Curious about this and would like to know how fellow CFers distribute their pay. For example state your salary, your take-home pay(after taxes and perhaps 401k/benefits,etc.), and where it goes. I'll start Salary: $67,000 Before Taxes: 6% 401k + Health Benefits(Dental/Vision/Health) After Taxes: $3,600/mo Fixed Costs: Rent: $1,400 Student Loans: $450 Utilities/Insurance: $450 Savings Account: $150 Investments: Vanguard Account- $200 Spending Money: $650-$750 Roll Over into Checking Acct: $200-$300 When I get my bonus this year, I'll put 60% into my savings, 20% into checking, 20% into vanguard.
Paid X Receive about 60% of that after medical, 401K max, commuter pretax, dental, and good ole uncle sam take 40% Whats left over....45% goes to mortgage/taxes/insurance on house So in essence I end up with about 30% left over. I try to live off that and save a little every month. Then bonuses are gravy that go to savings, vacations, and xmas. Kids are expensive.
IMO, you shouldn't be paying $1400 for apartment rent per month when you take home $3600. That is almost 40% of your take home pay. Now if this is a mortgage to a house, it would be understandable. I'd say about 25% of take home pay for apt rent max.
Isn't the general rule of thumb 20-25% of pre-tax income? Maybe that's just on the East Coast? Because I'm paying well over 25% of my take-home pay (in Philly).
For the apartment I have, and where and size, it's rather cheap, but I agree my overall rent is too high. I live in downtown, in a well-known fancy loft, with a 900sqft apartment. Moving to the first floor of a house with a 1.5 bedroom, 1bathroom place, with a large yard for my two dogs. It'll be $1,200 and still in midtown. Won't live in the outskirts or burbs of Houston, rather have a roommate then do that.
Agreed, it's too much. Where do you find a $900 1bed/1ba apartment in midtown/downtown Houston? Only option is a roomate for that. Minimum is $1150, I found $1200 with a yard for my two dogs. Rule of thumb is 33% of pre-tax income which is ****ing stupid. For me, that's $1850/mo. Would never do that. Pre-tax income is useless, it's not like you get it back. Mine right now is about 38% of take-home pay and it's a lot to me. I'm getting it at 1/3 take-home pay once I move in the summer, but outside of that, it's really really hard to find an apartment under these kind of prices in this area of town(zip code 77002, 77006, 77019).
20% - Mortgage and other housing related bills. 0% - Car, paid it off about a year ago. 10% - Silver 10% - Guns and ammo 5% - Food for me and my b****es (two dogs) 20% - Various types of savings and investments 10% - Donations. Church, charities, etc. 25% - Blow it on various things. Sometimes frivolous, sometimes not. Help family out from time to time, buy random gifts for people, go on trips, etc. I like commodities more than I like IRAs, stocks and bonds. So I diversity. Ammo is worth it's weight in gold for the time being, and silver is and will always be a great buy. I'm currently saving for a new car (about a two year old Audi S4), motorcycle (Ducati Streetfighter) and house. I live in a condo now, and while it is amazing - and extremely affordable I want a garage and yard.
Just sat down and looked at how I budget, it came out like this: 100% - Sundries. Hmm. Maybe I should sit down and actually make a budget.
My car pmt is expensive , have student loans , decent rent ( average ) , other debts, weekend spending needs to be curbed ASAP. Need to save more money and use it for wiser purposes.
