Goals, Savings

Saving 60% Gross Income February Updated

As noted here, I’m trying to save (in retirement and non-retirement accounts) 60% of my gross income in 2007.  I’ve been tracking my progress towards my first goal (of saving $4000 in my daughter’s ESA) over at the NCN Network site. 20% of my gross income is about $16,000.  This amount will be automatically withheld from our paychecks and deposited into our retirement accounts.  Basically, the other 40% (or $32,000) will be money that I have to “manage” throughout the year.  If you divide $32,000 by 12 months, you get $2,666.66.  I was able to deposit $4,000 into an ESA for my daughter, which means that I’m nearly $1,350 dollars “behind” for 2007.  $4,000 represents 5% of my annual gross income.  If you add $4,000 to $16,000, the MINIMUM amount of money that I will have “saved” in 2007 will be 25% of my gross income.  YES!  So, while I’m bummed by the fact that I’m not saving at (quite) the rate that I wanted to be saving, I’m super-excited by the fact that I’ve already saved a SIGNIFICANT portion of my income.  I’m trying to determine what my next “specific” goal will be.  (I THINK that I’m going to open an ESA for my son, but I MIGHT open a Roth IRA for myself.  I’ll let you know.)

4 thoughts on “Saving 60% Gross Income February Updated

  1. Wow, 25% is huge.

    60% is just something my brain can not figure out. I am really hoping and praying you make it. Of course, without sacraficing the quality of your’s and your family’s life. I don’t think you will.

    Maybe the $1300 you are short went into upgrading your property – a forced savings of sorts.

    Congratulations!

  2. Sixty percent is my goal… The coolest part is, even if I were to “fail” and only reach half of my goal, I’m STILL saving 30% of my gross income.

  3. we’re saving 95%, so i had to buy some “want” items. the problem with saving too much, is that the urge to spend seems to be greater. at least for me.

    anything over 20% is huge. so congrats and hope you can make your goal. remember, though, goals should be attainable. you don’t want to keep feeling like your goals are never being met.

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