how anyone (even now) can afford to buy a home in the California housing markets (which is one of the reasons I didn't move there).

How much you save depends on how willing you are to accept delayed gratification. I suggest that you contribute to your 401k (or whatever) up to the point that you get matching from your employer, then max out an IRA contribution (Roth if contribution not tax deductable), and then additional into 401k up to the 15% limit. My two cents...

I don't plan on buying a house here. Probably going to be renting for quite a long time.

 

[SparkyJJO]

I'm 23. Right now all I've been doing is putting 3% (company matches it) in my IRA. I know it isn't enough, but I haven't really been able to do more. Though things are finally getting better, so hopefully I can improve on that. Currently, my biggest thing is getting my truck paid off, then my student loans paid off. Once I get that done, well, I'll probably have another car payment again, but at least the student loans gone will help, and hopefully be making more, so I can shovel more towards savings.

Assuming of course that Uncle Sam doesn't decide to steal everybody's retirement accounts

 

[JJChicken]

23 and I save about 2.5k a month. I do live at home.

My advice for you is to determine how much u need for a reasonably well off time and save the rest. The more you save is always better. Plus we tend to waste a lot of money, so it's very wise to have self-imposed limits. At the start of the month, I just transfer my allocated savings to my parents and live off the rest.

A good idea is also to put all your bills on to a credit card. This makes it easier to avoid overdrafts. I normally run into this problem because I physically transfer my cash out to prevent me from spending it. It's too easy to spend if it's readily available.

 

[JEDI]

@25, maxed 401k and employee stock purchase plan (at 15% discount).
after 6months emergency cash in the bank, spent the rest.

now kinda hard to spend the rest. there's only so many new gadgets that come out in a month

 

[caspur]

At 25, saved nearly all of my income. No car expenses (drove company cars), grandfathered AT&T TDMA cell phone (the $10/month employee plan), no cable TV, ate banquet microwave dinners. Scholarships covered most of my tuition fees, plus I had 3 jobs in college so I graduated with 0 debt.

All of which meant absolutely nothing, because no matter how careful I saved, I was no match for the spending habits of a gold digging bitch.

 

[Elbryn]

@25, single with very little monthly expenses i think i saved the mandatory 10% pension requirement and 4k/year in roth ira money. whatever left over each month went to the bank account. i think i was making somewhere between 38 and 40k then.

co-owned a house with a buddy of mine, we bought that year and we were both planning on going back to get mba's at the state university i worked at. (thank you 80% tuition subsidy) so each one of our "rent payments" was $300 bucks. this was a tiny, heat/ac bleeding house so we ended up learning how to do most of your basic remodels in our 4-5 year tenure there.

i will say i had some help though. my folks intended on paying my state tuition. i did get a scholarship, worked a part time job, and got a co-op for 6 months that paid me almost 20k. so in the end they bought me a car instead so i got out debt free.

now i got my own mortage, a stay at home wife, and 2 kids. the days of only needing 300 bucks a month to get by are long gone

 

[Raghu]

Im 25 now. Hope to retire by 55 and live till 85. Retirement is exactly halfway between now and my expected EOL. I save 50% of my income and plan to make the saving grow at (inflation)% every year. From 56 onwards I will wind down my quality of life - spend as much money as I did just before retirement at 56, reducing my expenditure to what Im spending now by 85. Basically mirror my quality of life across 55.

If I die before 85, I leave the money to society. If hope I dont have to live longer and be a burden.

Quality of life isnt great here. Will probably suck till I die. Dont own a car or a house - cant think of owning one either, too expensive.