What percentage of your income do you save?

[Dexman PE PMP]

We never spend any money and I stress out over the smallest purchases. :true:
And using the mortgage payoff spreadsheet, I can see how much interest I will NOT be paying due to my additional principal payments now. I never have been a "here and now" money man. I've always looked down the road for the biggest payoff.

I have an excel spreadsheet that has all of my accounts/loans/cards/etc calced out. I have my budget (checking acct) established through the end of the year (maintaining a 6-9month minimum look-ahead), while I have each of my cards forcasted out to payoff (September). I have tabs setup for each of my loans that show calc out exactly how much of each payment goes towards interest/principal on a payment-by-payment basis and they are each setup with the ability update in real time with the application extra money (including calcing out how much interest is saved). Right now all of my loan payments are rounded up so that I'm paying them off early as well as making the checking budget easier to forcast.

This thing is the product of over 4 years of editing and tweaking, and if I lost it I would be financially screwed...

 

[csb]

I started using mint.com and I love it. I've used it since January and it is so easy to use.

 

[roadwreck]

I started using mint.com and I love it. I've used it since January and it is so easy to use.

Interesting, what's the catch? Seems like a pretty cool service to offer for free.

 

[MA_PE]

I started using mint.com and I love it. I've used it since January and it is so easy to use.

It's funny because some financial advisors I've met recommend using free online services (like mint) to handle household finances. I just can't bring myself to put personal finance information in one place on a remote public server. Intuitively it just sounds like something that will turn around and bite me someday.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

I also use Mint, but I don't like the interface as much as I did Quicken. But Quicken discontinued support of the version I was using, and annoyed the **** out of me trying to get me to buy the new one...so I'm boycotting them. Mint is offered for free because they are always trying to push different financial products on you. Their advertising is a little aggressive IMO.

 

[roadwreck]

I started using mint.com and I love it. I've used it since January and it is so easy to use.

I just can't bring myself to put personal finance information in one place on a remote public server. Intuitively it just sounds like something that will turn around and bite me someday.

Yea, I was thinking much the same thing. The prospect of putting all that information out there and in one place is a little off-putting .

 

[snickerd3]

I also use Mint, but I don't like the interface as much as I did Quicken. But Quicken discontinued support of the version I was using, and annoyed the **** out of me trying to get me to buy the new one...so I'm boycotting them. Mint is offered for free because they are always trying to push different financial products on you. Their advertising is a little aggressive IMO.

still using quicken 2004 here

 

[Master slacker]

Like Dex, I created my own spreadsheet to track and forecast expendatures and how I can actually spend excess dollars. Mortgage payoff >>> student loan payoff for now. I can't stop adding conditional formatting, etc...

 

[Flyer_PE]

I also use Mint, but I don't like the interface as much as I did Quicken. But Quicken discontinued support of the version I was using, and annoyed the **** out of me trying to get me to buy the new one...so I'm boycotting them. Mint is offered for free because they are always trying to push different financial products on you. Their advertising is a little aggressive IMO.

still using quicken 2004 here

I update to the new version of Quicken every two years. I have it set up to pull financial information directly from the bank and brokerage accounts and they both stop working when my version of Quicken gets three years out of date. I did some snooping on their web sites and found notes claiming it's some kind of security issue. My guess is it's more likely Intuit trying get me to buy a new copy. In my case, it works.

 

[snickerd3]

we don't use the automatic info transfer so until the program corrupts itself we have no intention of upgrading.

 

[Flyer_PE]

If I wasn't too lazy to manually track dividends and interest in the brokerage accounts, I'd probably still be using the 2004 version too.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Like Dex, I created my own spreadsheet to track and forecast expendatures and how I can actually spend excess dollars. Mortgage payoff >>> student loan payoff for now. I can't stop adding conditional formatting, etc...

I don't have much in the form of conditional formatting, but I do like to use different colors to highlight certain things.

 

[csb]

At this point all of my banking info is online. Having mint.com datamine it was a little nerve wracking for me at first, but I've come to peace with it. There's no actual account numbers on the site and most of my accounts require to me to log back in every once in awhile for security. There's different passwords for all of them. So far the benefit is greater than the potential cost. I tried using Quicken, but kept forgetting to input info.

 

[roadwreck]

I took a look at mint.com last night and I'm pretty impressed. I'm still leery of giving it access to all my accounts, but I can definitely see how it could be a useful tool.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

I also use Mint, but I don't like the interface as much as I did Quicken. But Quicken discontinued support of the version I was using, and annoyed the **** out of me trying to get me to buy the new one...so I'm boycotting them. Mint is offered for free because they are always trying to push different financial products on you. Their advertising is a little aggressive IMO.

still using quicken 2004 here

I update to the new version of Quicken every two years. I have it set up to pull financial information directly from the bank and brokerage accounts and they both stop working when my version of Quicken gets three years out of date. I did some snooping on their web sites and found notes claiming it's some kind of security issue. My guess is it's more likely Intuit trying get me to buy a new copy. In my case, it works.

That's the reason I quit using them. It would be easy to issue/sell a small, cheap security update for Quicken if that were truly the reason they discontinue the online account updates. They just wanted to build in a way to keep fleecing their customers. I refuse to play their game. Quicken '04 had all of the features I wanted or needed, and I had absolutely no reason to upgrade. They discontinued support and online updating for it, so I discontinued my use of their products.

 

[MA_PE]

I also use Mint, but I don't like the interface as much as I did Quicken. But Quicken discontinued support of the version I was using, and annoyed the **** out of me trying to get me to buy the new one...so I'm boycotting them. Mint is offered for free because they are always trying to push different financial products on you. Their advertising is a little aggressive IMO.

still using quicken 2004 here

I update to the new version of Quicken every two years. I have it set up to pull financial information directly from the bank and brokerage accounts and they both stop working when my version of Quicken gets three years out of date. I did some snooping on their web sites and found notes claiming it's some kind of security issue. My guess is it's more likely Intuit trying get me to buy a new copy. In my case, it works.

That's the reason I quit using them. It would be easy to issue/sell a small, cheap security update for Quicken if that were truly the reason they discontinue the online account updates. They just wanted to build in a way to keep fleecing their customers. I refuse to play their game. Quicken '04 had all of the features I wanted or needed, and I had absolutely no reason to upgrade. They discontinued support and online updating for it, so I discontinued my use of their products.

That'll teach 'em!!!

 

[wilheldp_PE]

That'll teach 'em!!!

I'm sure they couldn't care less, but I feel better about not wasting my money on their products.

 

[pbrme]

.../ bump/...

Have an IRA from previous 401k rollover but it gets no current contribution. My new company has a Roth 401K matches up to 5%, and this is what I'm currently doing b'cus it's free money. After bills and such I put another 28% into savings. Post taxes my accountant suggested I should contribute more to the IRA and Roth, so I'll be playing with these numbers in the near future. I'd like to be in the same direction of MasterSlacker, and have 8 months of cushion, but the wife's been a lifer in college nursing, and it's tough on only one major income.

My goal this month is to readjust my leftovers to maximize my retirement accounts % or whatever the government ceiling is, have a Benji each month to play with stocks, and sock the rest into the MMA. Will status this in a few months to see how it's going.

We also track and forecast with a home spreadsheet, and it helps to know where your money goes. One big help for me was to give myself a weekly wallet for spending money cash (ei. lunch money, beer, smokes, scratch tickets, date nights, blow etc.). It gave me a tangible way to see my allowance and not just blatantly swipe the plastic.

Edit: Cash

 

[engineergurl]

wow, I missed this the first time.

I don't have a retirement plan or pre-tax savings plan, actually, I'm pretty dependent on my husband for the long term plan. I know it sounds risky, but it's actually pretty well thought out and we have revised it as life changes. We saved up a years worth of what my salary was when we first got married, and that money has never been touched, EVER. Until recently we purchased savings bonds every single paycheck. We are attempting to pay off all debt outside of our mortgage and a car loan in the next year. Retirement pay will start coming in sometime in the next 4 to 8 years depending on how long the hubby continues to serve and should something happen to him, I'll receive 55% of his retirement through the survivor benefit plan.

What isn't really included in the plan is the money I squirrel away into an account that is unknown to him (I'm sure he probably has one too). Because we keep our bank accounts separate, I have much more control of my own savings, but I make sure I put away at a minimum $1200 a year. This savings I do use for the times when we need it, and have shocked the hubby out of his pants twice so far by being able to "pull cash out of my a$$".

After this year, I'll probably start putting about 70% of my paycheck into some sort of IRA or savings account or combination. I know we should have been doing things more consistently, but our lives change so much, so often that it works better for us to tackle it this way.

Edit: Recently meaning sometime this past year on the savings bonds... they changed things on us.

 

[Dark Knight]

-10%