Quote:
Originally Posted by qba335i
It's not what you make - it's what you save.
300k - total salary
-37k - max 401k contribution for 2 people
- 80k tax (30% tax rate)
= 183k
Now expenses (annual):
- 50k mortgage (600-700k home)
- 15k property tax
- 10k car payments
- 10k vacations (family of 4)
- 12k groceries
- 20k school/activities for 2 kids
- 10k clothes
- 10k miscellaneous home items
- 20k student loans (graduate school?)
A few other expenses and you basically live paycheck to paycheck.
|
Exactly! It's all about what you can save.
Our compulsive retirement saving has us living "paycheck to paycheck", allowing us to put 50% of our combined income towards retirement. We can easily pause that at any moment should we encounter a serious disaster that requires more than what we keep on hand in savings at all times. Works well. Thankfully, in 20 years, we have never had an unforeseen bump that overran our savings account.