Saturday night, I tweeted*:
I got a few great responses, including:
Katie’s sentiments on this question were the same as everyone else who responded: rather than aiming for a specific dollar amount to save, percentages seem to be the norm in the PF community. I can understand why – we all make different amounts of money, so it’s tough to feel good about your efforts when you’re only saving $200 per month and the next guy is saving $500. But if $200 is 20% of your income and $500 is only 10% of his, you’re actually the better saver. Right?
It would be easier for me to get behind the idea of using percentages if it didn’t result in such random numbers. I know it’s sort of silly, but I just like to know that a nice, round number is being saved every month. I expressed this in a tweet to Mikhaila:
But on the other hand, I think it would be easier for me to get over my guilt at spending some of my money on fun stuff (I’m currently dreaming about a trip to Madrid and a new computer) if I used percentages rather than dollar amounts. That’s why income percentages are good to have as guidelines; if you spend $3,000 on a huge trip one year it’s not as gut-wrenching if you know that you’ve also saved 15% of your income. Dollar amounts are arbitrary, so they’re not as reassuring (at least to me).
What about you? Do you save a percentage of your income (round numbers be damned!) or a specific dollar amount every month?
*Because I’m cool and I tweet about money on Saturday nights
