Just a quickie. Now that I have my compensation, I am figuring our savings rate for 2009.

I am not a fan of the "rules of thumb." They mean nothing to us in our situation. Since we pay cash for everything, we need a fair amount of savings. Since we don't have medical benefits, we need a fair amount of savings. Etc., etc.

But here goes:

Retirement - 15%
(5% ROTHs & 10% Employer)

Cash Savings - 4%
(9% when LM is done with preschool, 2010)

Medical Savings - 4%

Short-term Savings - 15%
(To be used within the year)

As such, 28% of my paycheck goes directly to savings, every month. 33% when we are done with preschool (Phew!)

Another 10% is added to my retirement account (more like a 401k than anything) annually.

(I don't necessarily consider the short-term savings as "savings." So take that out and the percentages are a more meaningful 13%/18%).

-----------------------------------

This is probably ample, but we have 2 things at play.

1 - We rely too much on employer retirement plan. Given. Then again, I don't have medical benefits. The two are about equal, so I expect some day I can get similar pay and better medical benefits. & it's really moot if dh returns back to work, benefits or not.

But in the interim, our goal is to get to 10% into our ROTHs. We will have enough cash to do so when LM is done with preschool in 2010, so I am happy enough with that. We will probably divert that cash to other savings, BUT if I lost my retirement benefit, 10% minimum to ROTHS would be our goal. In the meantime we have some pretty big contributions to retirement while we are young, which means we could cut back more later if need be. With the plan to move forward again, of course.

2 - We have some catching up to do. Our savings rate was $0 for a few years when we had kids. Very planned. But though I feel we are in a pretty good spot, we still have some catching up to do!

& it just depends on Murphy really. We didn't need much of our medical deductible last year, BUT we used up all of that savings for unexpected dental bills in the end.

If we don't use our medical deductible this year, we can ideally shift that cash into our ROTH or into more long-term savings. That all depends on how lucky we are in 2009 though. Not exactly holding my breath.