Okay, so did you know that this is officially “America Saves Week’? This sobering statistic is why official weeks like this are needed to promote financial literacy and savings:
- National Savings Needs: Most Americans do not have adequate savings to meet major emergencies, let alone accumulate enough savings for retirement. The typical American household has less than $100,000 in net wealth, including home equity and 401k accumulations, and only about $10,000 in net financial assets. Lower income families have much fewer resources.
To learn more about America Saves Week click on the link: www.americasavesweek.org
I get asked quite often about budgets. Most of the time the questions revolve around “How much should we budget for a certain area”. It’s a tough question to answer and I generally try to tip toe around it. Everyone is different in their spending habits so it is hard to come up with a generic budget that fits. That is one of the main reasons I created myVizer.com. Anytime someone asks how they compare to another planning client, I just refer them over to the website and let them see for themselves. (it shows your percentages vs. the average percentage for other users)
Recently though I stumbled upon an interesting article in Kiplingers magazine that gives folks a basic budget. The title of the article was “how to divvy up your paycheck”. Here is the breakdown:
- 30% Housing (mortgage/rent/insurance/prop tax)
- 15% Food (groceries/dining out)
- 10% debt
- 10% utilities/household
- 10% transportation (loan, gas, maintenance, auto ins)
- 10% savings
- 5% clothing
- 5% entertainment
- 5% miscellaneous
It’s not a bad benchmark to follow. It’s not perfect, but not bad.
Out of curiosity, I will have to get the wife to see how she thinks we compare to those numbers!
