How much should I think of saving every month as a 29 year old?

Please dont ruin your present to become financially independent. I know people who cut their own hairs and do a whole lot of stuff to micro optimize their savings. That kind of lifestyle is just not worth it.<p>As long as you&#x27;re being mindful of being cash flow +ve and save some $ for rainy day, you&#x27;re good.<p>I Started with<p>1. Emergency fund (6months+ expenses or whatever you&#x27;re comfortable with), 2. 401(k) &#x2F; IRA (if you&#x27;re employer provides it), 3. indexing (simple plain old vanguard low fee fund).<p>thats about it, nothing more.<p>I am a chase private client, own a house and could probably retire within next 3 yrs or sooner if I really wanted to... I dint think of FI all the time, it just happened.

;not advise<p>Don&#x27;t focus on a number but focus on giving yourself some room to breathe. Slowly build a habit of saving money by snowballing money into a savings account to start. Don&#x27;t measure your worth by money.<p>I didn&#x27;t consider saving until I bought the engagement ring (which left me at a bank balance close to 0 and it wasn&#x27;t the first time). I was 27 years old.<p>I started setting aside some money as a cash reserve (bucket #1) and I made sure there was enough money to:<p><pre><code> - get me through two months on rent (3,000 GBP) - feed myself for two months (400 GBP) - buy one flight ticket home (to parents basement)(700 GBP) </code></pre> Once bucket #1 was full, I started tossing money into bucket #2 which was disposable income stashed in a decent interest paying savings account. This was for rainy days and the future.<p>By the time I was 29, I had about 10,000 GBP in savings between the two buckets. A good portion of it was spent on our wedding and honeymoon (from #2). By 30 I had 15,000 GBP in savings. Most of that was spent when I moved to Tokyo (damn moving costs). I had $1,000 USD left; it was a fresh start.<p>I&#x27;m 32 now and I have about one year worth of living expenses in savings and then some. I make monthly contributions towards a pension, life-insurance, and a retirement fund (bonds).

Something I have not seen mentioned yet, it might be obvious?<p>Pay off your debt first! It has a guaranteed return on &quot;investment&quot;.<p>The following scheme has worked well for me.<p>First take any employer matched retirement scheme (401(k) &#x2F; IRA, etc.) and keep some money to build up a rainy day fund if you don&#x27;t have one (a few weeks income is a good starting point) as theres no point defaulting on a loan because you made extra payments the week or month before.<p>But there is no point saving or investing money that could be going towards paying down a 22% credit card debt or 16% car loan, or even a 5% House loan. The only exceptions would be low interest loans (i.e. &lt;1-2%) with a fixed payoff date.<p>On Mortgages, there are many schemes but I&#x27;d advise, 40% 1 year fixed, 40% 2 year fixed, 20% revolving credit, dump any rainy day funds, and any other spare funds, on the revolving loan == interest you don&#x27;t pay. Keep the fixed term loans expiring every other year so any interest rate spikes only hit half your capital.<p>Disclaimer: I am not a financial adviser and this is not intended as &quot;investment&quot; or &quot;financial advice&quot;.

I am not a financial advisor, but... start with 10%. Use high-interest savings accounts if you need to dip into the money unpredictably. Use term deposits if you&#x27;ll need to access the money in a year (shares might dip in that time). Use index funds if you won&#x27;t need the money for a decade (index funds aren&#x27;t very risky at that time horizon). And start putting away money for your kids the moment they&#x27;re born, find something that tax-effectively allows you to transfer the money into their name when they turn 20ish without some form of capital gains on their behalf. Consider spreading it around to some different accounts so that if one investment goes under you don&#x27;t lose the lot.

At least 10% annually and give another 10% at least to charity.<p>I liked to put some in stocks I already had decided on, but also a bit in cash, then when there was a panic and prices dropped, I grabbed a bunch of things I already had and knew were solid. Not a gambler, just an observer that likes a bargain and is patient.

I never thought it made sense that people should expect to do nothing for 30+ years of their life.<p>For most the anxiety of boxing yourself into that belief that after a certain day of your life that you can’t earn another dime makes no sense. If you look at the current stats there’s a huge % of people nearing “retirement age” who have nothing saved.<p>Personally I have had a surprising number of Uber drivers who are retired and bored and drive to socialize with others. Although they may be lucky to have saved enough I don’t necessarily think it would be “depressing” for someone who was otherwise of retired age to take on a job that they felt they were capable of doing instead of sitting at home doing nothing all day

Very glad to see this article, packed with good advice.<p>Financial education is so important, yet so seldom presented. It literally can make a HUGE difference in quality of life. Everyone should at least understand the basic blueprint of how to care for your own financial future.<p>For those who haven&#x27;t seen it yet, a great next step is to visit Bogleheads.org. A great community of knowledgeable savers, including many who never earned a great salary but still have managed to assure their own future. If you haven&#x27;t seen it, check it out!

I am the same age - we save&#x2F;invest around 30-40% of our post-tax income.

The big problem I have with saving lots is expensive hobbies! My current dilemma is whether or not to embark on a campervan conversion project.

$800k for retirement seems very low...

You only have, at most, 12 months to worry about... I don&#x27;t think it will make much a difference.