5 Money Rules to Live By in Your 30s
10 Financial Commandments for Your 30s
Retirement-plan provider Fidelity recommends having the equivalent of your salary saved by the time you reach 30. That means if your annual salary is $50,000, you should aim to have $50,000 in retirement savings by 30. While that can be a daunting figure, start by saving what you can.
Senator Elizabeth Warren popularized the so-called "50/20/30 budget rule" (sometimes labeled "50-30-20") in her book, All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan. The basic rule is to divide up after-tax income and allocate it to spend: 50% on needs, 30% on wants, and socking away 20% to savings.
At age 35, you should strive for your net worth to be equal 5X your gross annual income. Your ultimate goal is to get to 20X your average annual income before you can consider yourself financially independent.
401(k) Plans and Retirement Savings in Your 30s
For many people, a 401(k) plan is the best way to invest for retirement. Make sure to choose aggressive investments in your 30s, while you can afford to. If you can, invest at least as much as your company match policy, taking advantage of the free money.
So, to answer the question, we believe having one to one-and-a-half times your income saved for retirement by age 35 is a reasonable target. It's an attainable goal for someone who starts saving at age 25. For example, a 35-year-old earning $60,000 would be on track if she's saved about $60,000 to $90,000.
Average U.S. Savings Account Balance 2021: A Demographic Breakdown. American households had a median balance of $5,300 and an average balance of $41,700 in their transaction bank accounts in 2019, according to data collected by the Federal Reserve.
By 30, you should have a decent chunk of change saved for your future self, experts say — in fact, ideally your account would look like a year's worth of salary, according to Boston-based investment firm Fidelity Investments, so if you make $50,000 a year, you'd have $50,000 saved already.
One of the easiest ways to calculate your homebuying budget is the 28% rule, which dictates that your mortgage shouldn't be more than 28% of your gross income each month. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is a bit more generous, allowing consumers to spend as much as 31% of their gross income on a mortgage.
While everyone's circumstances are unique, many experts say it's best to spend no more than 30% of your monthly gross income on housing-related expenses, including rent and utilities. Under that rule, it's best to make sure that the amount you spend on rent is well below 30% of your household income.
You take your monthly take-home income and divide it by 70%, 20%, and 10%. You divvy up the percentages as so: 70% is for monthly expenses (anything you spend money on). 20% goes into savings, unless you have pressing debt (see below for my definition), in which case it goes toward debt first.
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