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I think some viewers are getting confused or setting the wrong expectations for themselves.
Question: Did I set out to provide useful content?
Answer: No, I did not.
I asked a question. We talked about my question. A few things were made clearer to me (MMM's 60% net vs gross savings rate) while other things (percentages of high savers) remains elusive.
Those wondering or disappointed as to why they haven't gotten anything out of this post apparently need to have this clarification articulated clearly. Go figure.
You always hear the percentage of people that have saved little, or nothing, for retirement. We have stats that suggest that Americans, on average, are saving 5%.
But what I want to know: What the percentage of Americans that save 60% or more?
The whole point of calculating savings % is because it can show you how long it would take to save up and retire at your current spending level.
That's it. Full stop.
Doing anything funny beyond that misses the point entirely.
Percentage doesn't mean much without an income context.
Someone making $300,000 saves 10% of their income. He saves $30,000. That's a minimal lifestyle hit, at best. The $40,000 a year guy saves 50% of his income. He saves $20,000. He saves less than the guy making a lot more, but subsisting on $20,000 a year is going to suck. May not be doable.
Percentage doesn't mean much without an income context.
Someone making $300,000 saves 10% of their income. He saves $30,000. That's a minimal lifestyle hit, at best. The $40,000 a year guy saves 50% of his income. He saves $20,000. He saves less than the guy making a lot more, but subsisting on $20,000 a year is going to suck. May not be doable.
Even without income total there’s context as it represents the march to financial independence. The person making 30k doesn’t need nearly as much money to be fi
The context of a percentage must be understood before it can make any sense.
When I first started investing, I was a full-time student on the GI-bill getting $350/month to attend college and I was working f/t making $3/hour. My annual income would have been salary $5760/year and GI-bill income $4200. We had saved up $8,000 that we used to purchase a Tri-plex. That Tri-plex had three houses [one for us and two rentals] The rental income off each of those houses was $300/month. So then we suddenly had an extra 7,200/year rental income.
Before we bought that property we were making $5,760 in salary and $4,200 for schooling. After we made the purchase that bumped our annual gross income to 17,160/year. $7,200 of that went to the mortgage and escrow fees. That was when we started budgeting $200 every month out of my salary income to go to principal-only payments.
2,400 a year out of 17,160 is only a seventh of our gross income. Though it is nearly half of my wages.
Well it's her husbands income. I think she walks dogs.
Savage.
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