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How much should someone have saved up after 5 years in their career?

V

vital

Platinum Member
If i've been making 50-80k within the past 5 years, how much in savings should I have? I'm more interested in knowing my personal savings, not $ for retirement (401k, roth).. I've been working for over 5 years.. and I only have like 10k saved up for emergencies 🙁
 
Assuming you have zero debt at year 1, I'd say at least $20k in an emergency fund, $50k in your 401k/ira/pension, and $100k in savings.
 
is this another hoarders thread?
hoarding6.jpg
 
do you have your own place yet? And I don't mean renting... cause that screws you financially if you did that at 18. Don't move out of mom & dad's the 1st chance you get... save for a few years after you get a full time job = win.
 
Depend on too many factors....how much you make....how much you have in "good debt" (school loans) and "bad debt" (Credit cards)...whether or not you decide to buy or finance certain things (a car or house)

I mean, you could have only saved 4k in one year, but you could have 10K in investments.
 
Not very much. The beginning of your career is when you have the highest expenses. Engagement ring, wedding, costs with buying a house, student loans, daycare, etc. About the five year mark is when things started getting better in my case.

Ten years in your expenses should drop quite a bit. Then the mortgage gets paid off, and the kids are in school all day. Fifteen years in your expenses should be half, or less, from when you are starting.
 
FleshLight said:
Assuming you have zero debt at year 1, I'd say at least $20k in an emergency fund, $50k in your 401k/ira/pension, and $100k in savings.
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This is a joke, right?

Averaging 60k for 5 years means a TOTAL liquid income of about 195,000 depending on your state's taxes. By your numbers, A person should have saved at least 170k of their 195k income, leaving roughly $416/month to live on.
 
Deeko said:
This is a joke, right?

Averaging 60k for 5 years means a TOTAL liquid income of about 195,000 depending on your state's taxes. By your numbers, A person should have saved at least 170k of their 195k income, leaving roughly $416/month to live on.
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Interest, capital gains & 401k company match over 5 years?
 
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living on my own in NYC for 2 years = 5k saved, and then I had to buy an engagement ring and flights for my wedding.

of course i was also too stubborn to give up my car so I paid 10k for parking in those 2 years.
 
good american consumers spend all their money and at least 50% of their annual GDP in consumer debt (CC's etc)
 
Idealy, enough to be able to survive a year or so. But that's hard to achieve. I'm ashamed to say that after 5 years of working I barely have anything saved. By the time the bills come out and everything I maybe have 100 bucks left over.

Though with my new job I make more money, so for the past few pay checks I've been having like 500 left over at the end of the pay. I have 5k or so in my savings right now. I need to somehow come up with 15k or so by summer to redo the outside basement walls/weeping tiles. I also need a new car, hoping to find a good deal on a used one for like 5k-10k. Either way by the time I get a new car and finish the weeping tiles I'll be in debt for a bit.

I've been brainstorming various projects so I can make more money on the side, as my new job will give me more time off. Shift work FTW.
 
FoBoT said:
good american consumers spend all their money and at least 50% of their annual GDP in consumer debt (CC's etc)
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This. Saving money is so 1950's. You made that money you DESERVE to spend it since those greedy bastards won't just give you everything you want for free. Money is best spent on Hookers, Jack and Twinkies. Not necessarily in that order, however I guarantee you those Twinkies will be around longer than your 401k.
 
It's sad though, you save and the gov will try to find a way to tax it, you spend yourself into debt and the gov will try to get you off the hook. God bless America.
 
Deeko said:
This is a joke, right?

Averaging 60k for 5 years means a TOTAL liquid income of about 195,000 depending on your state's taxes. By your numbers, A person should have saved at least 170k of their 195k income, leaving roughly $416/month to live on.
Click to expand...

no joke, thats basically what i have done, saving > %60 for retirement, the rest for savings, and living on maybe 500$ a month. sucks now but i will thank myself 20 years from now
 
brianmanahan said:
no joke, thats basically what i have done, saving > %60 for retirement, the rest for savings, and living on maybe 500$ a month. sucks now but i will thank myself 20 years from now
Click to expand...

What if you don't live for another 20+ years? Then you just worked and scrimped for nada.
 
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