What % of your income are you saving for retirement?

[crowd79]

For me, it is 30% at age 33. I guess I am quite aggressive....just wondered about others??

[NYBoglehead]

I'm between 20-25%. It will probably drop once our income goes up, after maxing out all tax-advantaged space I'm probably going to work on knocking out my soon to be acquired mortgage on an accelerated schedule.

[Khanmots]

I'm around 35% and would like to be around 40%. Age 33 as well

[ao0680]

about 30% and I'm 32.

[BudgetForWealth]

Roughly 25% right now with the 401k and Roth IRA. I'd like to bump it up using taxable accounts.

[Khanmots]

I'm between 20-25%. It will probably drop once our income goes up, after maxing out all tax-advantaged space I'm probably going to work on knocking out my soon to be acquired mortgage on an accelerated schedule.

I tend to count extra payment put towards mortgage principle as retirement contributions since as long as I put the freed cash-flow from year X when it's paid off early until year Y when it was initially scheduled to be paid off towards retirement then I've essentially put the money into retirement accounts today earning a guaranteed fixed rate of return. In other words, I treat it as no different than a CD with each month's extra principle contribution having a different duration than the previous.

[Grt2bOutdoors]

40-50%, give or take a percent or two. Make hay while the sun shines.

[drs85]

37.29%

[MnD]

People have widely varying definitions of what to count as savings as well as income.
They are also very unlikely to "average out" and remove from savings large infrequent expenses like a new kitchen or vehicle paid with cash.

And some people are real champs at saving and real chumps when it comes to investing, real estate transactions, bankrolling human sponges such as adult children, financially reckless spouses etc. Current household net worth as a percentage of lifetime cumulative earned income is a more telling statistic as it integrates savings, withdrawals from savings and long-term investment performance.

[WendyW]

I tend to count extra payment put towards mortgage principle as retirement contributions

Agreed. Even the non-extra mortgage payments could be considered to be saving towards your retirement, to some extent.

I currently save 25-30% of my gross income for retirement, but I rent and don't have a mortgage.
I feel that person that has a mortgage and that is also saving 15% of their gross could arguably be saving more for retirement than I am.

[NYBoglehead]

I'm between 20-25%. It will probably drop once our income goes up, after maxing out all tax-advantaged space I'm probably going to work on knocking out my soon to be acquired mortgage on an accelerated schedule.

I tend to count extra payment put towards mortgage principle as retirement contributions since as long as I put the freed cash-flow from year X when it's paid off early until year Y when it was initially scheduled to be paid off towards retirement then I've essentially put the money into retirement accounts today earning a guaranteed fixed rate of return. In other words, I treat it as no different than a CD with each month's extra principle contribution having a different duration than the previous.

Thanks Khanmots, I like that way of looking at it. I'm not there yet since I'm just looking at houses now, but that's the plan after I put ink to paper on it. After maxing out all tax-deferred accounts, of course.

[WHL]

about 50%.

maxing 401k, Roth IRA, i-bonds, and an additional 10-20k a year in taxables. I could do more if tightened up my budget but I'm okay with it for now.

[leo383]

I knew Bogleheads were savings outliers, but I had no idea.

We save about 20%

[hand]

Maxing 2x 401(k) + 2x ROTH IRA + company contributions Cash Balance pensions = roughly 25%.
Our living expenses are reasonable, and under 40 with 3x salary in tax deferred so have a good base and not too worried about ramping up the savings percentage.

Extra cash at the end of the year goes to repaying (cheap) housing debt.

[bradshaw1965]

It's been 20%. Now that my son is finishing up college it will probably jump a bit.

[hand]

I knew Bogleheads were savings outliers, but I had no idea.

We save about 20%

There is of course a bit of a selection bias in both this community and this thread!

[MathWizard]

At least 15% per year. Usually 20-30%

Second child is entering college this fall, I may have to drop back to 15%
for awhile.

If I count my mortage payment which will go poof about the same time
as my second child graduates, it would be another 10% higher.
I do intend to save that money for retirement.

[nimo956]

I save about 45-50% of gross income

[Chan_va]

Say you make 10k, and you save 1k pre tax and 1k post tax. What total % is that? Is it 20%? Or something different based on your tax bracket?

[fcox85]

Starting in 2013, we increased my contributions to max out my 401(k). Depending on whether you include employer match, it's 18-21% of gross. I'm 28, my wife is 24.

Once my student loans are paid off (most likely later this year), we plan to increase that by trying to max out Roths every year as well.

[armeliusc]

About 40% of gross income, or 47% of (what I call) "take home" at age 32. I guess the challenge is to not let this rate go down as life "happens".

[boknows]

We're saving ~50-60% depending on how you calculate with pre/post tax money. It'd be more if my wife was working full-time. Age 31.

[Ice-9]

The previous four years it has varied between 29% and 46%. However, sadly, this year it will be less, but for a happy reason. We're saving for a wedding and replenishing emergency fund after new furnace and AC, and I project only saving 12% in retirement accounts. Age 39.

EDIT: Re-reading this thread, I just realized I made a mistake. I work for a local government that offers a mandatory 401(a) plan, which is like just the matching portion of a 401(k), as well as an optional 457 plan. For the mandatory 401(a), I was counting the entire yearly contribution, which includes what my employer matches - Woops! When I consider just the employee portion of the 401(a), it looks like all of my percentages listed above go down about 8%.

So, using gross income and only counting the employee portion of the mandatory account, my retirement savings varied from 21%-38% over the last four years, and my low savings this year will probably amount to 4%.

[englishgirl]

I guess that I'm at about 15%.

I'm saving a lot for other things right now. Once that is all finished, I hope to bump up the retirement savings.

[VictoriaF]

Does income include investment income or only employment income?

Victoria

[Clark & Addison]

I say that we (both 29) only save 15% of our gross towards retirement, but with both of our company matches it would be right at 20%. We are also planning on having our mortgage paid of in the next 3 months, which will allow us to bump up the amount we save towards retirement.

[eaglesfogbowl]

31, my wife is 33... I project that we save about 24% of our total compensation this year (we're immediately vested in all 401k match so I count it). In addition we're putting away an addition about 20% towards short term goals (a vacation, a new to us car, etc, this year then starting to pay additional on mortgage starting in 2014 with a goal of payoff by end of 2017).

So up until 2018 we'll be saving about 24-30% of our total comp, then when the house is paid we'll probably cap it at 50% and let our lifestyle expand/possibly upgrade our house with a mortgage about 25-35% of it's purchase price.

[NYBoglehead]

I say that we (both 29) only save 15% of our gross towards retirement, but with both of our company matches it would be right at 20%. We are also planning on having our mortgage paid of in the next 3 months, which will allow us to bump up the amount we save towards retirement.

Mortgage paid off at 29! That is awesome. Congrats.

[scone]

About 50% of gross income. We paid off the house last year, which makes things a lot easier. 4 years to go until retirement, so we're on a mission.

[Aptenodytes]

About 30% for me too. I've tried to up the percentage every time I got a raise.
(this is a percentage of gross income from salaried and contract work, which I think is the only comparable metric)

[Khanmots]

I tend to count extra payment put towards mortgage principle as retirement contributions

Agreed. Even the non-extra mortgage payments could be considered to be saving towards your retirement, to some extent.

I currently save 25-30% of my gross income for retirement, but I rent and don't have a mortgage.
I feel that person that has a mortgage and that is also saving 15% of their gross could arguably be saving more for retirement than I am.

Yeah, or at least the principle part of the payment could... but exactly how to treat a mortgage in an AA is such a tricky thing.

Gonna be nice when I get this house paid off in 9.5 years... be able to funnel a lot more towards "real" retirement accounts then.

[Default User BR]

I put 25% of salary into the 401(k), plus catch-up, and 6500 into a Roth IRA. From there whatever isn't spent is saved, but I don't bother to figure out what that amount is.


Brian

[ofcmetz]

Last few years we shot for about 25%. Usually we save a little more than this.

[C319]

20% of gross

[MoonOrb]

Age 37, saving 30% of gross income.

[Savvy]

About 30% of gross. Age 23&24.

[rr2]

Deleted

[letsgobobby]

it varies between 30-50% of gross, with employer retirement contributions considered in both the numerator and denominator.

[spotty_dog]

We're in our thirties with two kids and one income. Last year about 25% of AGI went toward retirement account contributions. We also put money toward college savings and paying down the mortgage a bit.

[nirvines88]

In 2012 I saved a little over 65% of my pre-tax work salaries (1 full-time job, 1 part-time job). This does not include investment income (which is typically set to reinvest). Maxed out Roth, nearly maxed the 401k (couldn't max because I didn't have access for whole year), and added a bit to taxable accounts. This was an unusual year though, as I worked part-time and finished up my master's degree the first few months of the year before going on to full-time employment.

For 2013 I hope to save about 45% of my pre-tax salaries. I don't make much, but I also live pretty cheaply since I'm young, have cheap rent/roommates, and have simple hobbies (e.g. running). I don't feel like I'm living that frugally, as I buy any food I want and all the stuff I want (although I don't want much).

My only expensive interest (that I'm trying to make into more of a true hobby) is traveling. In addition, a house in a few years (if I go that route) will likely throw a wrench into retirement savings, so I'm trying to get a good head start!

[michaelsieg]

I barely spend 20% of my net income, i.e. save about 80% of my net income, my wife has a savingsrate of about -400% of her income, which she spends mostly on our kids, and at the end we save about 15%/month of our combined income....

[mac808]

80% of after-tax income. No kids, no car, no other major expenses other than rent.

[Random Poster]

It depends on how you calculate the numbers (since I get paid in multiple currencies, some of it tax-free, and I never can quite figure out what my tax numbers are on the taxable portion until well after the fact), but:

If I count all of my income (salary, bonus, dividends, pre-inheritance checks, etc), and count all of my investments (taxable investing, IRA contributions, 401K contributions, etc), I think that I'm saving somewhere between 75% of gross income and 90% of net income.

This level of savings (and income) won't last forever, so I'm trying to make the most of it while I can.

[nodenuff2]

When the increase in the value of my Defined benefit plan is added to my 401k savings and company match about 95% of my salary not including any increase in value the 401k might have. God is sooo good.

[crowd79]

Maxing out IRA every year and getting the employer match on my 401k + EE Bonds = my 30% of income. When I have more income available, I will have to decide whether to contribute more to the 401k (with lousy 1% ER fund options) or in taxable but tax-efficient low ER stock index funds.

[mrspremise]

Let's see, pre-tax income...
28% goes into our tax-advantaged retirement savings vehicles (401k and Roth IRA)- this is all retirement
14% went into a 529 this year and last year, though we might stop after the third year to just let our money work (not exactly retirement, but savings)
10% goes into a DSPP plan, with our primary intention being to sell it and diversify into our other investment, so some of that could turn into the Roth IRA above or the 529
Anything left over (when our cash reserves get higher than we need) goes into our taxable portfolio. We might decide to sell off the house at some point when we get a windfall we are expecting which means more savings down the road.

I guess 38%+ for retirement, dual career (ages 31 and 32) with 1 kid

[stoptothink]

Was ~60% last year, but had to make a significant cash purchase a few weeks ago which almost completely drained my emergency fund so it will be significantly lower the next 6 months or so as I rebuild cash reserves.

[DVMResident]

Household: age 30 + 33, ~22.8% on a pre-tax basis, broken down as follows:
2 x IRAs
4.8% into a 403(b) including the match
2.8% in a 403(b) (no match )
4.2% contribution towards pension that gives a COLA'ed 2.5%* based on the 3 year weighed average salary of the highest pay (assuming your claim starts at 65 years old), 3.5 years into the program so far

*I'm guessing the pay out for government pensions will change over the next 30 years, but for now it seems like a good deal

[Cherokee8215]

Somewhere between 30% and 35% of gross. Employer contributions/matching pushes it up to around 35-40%. Single, early 30s.

Not all of that technically goes into "retirement" accounts (401k/IRA), but it is money that isn't spent and probably won't be spent until I retire.

[wesleymouch]

40% of gross.