How Much Of Your Paycheck Should You Save (BY AGE!)

Transcript:

How much of your paycheck should you save by age? Let's get into it. What's

up everybody. And welcome to the personal finance podcast. I'm your host, Andrew founder of master money. co and today on the personal finance podcast, we're going to be talking about how much of your paycheck should you save. By age, if you guys have any questions, make sure to hit us up on Instagram, tick tock Twitter at master money co and follow us on Spotify, Apple podcast, or whatever podcast player you love listening to this podcast on.

And if you want to help out the show, consider leaving a five star rating and review. Can not thank you guys enough for leaving those five star ratings and reviews. Now, today we're going to be diving into how much of your paycheck should you save by age? And this is going to be a really fun episode.

Okay. Really excited to go through this, uh, because what we're going to do is we're going to talk about how much of your paycheck should you save by age? And we're going to go through the twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, and beyond, and then outside of that, I'm also going to talk about some of the things that you may want to be doing during that decade to ensure that your dollars are going to the right place.

And to ensure that you can save more money going forward. Now, as we go through this, one big thing to note is that a lot of Americans right now are living paycheck to paycheck, and there are a large number of Americans. Some of the statistics coming out right now are 79 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

And a lot of people who have a six figure income are also living paycheck to paycheck. So I get it. A lot of folks right now are struggling. So one thing I want you to note up front is if you're living paycheck to paycheck, I'm going to give you a quick tip at the top of the show here. Is I want you to try to save as much as you possibly can.

And I want you to find ways to save as much as you possibly can. But if you can't get there, if you can't get to some of these recommendations that we're going to be going through, one good thing that I did early on is I couldn't save a ton early on. I was making 30, 000 per year in my first entry level job when I was younger.

And what I did was I increased my savings rate by 1 percent every single month. And so when I did that, it wasn't. As painful for me to gradually increase that savings rate over time. And so this allowed me to actually adjust so that I could reach that savings rate. But in addition, it also allowed me to ensure that I'm doing this gradually.

So it's not this big, huge event that I have to go through and really readjust my finances. So I felt the pain of saving more or less by making that adjustment. Now, one other thing to note off the top is your income is going to really, really matter here. When it comes to being able to save more money.

Now, I'm sure some of you are tired of hearing something like that, where everybody out there is going to tell you income is a major factor when it comes to your personal finances. But I have never seen anything else that can really impact your finances more than learning how to increase your income.

So if you can go out there and build specific skills to increase your income, Negotiate your salary and try to get a raise, but finding ways to try to increase your income is going to be a huge catalyst. Your income is the way to reach financial independence faster. Because what that means is that you're shoveling more fuel into the fire.

You're putting more dollars into the fire, and this is going to allow you to just get there so much faster. It is incredible what you can do as you start to increase your income. And so for me specifically, when I was making that 30, 000 salary, I realized very, very quickly that wasn't enough money. And so I focused on increasing my income.

My income is actually what got me to the point to becoming a millionaire in my very early thirties. I was 32 when I became a millionaire. And that was how was because I. Increase my income. That was the number one thing I did to ensure that I could get to that point. It wasn't because I saved a ton of money, like crazy on a low income, even though you can do that and you can become very wealthy by saving money on a low income over time.

But if you want to get there faster, you have to increase your income. And your income should be something that you're really focusing a lot of time on when it comes to your personal finances, focusing on ways to increase that income can be really, really helpful. Now I don't want you to have to run around and do a million different side houses.

I want you to really focus on those income producing skills. Those are what will help you the most going forward. So I think that's very, very important to kind of go through as we talk about this. Now there are a lot of statistics we can go through. The majority of Americans don't even have a thousand dollars saved up.

They can't even take care of a thousand dollar emergency. Most people listen to this podcast. If you've been listening to this podcast for some time, you're going to have an emergency fund built up because you know how important that is. We talk about it so much on this show. But the majority of Americans don't save money and the majority of Americans don't have a financial plan.

And so when you don't have a plan, when you save money, all of a sudden that money is going to go away. So that is one of the bigger things that you want to do up front is making sure you have that financial plan. It's really, really important to do this. And a lot of times, if you have no goal on what you're saving for.

What I would recommend is figuring out what your freedom number is and to figure out what your freedom number is. You take how much you want to spend in retirement and multiply that by 25. Once you hit that number invested in your retirement accounts or invested in your brokerage account, you can draw down 4 percent of that number, every single.

Year. So this calculation works out to something that's going to allow you to draw down the amount that you want to spend every single year based on the 4 percent rule. And the 4 percent rule states that you can draw down 4 percent of your portfolio and be able to preserve your wealth over the course of your retirement.

So this is one thing that we just like to note as a baseline for a lot of people. It's the thing through that 4 percent rule. So if you want to spend 80, 000 per year in retirement, one thing that you can do is, Hey, 80, 000 multiplied by 25 is 2 million bucks, 2 million bucks drawn down at 4 percent is 80, 000.

So it reverses the math for you to make it really, really easy. And so if you're looking for financial goals, that's one way to think through this is how can I get to the point where I have enough money saved up so I can have my time back? Because time freedom is the only reason why we do this. The only reason why we're looking to build wealth is so we can get our time back so we can spend more time with our family, with our friends, doing the things that we love.

Our time is the most precious resource that you have. And your biggest regret when you get to the end of your life, As you did not spend time in certain areas, that is going to be your number one regret if you have any regrets. And so making sure we take our time back is what money is there to do. Money is just a tool to get your time back.

And that's exactly what I want for you, which is why we talk through savings rates and why this is so incredibly powerful because your savings rate is the catalyst to allow you to find financial freedom. And this is exactly what we're talking through here. So. We're going to go through each decade.

We're going to talk through your savings rate and what I would target by age. So if that's something you're into, let's get into it. All right. So first we're going to talk about the twenties. And one thing to note before I dive into all of these is these are actually going to be gross in the end. Income numbers that I'm talking about here, especially if you're contributing to your 401k or you're contributing to pre tax retirement accounts and gross income comes even more into play.

When I talk through these on these savings rates, really, really important to talk through that upfront here. So we can go through each of these savings rates. So in your twenties, I want you to aim to save. 10 to 20%. Now I have a range here. That's really, really important to understand the real number. I want you to get to is 20%.

And if you've listened to this podcast for a long time, you know, 20 percent is really the baseline number that I have for you to have your savings. Now, when I talk about savings here, what I mean is saving money so that you can either. Put money into your emergency fund so that you can either pay down high interest debt and, or you're contributing money to investments or taxable brokerage, or maybe you're buying businesses or maybe you're buying real estate, those types of things.

So you're not saving just to have cash in a regular old savings account. You're saving so that you can get that money working for you to increase your net worth. These are net worth increasing activities is what you're putting this money towards. So when I say 10 to 20%, I really want you at 20%. 20 percent is our baseline here.

The personal finance podcast and master money. This is what we talk about. Always is 20%. You want to work your way to that, but if you can't get there yet, if you're just starting off and you're just trying to save money, just saving anything at all and investing those dollars or putting them towards wealth building activities are going to be so incredibly powerful because these dollars are the most valuable dollars you will ever have.

In your retirement accounts, they are so incredibly valuable and they can compound so much more than somebody who starts later in their thirties. If you're in your twenties and you're listening to this, you haven't started investing yet. You need to start investing as soon as you possibly can, because these dollars are so incredibly powerful.

So one thing I would know is if you're trying to get to that 10 to 20%, first of all, remember what I said at the top of the show, make sure that if you can't get there yet. You start to increase it gradually over the next few months. So if you want to increase from 10 percent to 20 percent over the next 10 months, what you can do is increase your savings rate by 1%.

So it's not so painful. And in between that time, it also gives you time to figure out ways to possibly increase your income so that you can save more money. And so number one, what I would do is automate this savings. I want you to take your willpower out of the equation when it comes to saving money.

And automation is the only way to do that. So the way that you can set this up is that every single time that you get paid, you're going to automate dollars exactly where they need to go. So your 401k, if you think about it already does this because your money goes from getting paid into your 401k. You don't even see it on your paycheck because it goes before it actually hits your paycheck.

And so automation is going to help you do the same thing where money funnel into your checking account, which all your checking account, it is a big funnel account. And you're going to funnel that money out to your retirement accounts, or you're going to funnel that money out to your high yield savings account, where you're keeping your emergency fund, or you're going to funnel that money out into your taxable brokerage account or your savings.

That you're going to put for a rental property, those types of things. And so this is the number one thing that you need to do. And if you do this early and often, you won't even feel that the money is gone because you're going to get used to not having that money there because it's going to automate out.

Truthfully, I have realized that if I don't automate money into certain buckets, all of a sudden what happens is I want to spend those dollars instead. And so once I start to automate it, I don't even realize it's gone. It just goes. And then I'm starting to build a ton of wealth without even lifting a finger.

So take your willpower out of the equation. All of us need to get our willpower out of the way because all of us have tried to rely on our willpower in the past, whether it's health, wealth, career, all of these things. If we can remove our willpower, it's going to be so much better long term. Number two is to track your money flow.

You need to make sure you understand where your money flow is going so that you can optimize your savings. And this means, you know, making sure you know how much income is coming in and where your dollars are being spent. So number two, track that money flow. Number three is, where does this savings go?

Well, first you need to have. Six months expenses saved an emergency fund. So you need to make sure that it's funneling into an emergency fund, which is in a high yield savings account first, and then move that money on beyond that. And then taking advantage of things like obviously your 401k match, all those different pieces are going to be really, really important.

Now, if you have high interest debt, I also want you to funnel this money into that high interest debt to get that paid down and that's any debt above a 6 percent interest rate. So that has another piece that you definitely need to be doing. And then increasing the amount that you're investing over time.

So. 10 to 20 percent is for the twenties. That is where I want you to be. And really I want you to be at that 20 percent range is where I want you to land. Now let's jump into the thirties. Now, when you're in your thirties, one thing I want you to think through is you need to increase your income over this timeframe.

So your twenties is a time to figure out and develop your skills so that you can increase your income in your late twenties and going into your thirties. Cause I want you to really have high income producing years in your thirties and forties. That's what the really important part is, is so you can shovel more cash into.

into wealth building activity. So in your thirties, one thing I want you to aim to save for is a little more than in your twenties. So if you're getting a late start and you haven't really started saving, or you're just not making a ton of money yet in your thirties, then you can go for this 15 to 25 percent is where I want you to be.

And so I want you to start to increase that over time. Now you can be way above that as well. If you're looking for financial independence, for example, and you want to retire in 10 years or less than looking at savings. Something like a 50 percent savings rate is what a lot of folks do who are in the fire movement and want to make sure that they actually can retire so much faster.

So if you're interested in the fire movement, we have a bunch of episodes talking about that and why you need to have that really high savings rate. But if you can say more than that, that more power to you, that is absolutely amazing, but in your thirties, aim for that 15 to 25%. Why? Cause you already need to have that solidified emergency fund.

This is not something to play around with anymore in your thirties. Life is going to get messy in your thirties. It is very, very messy for me right now. Okay. All sorts of just various expenses jump out at me every single month that I have completely unplanned. And the emergency fund is what protects me against those.

So you need to have the same exact thing. I know how life is. Life is hard, especially when you're trying to build wealth, especially when you are there trying to make sure you plan for every little thing. You're, you're, Always going to have surprises. Most of you listening are probably yelling amen from the driver's seat in your car right now.

So making sure that you understand that you need to prioritize that emergency fund and so you need to increase that savings rate. It's got to get higher so that you can make sure that you are prioritizing some of this stuff. Also, this is the time that if you haven't started investing yet. Now's the time, my friends, you gotta start investing.

If you've waited this long, it's time to maximize those retirement contributions and get into things like the 401k, the Roth IRA, the 4 57, the 4 0 3 B. If you don't have a 401k or a Roth IRA or a Roth 401k, um, all of those are fantastic places to put your dollars and try to grow your wealth. Now another thing I want you to do is I want you to take your dollars and this is another piece where you can actually put this savings toward income producing activities.

I want you to invest in yourself. And one big thing that a lot of people don't do is they don't invest their money and things that will actually help them produce more money. And so investing in yourself would be either, you know, taking courses out there that would help you make more money. Maybe they are things like going to conferences that are going to help you network with more people who can introduce you to more people and more business deals.

Maybe it is investing your dollars into certifications within your field that will increase your income. For example, if you're a nurse. And you want to become a nurse practitioner. You can make a lot more money becoming a practitioner than just a nurse. And so maybe you want to invest your dollars in some additional education so that you can increase your income.

That investment is going to be worth its weight in gold. And so these are the types of things that I want you to think through, especially in your 30s. If you're like, I just keep hitting a wall. I cannot get ahead. I'm in my thirties now. I'm so stressed out. I feel like everybody else is getting ahead of me.

What do I need to do? Well, listen, this is not your fault. I want you to know that number one and number two. Like I said, life is hard right now. So thinking through what Can I do myself? What are the things that I can focus on the things that I can actually control so that I can increase my income? Well, those income producing activities and investing in yourself is a definitely something you can do.

You can read books. If you don't have a ton of money, you can go to the library and start to look for income producing skills and books on things like that at the library. These are things like negotiation. These are things like sales skills. All of these can be learned in books. And so if you don't have a ton of money, you can invest your time and your energy by reading books.

Also, if you have this savings rate and you are, you know, planning for a family, some things that you can do is put them towards 529 plans for your kid's college. As long as you're taking care of your retirement first, you could do things like investing those dollars in financial planning, always have term and life insurance.

If you have people who depend on your income, um, and a lot of those things are just really, really important to make sure that you understand, but always looking at that, reviewing and adjusting your financial plan is really important and saving within that range, that 15 to 25%. It's really, really important in your thirties because these are the higher income producing years is your thirties, your forties.

And so I want you to really, really make sure that you're ramping that dial up so that you can become a multimillionaire by the time you get your fifties, sixties and all those different ranges. So. Really excited for all of you in your thirties. And if you have not started investing yet, please, for the love of God, you need to start investing as soon as you possibly can.

All right. So for all my homies up in the forties, if you're in your forties, we're going to increase your savings rate a little bit more. Again, the range that I want you to be in is at a bare minimum. You need to be saving at least a bare minimum of 20 percent unless you've already hit financial independence.

A lot of people who listen to this podcast are hitting financial independence in their forties, which is absolutely amazing. Congratulations to all of you who are doing that, but if you haven't hit financial independence yet, or you haven't hit coast fire, or you're not going for barista fire, then this is a amazing place to start is to aim to save 20%.

To 30 percent of your income. We got to accelerate this path as fast as we possibly can, especially in your forties, because I want you to reach retirement either early or at a traditional retirement age. And so in order to do that, we need to make sure that we are saving more of our dollars over time and your savings rate is what is going to change your trajectory in the path and the speed at which you can retire.

And so making sure we increase this number is really, really important. We need to be trying to max out our retirement contributions. That is one big one. So the 401k, we need to try to get more money into the 401k and try to get to that 401k max. In addition, maxing out those Roth accounts is really, really important.

If you have money left over, you can go to things like the HSA. You can go to things like a taxable brokerage account. All of those are fantastic. And really. Focusing on that health savings is a great time. If you've never started at HSA or even thought through that process, now is a great time to start that in your forties, because obviously your healthcare bills are going to rise as you age.

And so making sure you are starting to invest some dollars in your HSA. And that HSA is growing over time. It has triple tax benefits. So there's amazing stuff that you can do there, but putting dollars into your health savings count is going to really, really help you over time so that you can ensure, Hey, a, I have forced savings for healthcare, and if I don't use this money in the future, it just turns into a traditional IRA essentially.

And so the rules are very similar to like a 401k or a traditional IRA. So it is a great way to a save for healthcare expenses. If you don't use it, it turns into a retirement account. So there's really cool stuff that you can utilize there as well. Also, this is a great time to really streamline your expenses.

Sometimes in our thirties, things get really messy. Maybe we fall prey to things like keeping up with the Joneses. Maybe your neighbor next door in your thirties got a brand new SUV to drive around town. So you want the brand new SUV to drive around town. Well, instead, maybe we look through our expenses and we cut all the unnecessary stuff so that we can ride around lean in our forties to ensure that we can retire faster.

So if you're struggling to save money, Really look at your expenses and look at it with an open mind and see where am I spending dollars that just don't make sense that I don't value. Do I walk into target every single time looking for one thing and then I walk out with 200 every time. Is that something that I do over and over again?

Well, maybe I need to put together financial discipline. Do I Spend too much money eating out and I don't really care about eating out. It doesn't really make me happy. It doesn't really bring me value. Do I need to reduce the amount of times that I'm doing that? Those are the types of things and questions you need to be asking yourself so that you know where your money flow is, where your money is going, and then you can make adjustments.

Based on that. So that is something I would definitely consider as well. And then building wealth for your family. If you have some extra dollars left over things, like I said, that five 29 plan is great also, you know, saving for your kids in a taxable brokerage account or anything else. Those are great things to do.

And also always make sure you have that estate plan ready in your forties. Then one thing I want you to do also in your forties is just kind of look at your asset allocation. Are you still on par with where you want to be? And there's adjustments that you can make both ways. If you're in something like a target date retirement fund, is it growing enough for you and, or do you need to make an adjustment to a different target date retirement fund?

If you're invested in index funds, something along those lines, do you need to look at your asset allocation and make sure it's in line with what your new risk tolerance is? Your risk tolerance over time does change. And so you want to make sure that you are assessing some of this stuff when you have the savings going into some of these investments to ensure that you're on the right path for what you want to be doing.

Now, let's jump into the fifties. All right. So in your fifties, there are some cool things that you get to do that everybody else in the other age ranges do not get to do. So number one is I want you to save that 20 to 30% Plus in your fifties, especially if you're trying to catch up here, I want you to really accelerate the amount that you're saving.

You need to get lean and you need to make sure that you're saving enough in order to be able to retire at a traditional retirement age. So one thing I want you to do is utilize those ketchup contributions when it comes to retirement accounts. So if you didn't know, if you're age 50 or older, you can go and utilize ketchup contributions in your retirement accounts.

So this means that you can contribute more money in these retirement accounts than a traditional person can. So for example, The Roth IRA max out at the time recording this is 7, the catch up contribution for this year at the time recording, this is another thousand dollars. So if you're over the age of 50, you can put an extra thousand dollars into that Roth IRA.

And so this is a great thing to utilize, especially if you're over the age of 50. Also, I want you to kind of assess your retirement readiness. I want you to figure out and plan this out and see where you are on your retirement path. If you have no idea, then maybe it's time to talk to someone like a certified financial planner who can put together a plan for you, not take a percentage of your assets under management, not take a percentage of fee from you, but making sure that they could put just a plan together for a fee.

So there are financial planners out there who for, you know, 3, 500 bucks, 4, 500 bucks, we'll put together an exact financial plan for you so that, you know, what you need to do as you approach retirement. When you get closer to that retirement age, that's when you may need more so of a plan because it gets a little more complicated as time goes on.

So I want you to assess that retirement readiness and make sure you understand where you are and how much cash you have on hand. Also, some of the savings rate needs to go to more cash. You need to increase your cash position. More than six months, in my opinion. Now this is just my opinion, but I like to have more cash on hand as I approach an inter retirement than I would in my growth and accumulation phase.

Your growth and accumulations, your twenties, your thirties, your forties, that's when you're trying to accumulate your wealth. You're trying to build up your wealth. You're trying to accelerate that wealth, make sure it is producing income for you. And then as you approach your fifties and get closer to retirement age, you want to have a little more cash on hand.

So maybe you're taking some of that investment money. And you're putting it into cash because what I want you to have available to you is cash is security. And if the market goes down at some point in time while you're retired, and it goes down a lot, maybe it goes down 50 60 percent one year. And so that happened in the great recession, for example, well, then you have cash that you can live on for a year or two.

That's going to allow you to kind of pull that cash while the market recovers. And so that's one thing you want to think through too. And you can keep it in a high yield savings account where it's still earning a return right now. High yield savings accounts are fantastic. It's, you know, between 4. 5. 5 percent that you can get on your money.

And so making sure that you look through that and think through that is going to be really, really important. Also thinking through your entire situation as a whole. And do you want to do things like downsize or have the kids left the house yet? If they've left the house yet, maybe you want to consider downsizing and you can take those extra dollars and put them towards wealth building activities and your freedom.

So maybe that's one way to accelerate your path to freedom is downsizing. So you can move from. from, you know, the bigger house where you have room for every single kid, maybe downsize to enough just so your kids can visit when they want to come by and visit. And so you take that, you sell the house, you take those extra dollars and you put them towards things that you actually value.

And you could sell that house to the millennials who are having a really hard time finding supply right now out there. So that's another great option for you. Um, if you're trying to accelerate that path and you really value that time freedom. Also see where social security is going to factor into your retirement plan.

So your savings rate is there, but maybe you're closer than you think, cause you haven't factored in social security and how much you're actually gonna be making with social security. And so that's another thing that I want you to assess as you go through this. Cause maybe you're already at the point in time where if you want to work five more years, you might already be coast fire and be close enough to getting there.

And then social security is actually going to take you over that hump. So make sure you evaluate that as well. And then also making sure that you look at healthcare planning and healthcare planning is going to be a big, big piece to this. Uh, we talked about, you know, increasing your HSA contributions. If you haven't already in your twenties and thirties and your forties and making sure you do that well in your fifties, you definitely want to make sure that you're doing that and have that healthcare plan in place.

And then also see if there's any alternative assets that you're interested in investing in. If you have a little cash leftover, maybe there are things like real estate, or you want to diversify your investments, uh, and just get a little extra. Retirement income coming in. Maybe that's one thing that you want to do to things like laundromats.

There's a bunch of great ways to do this. And so that's another great one. I think that we, we definitely want to make sure that we are thinking through. So that's how I would think about the fifties and we're going to jump in real quick to the sixties and just talk about a couple of things there. So in your 60s, if you're not retired yet, you want to save as much as you possibly can.

I would make a lot of different moves to ensure that I could save as much as I possibly can. So it's going to be well above that 30 percent range if you can get there and finding ways to make sure that you can earn that amount is going to be really important. So if you're just getting started off and you're just getting closer to your 60s, then really you need to reduce that amount.

The amount that you spend significantly and you may be even possibly need to take some drastic measures to do that and significantly increase the amount that you're investing. Some people have no idea until they're getting closer to retirement age and that they need to actually start investing their dollars.

And so that's one thing I want you to think through too. And I want everybody hearing this who started late. It is never too late to build wealth. I want to give you reassurance here because so many people say to themselves, well, it's just too late. I'm going to give up. I'm not going to do this. If you're watching on YouTube, look me in the eyes.

It is never too late to start building wealth for your financial future. It is never too late. Yes, time is the biggest factor overall, but there are so many examples of people who started late that still were able to accomplish a great retirement. So I want you to make sure that you buckle down. You think through what you want to do here.

You put together a real plan. This plan really needs to be dialed down, but I know you can do it. And I just want to say that to the folks who are in their 60s. So yeah. Going through all the things in your fifties, your social security, making sure you have a state planning, thinking about your health insurance, all that stuff matters, but really I want you to know that it is never too late and I want you to think through how can I do this?

How can I save some of this extra money and pair it with social security to ensure that I can retire? And so that's some really important stuff as well. Uh, and then putting these dollars into things that you think will help you overall based on your risk tolerance is going to be really, really important.

Well, listen, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I cannot thank you guys enough for investing in yourself because that's exactly what you're doing by spending time with us here today. I appreciate every single one of you and we want to bring you as much value as possible. So if you guys have suggestions on episodes that you want me to create, send them in to me.

Via email. And I will work my hardest to make sure that we can create those episodes for you, because a lot of times we put these episodes together and we're really excited to talk about these topics, but sometimes I want to make sure that we are actually bringing you value as well. And we're bringing you the value that you want when you listen to this show.

So make sure you reach out to me. Uh, I love when you guys reach out to me and I will work as hard as I can to make those episodes for you. And if not, we'll put them in a money Q and a, and make sure we can at least get your question answered for you as well. So. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode.

I hope you have a great rest of your week and we will see you on the next episode.