How much money after everything is paid for?

[MuleyFever]

This is from Ramseysolutions.com

 

[mlevimadden]

Comparison is the thief of joy. Take care of your 4 walls and plan for your future. Everyone seems to be nailing it, but someone (almost everyone) must be lying or they have a MUCH higher risk tolerance than myself.

Average US debt per CONSUMER not including mortgage or HELOC:
Auto: $24k
Credit Card: $6.5k
Student Loan: $39k

Totally agree that comparing your financial health to others isn't super helpful, but it is the internet after all, and I think people have offered some good tips throughout the thread.

When posting about financial questions, it makes sense that most of the responses will be from people who are more interested and knowledgeable about finances. The average US financial health is horrible, which is nice for feeling better about your situation but definitely not something to strive for.

The OP isn't getting responses from these kinds of people, because the average American most likely doesn't even know how much they are saving (or going more negative in their net worth) on a monthly basis. The average American also doesn't even know their net worth, which is a better measure of financial health.

I agree with all the posts that a budget is the first starting point for sure. I really liked Mint from Intuit but it went away at the end of last year. I've been using the free version of RocketMoney now, but I don't like it nearly as much and have been debating going to the paid version, which is like $4/mo. It's an eye-opening experience if you haven't ever created a budget before to see where all your money is going and allowing you to be more intentional with your goals and spending.

 

[WKR]

I guess I've never really viewed money or finances as a taboo or touchy subject. And this discussion is on a forum where most people are semi anonymous. Comparing, in any subject matter, is not generally unhealthy unless you let it be.

 

[Awfulhunter]

While I support 10% of income to charitable giving, I'll just leave one of my favorite George Carlin quotes here...

"He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money!"

 

[IAm_Not_Lost]

We’ve got about a $1000 to $1200 every month that is completely free and clear, maybe a little more, but we also put a $1000 into retirement/investments every month (on top of normal employer 401k/403b), and spend about $1100 on gymnastics for our daughter. I mention those last two figures simply because they are adjustable and not something everyone would be doing.

That’s with me working a good full time job and my wife working about 1-2 days a week.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Unless someone has the exact same expenses and pre-tax deductions as you, then how much they have left over is a meaningless data point.

I been trying to save money for the last couple of months, but there always seems to be some one-off expenses popping up.....like the Whac-A-Mole game. The only person I have to blame though, is in the mirror.

 

[The_Jim]

I guess I've never really viewed money or finances as a taboo or touchy subject. And this discussion is on a forum where most people are semi anonymous. Comparing, in any subject matter, is not generally unhealthy unless you let it be.

I think the thing that made the post taboo was actual $ amounts. IMO finances are a personal thing, my wife is a CPA and her first boss frowned on doing taxes for friends and family. It was one of the first things he addressed after hiring her.

Everyone's situation and goals are so different, but everyone needs a budget, everyone needs to pay their bills, everyone needs to save for the future/emergencies. Some of that savings needs to go to retirement accounts and some needs to be in an emergency fund. Dave Ramseys suggested percentages are a great start.

 

[Antares]

This is a fun little calculator to play with, pretty simplistic but also interesting.

Coast FIRE
https://walletburst.com/tools/coast-fire-calc/

 

[solostalker]

and I thought I was doing okay financially...

Curious what you people do for work? Are they accepting applications?

 

[180ls1]

When pay raises occur, reward your current self with 50% play/fun and future self with 50% towards investments.

 

[S.Clancy]

I generally have about $0.48 left

 

[180ls1]

As for me, I'm front-loading the hell out of my ROTH IRA/401K accounts while I'm young (35) and Trump tax cuts are around. This will buy me tremendous flexibility later.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

24K for auto debt? When the average car is close to 40K, many much higher and the average truck is 70K+ and most households having at least 2 auto's and at least 1 is financed? I bet that number is a lot closer to 40K.

Depends how often folks are churning vehicles and/or what equity they're bringing to the table when they shuffle. If you take a loan for 70k, pay it in 5-6yrs and keep the vehicle for 10yrs your average yearly debt load for auto would be about 24k. Seems like it pencils our pretty easily. Sure some folks carry more debt more often but for them there are others driving something that has been paid off for years.

 

[Natebonebusta]

I guess I've never really viewed money or finances as a taboo or touchy subject. And this discussion is on a forum where most people are semi anonymous. Comparing, in any subject matter, is not generally unhealthy unless you let it be.

Me either, else how do you learn?

 

[Ross]

Only comment, Time value of Money and Compounding. You don’t get back the early decades and you likely dont want to play catch-up or work till your dead

 

[Natebonebusta]

Also, don’t forget that 3-6 month emergency fund. That’ll keep those investments safe, when you have it to fall back on.

 

[Reburn]

I guess I've never really viewed money or finances as a taboo or touchy subject. And this discussion is on a forum where most people are semi anonymous. Comparing, in any subject matter, is not generally unhealthy unless you let it be.

Its never a bad idea to "save" double or triple what you think you need especially if you have it.

I am getting ot the age where I get to see alot of my friends parents that didnt plan well for their "retirement" years that cant make ends meet with medical bills and medications included.

 

[KsRancher]

Its never a bad idea to "save" double or triple what you think you need especially if you have it.

I am getting ot the age where I get to see alot of my friends parents that didnt plan well for their "retirement" years that cant make ends meet with medical bills and medications included.

This!

Now this probably isn't very common. But I have learned over the last 27 months that no matter how much you plan things can still upend your plans. 27 months ago I was putting 14% into my 401k, had over a yrs expenses in savings and was putting back $750 month. Had zero credit card debt and no car loans. My wife getting pregnant with our "happy accident" everything disappeared.



Currently have zero in savings, $4,000 on credit card, $5,000 vehicle loan and down to just doing my 3% match in 401k and so on. Some things you don't think about like having more than one health insurance plan. My wife has hers thru her work and I have one with me and the kids thru my work. When your wife maxes out her deductible 2yrs in a row and so does 1 of the kids. Your medical bills are double if we were all on one plan.


Wouldn't trade it for the world. The only way out of a scenario like mine is to make more money. You can't save your way out of something like this. So off to make more money. The bright side is it pushed me to go self employed in the next few months. Just can't make enough working for someone else for an hourly wage.

 

[TaperPin]

Just curious whats left over every month after all bills, food, and gas are paid for. I just recently made some big moves in life and am thinking about my budget. On a regular old month, with no extra income or side jobs, I should have atleast 2k per month to do whatever I want to do with. Save or spend. I'm not sure if thats good, bad, or indifferent.

If taken in the spirit of simple curiosity of what guys have spent, I’ll bite.

I’ve gone from young guy with more time than money and in the monthly budget there wasn’t any money left over for hobbies - zero. If I’m going shooting, affording the components meant more ramen noodles, less driving around gas, and no new clothes or other misc. non essential stuff. Hunting on the other side of the state was out of a car because the jeep had worse gas mileage, and rather than fancy dehydrated food, lots of heavy stuff and sandwiches. Killed plenty of big animals those years. Luckily, most years in my 20’s I probably had $150 a week in fun money.

When my fun money hunting/shooting/fishing budget grew to $250 a week with the first full time professional job, I felt spoiled. I could buy a new rifle every month, or buy as many reloading components as I could shoot. Turns out, it doesn’t go as far as it seemed at first, and many things were still way out of reach.

Then as a career gets further along, I was spending $500 a week and without doing anything expensive or traveling a lot, that’s very comfortable - if I needed something, just buy it. For many years it was more than I could spend doing my normal things and the left over was spent on the kids.

At the peak I had $1k a week of fun money and could go fun places and not have to sleep in cheap motels - it was so comfortable I almost lost interest in prices - if I liked it I’d buy it. For me it was a time full of wasted purchases - too many guns, too many fishing rods, too much eating out.

When I did the semi retired thing the budget went back to $500 a week, and I still feel very spoiled, even though most of that is going to the kids/grand kids and inflation has reduced the value. This time in life makes a guy think about the future cuts - unlike my wife, I could be quite comfortable not eating out or vacationing to places with beaches. If I have to pack a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for a day of hunting with an old rifle I’ll still feel like one of the rich guys.

 

[mlevimadden]

and I thought I was doing okay financially...

Curious what you people do for work? Are they accepting applications?

You don’t need a crazy high-paying job to be saving $2-3k/mo. Most people that aren’t a single income for a household with multiple children, or living in an extremely high cost of living area can easily accomplish this by living more frugally than the average American.

I know this is blasphemy on rokslide where you can’t be a serious hunter without $10k in optics and a $5k rifle setup. This is probably the my favorite blog on frugality.

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-zero-to-hero-in-one-blog-post/

With strict budgeting, it’s not crazy to get down to a budget of $25-30k per year for a single person in America. You only need a $60-70k/yr job to save $2k/mo on top of that budget which isn’t far off from the median salary. It’s just a very different lifestyle and spending level than the average American.