Saving 10% May Not Be Enough

Like many of the personal finance benchmarks and rules of thumb, your own personal situation will dictate how you must adjust those benchmarks and rules because what applies to you may not apply to someone else (likewise, the advice may be meant for smoeone else and not for you). So, whenever I hear of these rules, like saving 10% of your income, I always put it through my own personal filter before acting on it. The person who came up with that rule may not have had my exact situation in mind.

That’s why when I saw this article by our good friend Walter Updegrave I knew he had me in mind because he’s saying that I just said above – 10% is enough if you can predict the future, otherwise sock away a little bit more.

Sure, like most rules of thumb, this one can work in some circumstances: If you start stashing away 10 percent of your income in retirement accounts at the beginning of your career and do so without fail year after year, you could very well end up with enough money to support a comfortable retirement.

The article goes on to give you several tools to help you calculate how much you, in your particular situation, should be saving in order to have a higher chance at a comfortable retirement and that you should try them all out to get a better idea of how much you should save.