Author Topic: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary  (Read 6448 times)

LiquidLen

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Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« on: June 03, 2016, 07:46:35 AM »
So I moved out of my apartment in new york to a place in NJ with roommates ($2250-$900 and also less taxes, yay!). I cut on transportation costs to my job ($200 to $70) (and I'm working on biking to work instead, but i'm not in shape so it'll take a while) and finally the takeout and stuff is beginning to wind down and I've been cooking a bit more.

in theory I could be saving %65-75 of my salary, but I would have to be very religious about cooking all my food, never uber-ing anywhere and maybe cancelling my piano lessons.


and...
After calculating some more I can get to the point where I'm going to save almost 90% if I stop buying things completely... which is a very interesting idea. I want to try that. :)
(and on second thought i was completely overshooting and and It would improve by max to 80% :((((( )
« Last Edit: June 03, 2016, 08:02:56 AM by LiquidLen »

Exflyboy

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #1 on: June 03, 2016, 12:46:48 PM »
Fantastic.. Getting on the saving wagon is totally addictive.. My problem when FI'd is learning to actually spend anything.

I'd stop at 80% if I were you..;)

Slee_stack

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2016, 09:47:11 AM »
80% is a good goal.  We currently live on 25% of our gross and once we are done with that mortgage, we will be about 18%. 

Its funny/sad that the government 'lives larger' on our salaries than we do currently!



Zaga

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #3 on: June 05, 2016, 10:36:45 AM »
We just made it to 50% this year, and I'm loving it!  Great job moving on up!

LiquidLen

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #4 on: June 06, 2016, 12:36:57 PM »
Thanks, people.

I think even 80% is too much work for me, but i'm almost doing nothing to make more money, so I was thinking of blogging, or freelancing / creating some kind of passive income. also, up until now i was in debt to my family, but now I've managed to repay it and i can start investing my money.

Slee_stack

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2016, 08:24:34 PM »
Firehose incomes make it alot easier to hit gaudy #s like 80%+.  LCOL ares help too.

Its just as impressive (if not more) to save 50% at lesser incomes.  You have the right attitude in trying to think of other ways to bump your income stream up if you want to save even more.


Classical_Liberal

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #6 on: June 08, 2016, 11:58:25 AM »
So I moved out of my apartment in new york to a place in NJ with roommates ($2250-$900 and also less taxes, yay!). I cut on transportation costs to my job ($200 to $70) (and I'm working on biking to work instead, but i'm not in shape so it'll take a while) and finally the takeout and stuff is beginning to wind down and I've been cooking a bit more.

and...
After calculating some more I can get to the point where I'm going to save almost 90% if I stop buying things completely... which is a very interesting idea. I want to try that. :)
(and on second thought i was completely overshooting and and It would improve by max to 80% :((((( )

You have inspired me!  Ive been contemplating changing my living situation for some time.  I have an apartment eating up 15% percent of my net income, I travel for work and am only there maybe 7 days a month.  If I get a small storage place for my stuff, a UPS address, I can live full time in my employer paid hotels & only be "homeless" a few weeks a year.  This would stick me at 80%+ SR, if I challenge myself I could probably hit 85.

Congrats, you rock!! ... lets see If i can rock too

Exflyboy

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2016, 11:42:00 AM »
So I moved out of my apartment in new york to a place in NJ with roommates ($2250-$900 and also less taxes, yay!). I cut on transportation costs to my job ($200 to $70) (and I'm working on biking to work instead, but i'm not in shape so it'll take a while) and finally the takeout and stuff is beginning to wind down and I've been cooking a bit more.

and...
After calculating some more I can get to the point where I'm going to save almost 90% if I stop buying things completely... which is a very interesting idea. I want to try that. :)
(and on second thought i was completely overshooting and and It would improve by max to 80% :((((( )

You have inspired me!  Ive been contemplating changing my living situation for some time.  I have an apartment eating up 15% percent of my net income, I travel for work and am only there maybe 7 days a month.  If I get a small storage place for my stuff, a UPS address, I can live full time in my employer paid hotels & only be "homeless" a few weeks a year.  This would stick me at 80%+ SR, if I challenge myself I could probably hit 85.

Congrats, you rock!! ... lets see If i can rock too

Thinking outside the box.. I love it.

I was trying to live out of my car 2 nights a week as I had an 80 mile commute to my last proper job. I had it all set up, covered parking area, access to gyms and kitchens at work.

Then my Wife found out and kyboshed that idea..:)

mxt0133

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #8 on: June 09, 2016, 12:31:41 PM »
I was trying to live out of my car 2 nights a week as I had an 80 mile commute to my last proper job. I had it all set up, covered parking area, access to gyms and kitchens at work.

Then my Wife found out and kyboshed that idea..:)

To completely side-track the thread.  How exactly did you expect to keep it from your wife in the first place?  Did you plan to make up a new excuse every week on why you couldn't come home that night?

Exflyboy

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #9 on: June 09, 2016, 02:34:01 PM »
I was trying to live out of my car 2 nights a week as I had an 80 mile commute to my last proper job. I had it all set up, covered parking area, access to gyms and kitchens at work.

Then my Wife found out and kyboshed that idea..:)

To completely side-track the thread.  How exactly did you expect to keep it from your wife in the first place?  Did you plan to make up a new excuse every week on why you couldn't come home that night?

Oh no I planned to "Stay up there" two nights a week anyway.. I was kinda hoping I wouldn't have to be too specific on my sleeping arrangements.

Having the back seat completly removed from my car was a bit of a giveaway though...:)

Sad cus it was a perfect solution.

21runner

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #10 on: June 20, 2016, 09:42:15 AM »
in theory I could be saving %65-75 of my salary, but I would have to be very religious about cooking all my food, never uber-ing anywhere and maybe cancelling my piano lessons.

If you have internet access I would suggest dropping the piano lessons. There are more than enough free lessons on YouTube to learn basically anything you want. I learned guitar from scratch by watching and learning from nothing but YouTube videos. Congratulations on the impressive savings rate!

Mr Saver 2000

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #11 on: June 20, 2016, 12:41:28 PM »
nice work.  Currently we are saving about 40% of our pre tax income, about 52% of our post tax income.  We are hoping to have our mortgage completely paid off on our primary and rental mortgage in about 4 years.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #12 on: June 20, 2016, 01:01:46 PM »
Great progress!

I started with a paltry 20-40% my first few years in the work force. Finding this site in 2014 got me up to 50% and then 75% last year and projected for this year as well.

Now I'm ~6 years away from FIRE and it feels surreal.........#winning

Lunasol

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #13 on: June 24, 2016, 03:21:32 PM »
Wow! That's gonna be a lot of savings, I'm excited :)

How much money would you be saving in one year?

happy

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #14 on: June 24, 2016, 06:08:40 PM »
Great work. Whilst I got to 50% pretty quickly, it took me a couple of years to crack 60%.  80% would be amazeballs for me.

Choices

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #15 on: June 24, 2016, 10:47:58 PM »
80% is phenomenal!
Do you have a plan for what to do with it? Emergency fund then buy index funds?

biglawinvestor

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Re: Now I'm saving 50% of my salary
« Reply #16 on: June 26, 2016, 06:48:30 AM »
Cool, the move from NYC to NJ is impressive. Like you said, the roommate and tax savings are going to be huge. Are you biking into the city for work (can you even do that from NJ?) or do you work in NJ?