https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Tue, 19 May 2026 06:13:07 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746772 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:02:15 +0000 LindsayInNY 746772@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Right now it's &gt;30% but that will go down once we have a LO. We were saving for a house, now have a house so we're going to adjust at some point to put more in 401Ks than just savings. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746648 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:16:32 +0000 daniellemybelle 746648@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We strive for 17% but we often fall short. Right now we are just socking away cash in a high yield savings account - we don't have retirement funds or any other savings. We have debt payments but we have scaled them back since we got pregnant and we're focusing on savings. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746508 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:34:19 +0000 Mrs D 746508@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@littlek: Well now that you mention it I would consider all of these savings - but for my percentages above all I factored was my "general" savings account at the bank! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746447 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:17:20 +0000 Anagram 746447@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Lateley, I've been putting more than 50% into savings, just because I only have 2 more months to save up for my UNPAID maternity leave plus my unpaid summer.</p> <p>In my new district, teachers are 10 month employees, so we get paid only 10 months. I already knew that was coming, so I started saving to "pay myself" over the summer at the beginning of the year. Then I got pregnant and since I'm new to this state and have no built up sick leave, it's going to be 3 months unpaid. So that's 5 months total unpaid.</p> <p>So I've been saving like mad to try to get at least $10,000, so I can pay myself $2,000/a month while I'm not working (less than what I normally make).</p> <p>However, I'm only able to do that because DH pays our rent and bills with his paycheck. I'm just responsible for my own gas, tolls, food for both of us, and utilities for my house in Texas that I rent out. Luckily, the rent covers my mortgage/taxes/etc totally.</p> <p>I think DH probably saves...15% of his paycheck? But I'm totally just guessing there. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746429 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:13:27 +0000 MrsBrewer 746429@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DH puts 6% of his pay into a 401k. I am currently not contributing. But I am putting $400/month into our savings which is about 18% of my take home pay. So I would say we are saving about 20% of our take home pay. </p> <p>But we do have to dip into our savings once and a while to pay bills. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746362 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:55:48 +0000 ShootingStar 746362@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We put a pretty large amount away - 50% of our take home pay goes to regular savings and 18% pre-tax of DH's pay goes to his 401k.</p> <p>BUT are only able to do this because I'm a contractor and therefore make a higher hourly rate than I would as a permanent employee. And along with that, I have no benefits (luckily I use DH's medical ins.) including no 401k or vacation days or holiday pay, AND I may or may not be employed when my contract is up in June. </p> <p>In a couple years we intend to buy a much bigger house and we'll be paying for daycare at that point too (and I'll probably stop contracting), so I imagine at that point we'll save closer to 15% plus 401k contributions.</p> <p>ETA: BTW I'm pregnant too, so once I become unemployed, I may not be able to find work until 2014. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746273 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:37:03 +0000 yellowbird 746273@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>About 15% into general savings right now. Trying to build up our emergency fund. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746243 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:31:31 +0000 littlek 746243@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>What do you consider savings? We put money into 529 plan, IRA, 401k, MMA, and CD. Besides that I put $100 a month in general savings... DH puts more. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746181 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:15:30 +0000 mediagirl 746181@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our "savings" is a bit different than most as we send double our mortgage payment each month so we can pay it off sooner. We put some away into savings each month and do the max in our 401k and IRA's. Once we get the house paid off, we will start dumping that money into savings and investments. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746139 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:01:44 +0000 fussygal 746139@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs D: our story is very similar, DH has a lot of student loans and I don't so we balance how much we put away. Unfortunately, it's only 8%, and it could eaaaasily be more, so we need to actually do it! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746133 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:59:18 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 746133@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>If I'm counting 529s, 401s, investment savings and savings account savings then I think we're saving around 50%... But I'm super frugal! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746106 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:52:12 +0000 looch 746106@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Right now, very little outside of our retirement savings. We're buying a house and it needs to be furnished, albeit rather sparely. Our budget plan is to be done with spending by September, and then we'll be back on saving my salary in full. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746099 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:50:04 +0000 MamaMoose 746099@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We put 8% into our 401Ks and then save about another 15%. Hubs and I both have commission based jobs so some months there is more to save than others after the mortgage and day care and all the other bills are paid. But we have no consumer debt so that really helps our ability to save. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746062 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:44:03 +0000 Mrs D 746062@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@LuLu Mom: I think for our current situation (in our current home) I will feel a million times better when we have $15K (about 3 months of living expenses - like everything) in a general fund and $10K in a house emergency fund (we have a 50+ year old house so things randomly break). This will take until next year since I have 3 months of basically no pay when LO comes in August.</p> <p>After that I figure if we can build our general savings to $100K for a piece of land to build on in 3 years I will be thrilled. Both DH and I have increasing salaries (about 3-6% per year) and collect nice bonuses so it is feasible. But then we would be zeroing out our savings until we sell our current house and get the $50K or so equity out! :)</p> <p>It does make me feel better knowing I put so much into my 401K each month - since that is my long term out of site out of mind savings! :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746052 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:42:07 +0000 futuremama 746052@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We save all of my income and live off of DH's. he makes double my salary so it works out to about 1/3 of our net income. We also save in our retirement plans too, so that's another 6%. We are saving a lot right now because we are getting ready to buy our first home and will need cash for our down payment. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746026 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:37:34 +0000 LazyLightning 746026@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our goals are to get completely out of debt (have a few student loans hanging around); to have a really comfortable emergency fund, to have money to travel, and to save for a large downpayment on our next home. Basically similar to yours. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746023 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:36:53 +0000 LuLu Mom 746023@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Right now it is 10% because we are really trying to pay off student loan/CC debt, our goal is to have 3 months of living expense in one account &amp; an extra 10K in another for emergencies. It will be awhile before we get there but baby steps! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746014 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:35:45 +0000 Mrs D 746014@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Would love to hear your savings goals too! Our savings generally fall into 3 categories:</p> <p>1) General<br /> 2) House (both fixing our current home and saving for a new one)<br /> 3) Travel<br /> 4) Soon to be - LO college fund!</p> <p>We'd love to save enough to buy a piece of land in 3 years and build our dream home. We also generally spend about $2000 on basic travel per year (2 trips to family homes in Florida - plus one trip to another locale) but I'd like to save more to help us take a bigger trip once every two years. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746006 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:33:58 +0000 LazyLightning 746006@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We put about 40-45% of take home $$ in to savings right now. that'll decrease to about 30-35% once we have our baby I'm sure - daycare costs and other expenses. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-much-do-you-put-in-savings#post-746004 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:32:47 +0000 Mrs D 746004@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DH and I have been struggling to find a happy medium in the savings department lately. Just wondering how much others manage to put away monthly? </p> <p>DH struggles to contribute $500/month (about 7% of net take home) because of his student loans/cc debt. I have up'ed my contribution lately to $1,500/month (33% of my take home) - I also put $800 in my 401K each month. Since I dont have student loans I have tried to make up the slack in our savings department.</p> <p>Collectively that has DH and I saving 17% of our take home.</p> <p>Just wondering what other put away - as a % of take home. </p>