What percentage of money from my weekly paycheck is a good amount to put aside into savings?
I know that it can be hard saving money, but saving any amount of money is a good habit to start at any age. However, if you can start saving, 10 percent of your income is a good place to start. If saving 10 percent is easy—if you don’t even notice that it’s gone—than increase the amount to 15 percent and, if possible, 20 percent.
As a rule of thumb you should have an emergency fund with three months worth of money for you to live off of—just in case something unexpected happens. During a recession, or times of high unemployment, experts recommend that you have nine months to twelve months worth of money saved in your emergency fund. If you make plenty of money, first set aside your emergency fund, next, start saving for retirement. Many experts recommend that everyone save 15 percent of their income each month just for retirement. If you have a job that offers a company match program this may be easier than you think. For example, if you job offers to match your savings up to 6 percent, than your 6 percent plus your company’s 6 percent already gives you 12 percent!
If you are trying to get out of debt then the interest you are paying on your debt may be more than the interest you can earn saving, especially right now while interest rates are low. In this case, pay off your debt with most of your money, while still making sure that you have at least something in an emergency fund.
Everyone is different and everyone has a different situation. Try to save what you can, even if you are only saving 5 percent, that is better than nothing and it gets you into the good habit of saving money instead of spending everything you earn.