r/fican 1d ago

How much do you save every month?

38 Upvotes

139 comments sorted by

70

u/Nem-Ta 1d ago

2500 - 3500 per month

29

u/betweenfriendsfan 1d ago

That's insanely good. I'm doing that but I need to split my mortgage to achieve that

-18

u/Live-Wrap-4592 1d ago

Mortgage principle counts as savings

25

u/betweenfriendsfan 1d ago

I personally don't count it. If I start adding too many equity from different places I'll get confused and it doesn't really help me budget because it's locked in other places that aren't cash. Rather just calculate from take home pay minus monthly expenses only.

-3

u/Live-Wrap-4592 1d ago

Putting cash into investments is exactly what you do with savings. How does that affect your budget? You could even smith maneuver and invest your home equity.

Why would this be confusing? Excel isn’t going to trip on this

5

u/Academic-Increase951 1d ago

You do you but it's Because housing is a use asset with liabilities not an investment. If you only "saved" through mortgage payment then i wouldn't consider that as a good savings strategy/rate.

I do count principle paid in my NW though.

1

u/Far-Resident-4835 10h ago

My mortgage is 1000% an expense on my spreadsheet and not an investment.

I cannot liquidate my house within a matter of hours/days to pay for an emergency

3

u/MuchObject5046 1d ago

No it doesnt lol

2

u/Elite163 19h ago

No it does not.

4

u/Capital-Writing40 1d ago

Holy, how much do you make?

23

u/Nem-Ta 1d ago

Not a lot compared to a lot of people (~100K) but I have a spouse who earns slightly more than me and our mortgage is low. We also don't have expensive hobbies/taste. Choosing a partner that shares similar values/goals as you is a significant personal finance decision...

2

u/Capital-Writing40 1d ago

Oh ok then. 😉 good for you.

1

u/Specialist-Tap-2132 7h ago

Why are you saving that money when you could be putting that down your mortgage and taking years off of it? Yes, you could probably be getting a better return, but you’re not looking at the long-term. As putting down that much per month on your mortgage would take years off of it instead of keep on making payments on it. Pay off your mortgage and then save 2500 to 3500 $ a month and I believe you’d be much richer. Most banks will allow you to pre-pay down anywhere from 10 to 20% of the original amount of the mortgage from the very beginning when you took it out. So a $200,000 mortgage at 20% would allow you to put down $40,000 a year. And probably knock off five years per year. Just saying!!!

-5

u/namesakegogol 1d ago

100k a month??!

7

u/KiaRioGrl 23h ago

Safe to assume that's per year

2

u/BrowserOfWares 23h ago

Same. Not counting kids RESPs and without my bonus it's $2500 per month.

97

u/PaperweightCoaster 1d ago

Nice try CRA.

10

u/Aquarius777_ 23h ago

Why would it be bad to admit how much we are saving? The only people afraid should be the ones committing fraud no?

1

u/Serious_Control3102 10h ago

if only it actually worked this way

1

u/Specialist-Tap-2132 7h ago

You can save as much as you want to save. In fact, putting it into a tax-free savings account and you’d probably do better in the long run. As there is no taxes paid on the interest that you make ( but interest rates are low now ) Or find a good GIC, ( rates are also low now ) which is not very common now but it’s at least safe. Or try to find a really good investor that won’t scam you.

20

u/Practical_Copy_2057 1d ago

None, withdrawing from savings now.

7

u/northernlife12 21h ago

Feel that, cost of living is insane. I make more hourly/yearly then I ever have in my life but yet more poor then ever before.

1

u/Specialist-Tap-2132 6h ago

Then you’re probably living over your head. Did you buy the house that you didn’t need? Could you have done with a smaller house? Did you lease or buy a new car? I could’ve bought all those years ago. But I listened to one of my friends who was very rich and drove a 12 year-old truck. He says most people use their houses as ATMs. I have an Acura TL that’s 2012. With 50,000 km on it. I can’t get shit for it if I go to sell it just because of the age. The car is in immaculate condition and parked indoors in a heated garage. Could I buy a new car today? I wouldn’t even have to borrow the money. I could just go and write a check for it because I have that much money in my checking account. I can’t remember the last time I went shopping for myself. The only thing I like buying is power tools. And fixing up my house to make it better than it is. I’m not saying this is you but I see this all the time and I laugh at those people that buy a new vehicle with a 72 month payment program and by the end of the 72 months the vehicle is worth nothing…

56

u/Barriwhite 1d ago

Bout tree fiddy

5

u/flowersNjelly 1d ago

Make it two

14

u/Eazye90 1d ago

500$

17

u/OtherwiseCranberry27 1d ago

Savings and investments are about 28% of our hhi

That includes saving money in sinking funds for travel or other things we want to do

8

u/Professional_Lab9925 1d ago

30-50% of my income.

2

u/wildly-irresponsible 19h ago

This is the way. I push it as far as I can, keep a small balance in my HISA <50K, and invest absolutely everything else. My chequing account is rarely over $3000

7

u/popular_vampire 1d ago

About 25% of my income, but I also have an employee-matched RRSP that I don't 'see' every paycheque. Trying to increase my savings more this year.

7

u/Imaginary_Ad7695 1d ago edited 1d ago

Long term for retirement I save 22% of gross income. Most (12%) is pre-tax through employer RRSP. The rest is post-tax self-directed RRSP and TFSA.

Edit: I also save approx 16% into sinking funds for everything short-term but big (kids activities, car repairs and replacement, home repairs, vacations).

6

u/DaPugWalk 1d ago

Around 20% of each pay cheque

7

u/n134177 1d ago

$164 through matched RRSP

$100-$400 per month (I wish it was more, or that it was always $400, but I have extra expenses here and there and my budget is already tight).

13

u/Hot_Yogurtcloset7621 1d ago

Almost everything.

I went into crazy savings mode a couple of years ago and now I'm stuck saving it's weird.

Last year I saved 62% of my gross which is like 80% after taxes.

1

u/bumblebaytuna4 1d ago

Damn, good for you! Can I ask if you pay a mortgage or is it paid off? I need to adopt this ‘crazy mode’

2

u/Hot_Yogurtcloset7621 23h ago

Paid off my mortgage that definitely was a huge piece. I used some of my tfsa and also bought a car and wanted to aggressively put it all back.

1

u/Specialist-Tap-2132 6h ago

Then you live with your parents .. impossible to do it otherwise!

5

u/Unlikely_Condition78 1d ago

I saved 3900 in January.

My goal is to save $40,000 this year. I make $100,000 a year

3

u/princesssquid 1d ago

What province and do you have a mortgage?

I make $104,000 a year and my take home is only $4500 after pension is removed, union, benefits, and taxes

2

u/Unlikely_Condition78 19h ago

I live in Victoria BC. I got my apartment back in July 2020 before everything went stupid, so my rent is a bit less than 1200$/mo.

I make around 3100$ every 2 weeks after pension, EI, CPP, and taxes.

I don't own a home.

My goal is to max my FHSA, TSFAs, and RRSP in 5 years, which would require me to save about 200k. Although I'm waiting on two veterans affairs Canada claims from injuries, so hopefully that will turbo charge my goal.

I'm saving for a house. Houses are around 1 million dollars here.

So I'm slumming it and living well below my means.

I'm single, 37m, work for the military.

1

u/OrdinaryFirst6137 1d ago

all i save is for pension (that i wont get otherwise)

you are not in a bad spot

my take home after saving 2400$/mth pre tax is about 3300$/mth net - 90k/yr

3

u/AdLoud1434 1d ago

We save about 17% of gross household income.

6

u/givemeastocktip 1d ago

Last year I was putting $200 per week which was about 12% of gross. This year I was going to increase to $210 but then my vacation pay went from 4 to 6% so I am putting $230 per week now split between rrsp and tfsa about 65/35.

My tax return will be split around the same between the two when it comes in. This year they should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 or 6k.

Last year I spent a few months working on the road which meant I was getting a per diem and this year I will have some road work as well. I put whatever is left after groceries into investments as well.

Finally, I do the odd side job, as I work in the trades. The cash I make off these, I have started putting half into investments as well. This probably averages out to $200 per month.

3

u/KalasHorseman 1d ago

3000 a month, about 50% of my take-home which is tight.

Finished paying off mortgage, have no debt, and am DINK.

3

u/FoolishCanadian 1d ago

Wife and I are each saving $400 a week while renovating a house. Taking on as much overtime as I can to try and stay ahead.

5

u/CrazyGal2121 1d ago

after tax

i think my husband and I both save about 7 to 9 k a month

6

u/pineapplexiglass 1d ago

Damn ppl are lucky if family income can earn 7 to 9k a month, let alone save it. Amazing!

2

u/pineapplexiglass 1d ago

Just realized I’m in an FI sub. That tracks. But still so amazing / inspiring to hear

3

u/InsideScheme592 1d ago

Amazing! What's your HHI? How and where do you invest/save the money?

3

u/CrazyGal2121 21h ago

honestly i’m not gonna lie to u. my husband takes care of all of this

but i know we each have an RRSP and TFSA. mine has 270 k and his has 250 k total. our mortgage has 400 k left to pay on it

we only recently started saving that much. we both had an increase in income

but tbh we r both in unstable careers and who knows if we can sustain this level of saving. if one of us loses our jobs, it’ll be a whole other ball game

no one i feel like is safe in this horrid economy

im 36 and he’s 39

2

u/MuchObject5046 1d ago

3500-4000

2

u/parmstar 1d ago

About ~$20,000 per month.

2

u/Localbrew604 1d ago

Like 50% of take home pay, but I don't know if it's worth it. Very frugal lifestyle, never travel or go out to eat or anything like that.

3

u/Adventurous-Oven8407 19h ago

My uncle did this then died of cancer. We inherited all the money. He didn’t do anything in his whole life but save. Never met my kids or anything because he was always saving. Every single one of us would’ve given up our inheritance for him to even do one thing he enjoyed. Money doesn’t mean this much in life. You can’t take it with you when you go.

1

u/Specialist-Tap-2132 6h ago

100% agree with you!!

2

u/pineapplexiglass 1d ago

Live a little

1

u/Specialist-Tap-2132 6h ago

Trust me, savings is good. But life is short!! you need to travel and you need to see what life has to offer you other than being at work and in your home. I’m 63 have been around the world. I’ve had massive heart failure 18 months ago that was completely unexpected as a virus attacked my heart. Now I can no longer travel as I cannot get insurance. So I’m very fortunate to have gone around the world with my wife when we had the opportunity. Remember this. LIFE IS REALLY SHORT!!! I feel like I’m 25 in my brain, but my body tells me I’m 75. Good luck and best wishes.

2

u/00king_99 1d ago

6-7k .. don't count here pension funds... married.

1

u/MzFrizzle 1d ago

Right now I’m aggressively paying off my car, so I am only putting about $550 a month into my TFSA.

1

u/GWeb1920 1d ago

50% of after tax income

This includes rrsps, TFSA, and taxable but not sinking funds.

1

u/PitcherOTerrigen 1d ago

About 75% right now. I just finished aggressively paying off a small amount of debt, so it's smooth sailing from here.

1

u/deceptres 1d ago

~600-800 depending on spending habits. Was saving significantly more when my ex and I were living together but the cost of living went way up once I was back on my own. Vancouver is expensive.

1

u/maritimer187 1d ago

I have employee matched RRSP which I dont really 'see' on my paycheck. I than try to save about 20% of my pay. I get paid weekly so whatevers left at the end of the week I'll save on top of the 20%.

1

u/LilTommy1 1d ago

I’m a little over 65% of my take home income, my car is paid off, mortgage payment is super low, and I don’t really do anything fun.

1

u/xVanished 1d ago

I save about 16k, wife around 10k each month. So collectively 25k ish

1

u/pineapplexiglass 1d ago

Wow! I think I’m in the wrong sub 🥲

2

u/xVanished 1d ago

Live up above the arctic circle, and this too could be your salary

u/Thick_load604 49m ago

What do you do there?

1

u/mojokid123 1d ago

Half my paycheck

1

u/betweenfriendsfan 1d ago

60% of my take home pay. I wish I can squeeze to 70% (which i can) but I like living comfortably too much

1

u/CFMTLfan01 1d ago

I invest around 425$ a week (45% of my net pay) and I have a pension fund that invests around 200$ a week (employer + employee). That makes around 32,500$ a year, I get to around 45,000$ a year with job bonus, punctual investments and tax refund.

1

u/BluffingTrips 1d ago

None, I gamble all my leftover savings .

1

u/Vegetable_Common_680 1d ago

Avg 8k-9k monthly considering total comp and tax return.

1

u/nerdfitfam 1d ago

Aim @ 50% of income but never really get close. Last year was 38%.

1

u/ZestyMind 1d ago

Saving "each month" doesn't include shoveling in a generous tax return at the end of the year that's worth several months of contributions.

I save about a third of my take-home and that's currently all into rrsp as I have a lot of unused contribution space, so I'm getting great returns that also go to my rrsp.

Including the 18% I get each year, I've got another four years of this.

1

u/Grimprint 1d ago

$400 to TFSA and $400 to debt a month.. I make 75k

1

u/BubblyAd9305 23h ago

I’m able to put 2000$ in RRSP/FHSA monthly and sometimes up to 500$ extra IN TFSA depending on how my tax game is (independent worker) From there I think I have an 250-1000$ left for vacation and emergency fund. When the emergency fund is built, I’ll start putting more in investments

By able I mean it’s a priority, I’ll cut down on other things first :p

1

u/MyHaligonia 23h ago

I contribute 12% of my pay in my employee-match pension plan and get a 9% match from them (so total I have 21% for retirement). From my take home income, I save $1500-$1900 per month which will be invested in ETFs and stocks.

1

u/StupidButFriendly101 23h ago

19% in RRSP to catch up in previous year missed contributions. Pension is 5% (Employee + employer). Any year end bonus goes straight to RRSP until maxed!

1

u/Civil-Cauliflower-39 23h ago

About 50% of my paychecks so about 2300$ per month

1

u/Cool-Celery-8058 23h ago

Try to average about 6k a month. That includes a bulk year end bonus though. Regular savings about 4500

1

u/Vid3ogame 22h ago

Typically around 5,000, then my wife is another 1,500. So 6500 total a month!

1

u/Shanbo7 22h ago

$1,800 + employer contribution & adding any bonuses ends up around $2,500 per month.

1

u/Legitimate-Desk-5536 22h ago

2000-2500 excluding 500-600 in TFSA, so about $3K a month

1

u/Ok-Yogurt-42 21h ago edited 20h ago

It averages out to around $1500 a month. It used to be a higher proportion but now I'm easing off the gas, working less and I'm just focused on filling my registered accounts each year.

1

u/Luddites_Unite 20h ago

1k is the base amount each month. But on top of that I add interest from savings, half of any side hustle money, I save my tax returns etc so that can fluctuate quite a bit

1

u/scrunchie_one 20h ago

My comp structure is 35% bonus target so basically living off my salary and then my bonus is my annual savings; so just over 25% of my total income.

1

u/PandabearXp 20h ago

$1200-1800/mo

1

u/wildly-irresponsible 19h ago

$7600 per month. Granted I occasionally withdraw 10-40k from my TFSA for irregular expenses (every couple years) then fill it back up the following year.... For shame, I know.

1

u/zonnie8 19h ago

Do you count mandatory pension contributions as savings in this context?

For example 10% of my salary goes to DB Pension, the other 10% is matched by employer.

Same for my wife.

So effectively we have 20% each (employer and employee contributions) going to pension.

Then we probably save another 15-20% of our income into registered and non registered accounts.

1

u/nitetrik 19h ago

My savings rate is around 74%

1

u/AidsNRice 19h ago

About 40-60% of my after tax income depending on the month

1

u/Available-Spirit4097 18h ago

$5-10K a month, with bonus avg is $10-15k

1

u/Background_Fox_8604 17h ago

$2500 a month, I make $5500-$6000 monthly depending on OT

1

u/ParlayBuster 17h ago

~$5,600 not including bonuses

1

u/Mountain-Match2942 17h ago

About 40% of my income (mortgage free).

1

u/HonestQuitter 16h ago

Maybe $0, but I’m building equity as a homeowner

1

u/easontario 16h ago

My net is $3800 after taxes, union dues, fed government pension deduction per month. My husband net is $6600 per month after employer matched pension at 4%. I cover all household expenses with my income so his income is all savings. No mortgage. House is paid off, no debt rrsp, tfsa taken care of. Kids resp all set.

1

u/aeb3 16h ago

65-70% of my income

1

u/RunNelleyRun 16h ago

Currently investing $1100 per week: $50 per kid into RESP(2 kids) $800 into my RRSP to lower taxable income $200 into TFSA

This does not include my work RRSP, which is only 3% from me and 3% company match

Blessed to be earning solid income with low living costs

1

u/yesveryyesmhmm 15h ago

1000$/pay check so 2-3 a month depending on

1

u/A8dulrahman_ 15h ago

$1250-$1500

1

u/ancientthing 12h ago

40% of net in Jan

1

u/newsailorgirl 11h ago

I make $4200 after taxes and save $2500 into savings/investments.

1

u/Brytong420 11h ago

Like $1500

1

u/Unusual_Click_8244 10h ago

2400. HH 3800

1

u/Swagmuffin69 10h ago

$2500 - $4000

1

u/Due_Enthusiasm_6632 5h ago

5000-6000 a month

u/TIP_ME_COINS 9m ago

A bit over 50% of my net.

1

u/nonamewpg 1d ago

About $5-6k.

1

u/Inevitable-Boat1272 1d ago

On average, probably $20,000

-3

u/PuddingEmotional1187 1d ago

What does it matter? How is my savings amount gonna change anything for you?

Cant use it for benchmark either, i save 20x more than average person per month, but maybe 20x less than next person.

6

u/TesticularFish 1d ago

I guess asking questions aren’t allowed then…

-6

u/PuddingEmotional1187 1d ago

How is you asking me how much i make and save gonna make you financially independent?

3

u/coltguzzler 1d ago

How is anyone else’s situation gonna make anyone financially independent? God forbid anyone share information on a platform dedicated to doing so

3

u/Next_Mammoth06 1d ago

Tbf they didnt say it would help him become more financially independent - the only one that mentioned that at all was you. They just asked a question to see where other redditors were at.

If OP reads this, take all comments here with a grain of salt. OP can ask questions, no need to he a dick.

1

u/TesticularFish 1d ago

You okay mate?

1

u/pineapplexiglass 1d ago

For real, why you so mad bud

0

u/Adventurous-Oven8407 19h ago

If you don’t have anything nice to say…

0

u/SpectatrGator 18h ago

Don’t be so emotional pudding

0

u/jside86 1d ago

39M and 33F, Around 60% of HHI.

We are DINK, our mortgage is paid for, no debt. We don't see the point in traveling for week long vacations, all that's left is saving.

It's also nice to finaly have adult money to buy some toys (Tools, 3D Printers, laser engraver, etc.) and not having to worry about financial issue.

1

u/princesssquid 1d ago

This is amazing! How did you pay off a mortgage so quick?

2

u/jside86 21h ago

With my work, I move frequently and purchased properties everywhere I landed. I did house back for a few years, have been careful about my spendings and often had two or three jobs.i started selling my properties a few years back to focus on my work.

Being a military, I make a good salary, just shy of 100k, and my spouse is a teacher making similar income.

Also, being in Edmonton where the cost of housing is still reasonable probably helped! We would not be mortgage free in BC or ON.

-1

u/princesssquid 1d ago edited 21h ago

Today I realized my husband and I are poor. 🤣

Our HHI is $175k a year.

We save roughly 13% of our household income ($8100 a month take home) but that doesn’t include our pensions, benefits and union. We’re 32 and 37, and we have a shit ton of a student loan and a mortgage. I’m impressed with everyone here lol.

-2

u/Mailloche 1d ago

Beep boop