I figure no one wants to brag, but I'll brag for you. If you legitimately save two thousand a month, you are doing something right.
Minimum $1200 a month. More like $1,400 per month. I also try to put the max amount towards my 401k and Roth IRA. (16,500 + 5,500 per year)
if you're cash flow is positive at the end of the month, it's a good thing. of course, you can always improve it by cutting unnecessary expenses.
How to save money: Y'all just need to stop buying CRAP you don't need. "Oh... a new phone just came out! I'll buy it!" You don't NEED a new phone. You WANT a new phone. You COULD LIVE with the same phone. SRSLY, though, save your money... *besides, everyone will hate you if you get that new phone... BONUS COVERAGE For an entire month: Try writing down EVERY EXPENSE (not stuff you buy on credit, but payments to that credit card) Try writing down EVERY AMOUNT OF INCOME (salary, bonuses, cash back from a credit card, etc.) See if you come out AHEAD that month. Keep doing that if you do. Save 100% of that.
I'm a student and barely have expenses and will probably have a good income after graduation, but it still sucks to have no money with 22.
unfortunately, when you make more money you'll create more expenses for yourself. if you're not careful, you'll still only be saving less than $100. once you get your first $50,000 job you gotta buy a brand new car. can't live with your parents anymore, that would be lame. must get new apartment. who wants to share minutes with parents, must buy new iphone. on, and on, and on. not saying that'll be you, but it's seems like the lifescript these days.
That's not me at all, I have no problem buying a small apartment and a mediocre, used car. Been usin the same crappy mobile phone and mp3-player for years because I don't see the modern, expensive gadgets as neccessary.
If your only 22, don't worry about it too much right now. However, after you graduate and get a job - don't change your spending habits to match the higher salary. By that, I mean live really cheaply for a while in order to save for the things you need and have a large savings account for emergencies (as opposed to using credit cards for emergencies). Then, don't go crazy, but save 15% for retirement and have a budget for the rest. I keep hearing the same story from Dave Ramsey about the college couple that got married right after graduation, but lived like college students for the next 5 years. With a salary of about 75K, they lived on about 25K in a garage apartment and saved the rest. Five years later they moved out of the apartment into a house they paid cash for, and furnished it with about $50,000 in furniture they also paid cash for. So, before they were 30, they had NO mortgage, no debt, and a large savings account. Now, they can live a lot better, and begin investing large amounts for retirement.
Means you are spending more than you are making so instead of saving money you are actually increasing debt.
We're not saving much right now - about $400-$500 a month for retirement right now - but thats only for about the next 15months. Currently though, I'm also saving about $300 a month so I can upgrade my car at the end of next summer. I'll pay cash for a car thats around $7,000 because my '98 Saturn has 181,000miles on it right now. We're also paying around $1200 a month right not on my wifes student loans so that it can be paid off (our 15 month timetable - we do nat have any credit cards or credit card debt). Any extra money I get goes to the student loans or the savings for the car. Once the Loan is paid off, we'll be putting that $1200 a month directly into a money-market account until we build up about $18,000 for emergencies (that should take about another year) Then we'll immediately begin to put 15% into retirement - 10% into our 403B's and the other 5% elsewhere. At that point We'll also open 529's for our two daughters college funds. That should give us at least 10yrs of savings for our daughters college. By that time, our house will be paid off as well.
I'm interning right now so I'm not making much, around 850 every 2 weeks, but I do save about 200-300 every check.
