Author Topic: Savings rate for 2015  (Read 5733 times)

obstinate

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Savings rate for 2015
« on: February 14, 2016, 04:54:02 PM »
Now that I'm basically done with our taxes, it's possible to compute our savings for the previous year. We notched ours up to 80% of take-home. This is somewhat bad accounting because I resolved some deferred compensation stuff that should properly be accounted to previous years, so I expect to drop back down to 70-75% next year. But I am still really happy with what we accomplished.

We are now at 10x our HCOL-region spending. Probably already past 25x M or LCOL spending, but we're not ready to hang up our hats quite yet. We want a wider margin of error, and we figure two or three more years of this will put us way over the top.

How'd your savings do last year?

GrowingTheGreen

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2016, 06:56:59 PM »
My savings was good, but not THAT good.  Holy smokes.

Do you mind sharing what your gross income was?


obstinate

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2016, 08:26:03 PM »
We grossed what is formally known as a metric shit ton last year. That, I'm not proud of. Mere luck of having affinity for a certain type of highly demanded labor. What I am proud of is resisting the lifestyle inflation that afflicts so many of my peers. That said, if you total up my spending, the number you arrive at is not very Mustachian.

I have some reasons/excuses. My home, due to the aforementioned HCOL area, takes up about 70% of my spending, and my son's daycare is another 15%. The remaining 15% is a fairly reasonable number, although there is yet fat to trim.

I don't really want to make this thread about me, so if you want to know/talk about the exact numbers, feel free to PM me. I'd love to hear what numbers other people are coming up with on their savings rates, and how they accomplished it.

PhysicianOnFIRE

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2016, 09:10:53 PM »
About 70% of net.  Target for 2016 is 75% of net, 50% of gross income. 

dontwannaworkforever

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2016, 05:33:29 AM »
Last year my savings rate was ~13% but I hadn't start my FIRE journey yet....

For the month of March, I am projecting a 47.79% savings rate. February is blown because my wife is going on vacation to her home country so obvious reasons no savings there; however, I am pretty excited because 47.79%, if my projections turn out correct, is the best savings rate we have achieved.

Bardo

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2016, 06:52:22 AM »
About 62% of net, not adjusted up for 401(k) contributions.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2016, 07:59:17 AM »
76% of net. A little more if you count tax return when we get it.

Derrian

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #7 on: February 15, 2016, 08:06:08 AM »
78% of total income. 60% of teacher salary to tax deferred accounts. 80% of side hustles to taxable accounts.

wienerdog

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #8 on: February 15, 2016, 08:08:52 AM »
At a tad over 50% but as others pointed out and something I didn't account for is I have a little bit of tax refund coming back yet.  Don't think it will get me to 51% though but every little bit helps.

dontwannaworkforever

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #9 on: February 19, 2016, 03:41:51 AM »
78% of total income. 60% of teacher salary to tax deferred accounts. 80% of side hustles to taxable accounts.

Nice....

High FIdelity

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #10 on: February 19, 2016, 05:41:30 AM »
Approximately 50% of net.  Hope to do better this year, but I think that's pretty good for NYC living.

lcmac32

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #11 on: February 19, 2016, 01:45:13 PM »
Do you count the principal you are paying down on a mortgage as part of the savings rate?  If so, I am still only at a paltry 31%.  However, due to more mustachian moves this year, I expect it to be approaching the 50% rate this time next year.

onlykelsey

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #12 on: February 19, 2016, 02:30:14 PM »
I am brand new to MMM and am only now developing any sort of idea of what my spending is, although I have never lived beyond my means (aside from student loans in college, I suppose), and have always maxed my 401K.

I started looking at the spending section of personalcapital.com to get a rough idea of my spending.  After I taught it that Vanguard purchases aren't "expenses", and disregarded my one-off wedding and capital assessment in my condo, personal capital was saying I was spending ~70K/yearly.  Not mustachian, but it includes my special needs dog (~7K a year),subsidization of my husband, who earns much less, and living in Manhattan with a professional, suit-requiring job.

I just took a closer look and realized that personal capital was counting my temporary 401K loan repayment and my HELOC repayment as spending.  I mean, of course it is.  That's debt that I took on to avoid signing on to a new secured loan for my capital assessment in my condo building, and is a one off thing that will be paid off in <2 years (could nearly pay it off now).

ETA: I knew I missed something!  I forgot to take taxes out.  so it's ~74% savings rate on post-tax income.  Still exciting. 

So, disregarding the once in a life time expenses but keeping my subsidization of dog and husband, I am spending ~45K a year (~25K of which is my mortgage and maintenance).  Post-tax income is a wildcard because I got married, but assuming last year's effective rate (~29%), I'm living off of ~20% of my income by preliminary estimates.  Holy crap, unless my back of the envelope is way off, I have a 80% savings rate.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2016, 02:42:26 PM by onlykelsey »

onlykelsey

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #13 on: February 19, 2016, 02:31:24 PM »
Just glanced up and saw the question about mortgage principal.  If I count that ~7K a year as savings, my savings rate goes even higher.  Holy crap.

Now I need to be careful to not get too self-satisfied.  As soon as I posted this, I absentmindedly navigated to nordstrom.com to buy some clothing...

simpleFIblog

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #14 on: February 19, 2016, 02:39:27 PM »
Finished 2015 just above 30% of a net income. My goal for 2016 is to stay above a 40% savings rate on my single, modest income. Off to a good start already, well over 50% for the first couple months, but I've had some small windfalls that I can't count on for the rest of the year.

obstinate

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #15 on: February 20, 2016, 12:42:01 AM »
I personally take a conservative approach to the accounting where I do not count any of my mortgage as saving. It's a little better than just spending the money, but it's not going into an asset that (historically) appreciates, like stocks. But I can get behind the idea that the portion of payment that is to principle is saving if you want to count it that way.

Tjat

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #16 on: February 20, 2016, 05:31:34 PM »
72% of post-tax income - I'm using the net worth approach, so all debt principle repayment is not considered in expenses. If I were to include (and include taxes), my "free cash flow" if you will, was 37%.




coolistdude

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #17 on: February 21, 2016, 03:56:25 PM »
Peach fuzz checking in. I'm saving about 37% (8% mandatory retirement + 19% 403(b) + 10% savings for house). Single income, DW and kid. There's a 90% chance I'll get a promotion and a raise. Not huge, maybe a $4-5k/yr raise. That may bump me up to 45% savings, but I'm still not quite out of peach fuzz territory. After my raise I think I will max out my 403(b). No employee contribution. Wife is trying a couple small business ideas but nothing has started making reliable income.

BrickByBrick

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Re: Savings rate for 2015
« Reply #18 on: February 21, 2016, 06:18:50 PM »
Not sure whether to count mortgage principal payments as savings, but without those I calculated a rate of approximately 55%.  I only started detailed cost tracking in March of last year, so I had to extrapolate for January & February 2015 - but I was very consistent the first half of 2015 so I think it's a fairly accurate estimation.  If I include mortgage principal my rate would be approximately 60%.

Hope to improve this year, although I suspect it's going to be an unusually expensive year for me, so I might go backwards a bit.