How Much Do You Get To Save Per Month?

From your teacher's salary only, how much do you save per month from it? Also, how many years have you been working as a teacher and what is your salary? Do you have any kids? If it's too personal, you don't have to answer this...Me, I only get to save about 600 per month...earn $41,000 a year, been working for 3 years as a teacher. I have no kids here by the way. And I share the rent bill with my hubby

 

The short answer: If I lived a more typical lifestyle, then my husband and I would probably be able to save around $800-1000 per month to be divided between retirement/down payment on a house/vacation/etc.

But I love money and budgeting, so I'll lay it all out for you. I'm married with no children. Ideally, I'd like to be debt free for the rest of my life. I hate debt, and am almost finished paying off my student loans.

After English teaching overseas, subbing, and tutoring, I started my first traditional teaching job at a private school last August. I bring home $935 every two weeks for a total take home pay of $24,310. My husband works part time (3.5 days per week) and brings home $908 every two weeks for a total take home pay of $21,792. Together, we make $46,102.

We live frugally. I drive a 2009 Ford Focus that I bought with cash after college. He drives a 1996 Toyota Camry hand me down that he fixed up himself. My husband's parents allow us to live in their guest house and pay only $50 towards utilities plus my husband helping them with their property. They have 5 acres, and he was helping them every weekend anyways because it got to be too much for them. So, we live in a 10x20 room with a kitchenette (sink, toaster oven, hot plate, mini fridge) and a bathroom. We moved in there in August and began paying off our debt.

He had $8000 in debt that he finished paying in December. We began paying my student loans ($19,000) in January with the goal of paying them all off by August, aiming to pay at least $2000 per month towards the loans. We had some setbacks (almost $1000 in dental work) so we may not be able to make that goal.

So, how much do I actually save? Nothing.

 

DINKS

Almost half my take home pay goes in to my 403b. $2400 a month right now.

Not sure how much my wife puts in savings each month, but I know it's enough that if we wanted to pay off our house tomorrow, we could.

One things is that our house payment is our only debt. We pay off our credit cards every month and haven't made a car payment in almost 15 years.

 

I save about 1000 a month. My husband works, we use his insurance, and pretty much use my insurance compensation money to pay the mortgage. (My school either gives you the insurance or what it would cost them).

We love fairly frugally, though we enjoy eating out and are trying to cut down on that. We also only have the mortgage. It's nice.

I make 36000 a year, have taught 4 years, and have one kid and another on the way.

 

We also have no debt, and a good amount in savings (eventually will want to buy a house), but we still live decently frugally and are able to put away at least a few grand a month (we follow it but not too closely). I'm not exactly sure what my yearly total will be...given that there's been lots of random extra days I've been paid for / planning days I will get paid out / etc... But between school and my test writing, probably 43ish before taxes.

 

I am embarrassed to admit this, but I'm not a saver. I'll probably have a car payment for the rest of my life because I LOVE nice cars. Currently, I drive a 2015 Mercedes Benz coupe.

I am, however, happy to report that I have equity in my home (something a lot of Californians can't say--especially after the marked crashed 7-8 years ago).

Before taxes, I make about 93k.

 

Zero, currently I do not have enough food in the house to last the next two days.

I made 36,000 at my last job, but insurance was $450 a month, and it was still to expensive to use.

I have a high car payment my ex left me with and my rent, which was to be split between my ex and I is $800 a month.

My student loans are about ready to go down in payments, thanks to income based repayment, thank God.

My hope is by the end of summer, when my lease ends to be down to just a car payment and my student loan payment.....I will be building tiny house on my friends property which I will have paid off in a year. Then I will be able to save, and eat.....

eating is good....

 

We put $500 into a special retirement plan, $500 into a school retirement plan, and $200 into a savings account.

 

Wow..that's amazing how you can save 1000 a month with only 36k a year and having one kid! How did you get this insurance from the school to pay for your mortgage?...also may I ask, how much do you spend for groceries each week??

 

$54,000

No kids. No husband. Owned a house for 15 years. It's almost paid off. Car paid off. Never had student loans. Paying some debt from EX and the divorce. I'll start year 23 of teaching in the fall.

I don't save a set amount besides the $150 that goes into investments and $75 that goes to a FSA. I have enough to pay my bills and do the things I want to do. I'm in Florida right now. Spending two weeks here.

 

We do have my husband's income as well, so I can stretch out my paycheck. We spend about 75$-100$ per week on groceries. We don't need daycare, so that helps a lot. My school simply had a policy where if you've proof of other insurance you can waive the school insurance and collect the money. It's really nice.

 

I'll be a first year teacher next year, and I'll be making a base salary of about $40K. I'll bring home around $1,100 every two weeks. However, I have to start paying back student loans next month, and I just moved into a new apartment that is brand new and extremely nice (and honestly a little outside of my price range) so it doesn't seem likely I'll be able to save any money anytime soon.

 

I SO badly want to be a saver! I started pulling "X" amount out of each check and putting "X" amount in various envelopes to try and save for various things and as a way to budget--home, clothing, car, animal expenses, etc. It's the "financial peace university" thing.

Other than that... I am a shopper... doesn't have to be expensive, but it has to be what I want...

As for my car... I love my car and spent more than I should have, (though I have no problem making payments), but I am in the same boat... I love nice cars and ever since I bought my first car, I've always traded it in right before or after I've paid it off for something newer and nicer.

My new teaching job begins in August and I believe the pay will be between 38-41k, which is a decent jump from the 31-ish I make now. My company taxes the crap out of my check and I take home around $835 every two weeks.

 

Im not a saver much, but I don't "spend" my entire paycheck every month. I make 45k and my bf makes a little more than that with his jobs and military retirement stuff.
We could save quite a bit, but we just don't. Lol this thread makes me want to though.

ETA: This will be my 2nd year of teaching and we have 3 kids. 2 teens and a 4 week old.

 

Advice: If your school will allow you to put your money in an annuity or other saving or retirement plan, do it before taxes. Start small with just $25 or $50. With it coming out before taxes, you won't miss that much. Then each year add just ten or more to the amount. If you aren't use to having it, you won't miss it. I started with $25 a month. Now I do $350 of my check and $150 or so of my husband's.

 

Ooooo, I love talking money!

Married, one child, hubby brings home 3000/month, me, 4600/month (ten month pay scale). 1000 automatically goes into a MMA for summer pay for me. We also max out our two Roth IRAs and put 1100/month in my TSA. We live in California...house is almost paid off.
Hubby owns an automotive repair shop, works long hours, but we are able to run his car payment through the business. We also have a second mortgage on our house that we used to buy the business but that is a few months from being paid off.
We try to live well below our means. All our cars have over 200k miles on them!
My goal is to have enough money for my son to go to a 4 year and not have to take out loans.
Our only personal debt is our mortgage...we pay 1400/month.

 

I agree about the TSA or 403b idea...my partner teacher made me start this when I was 27 years old. I started at $50/month and 20 years later and more money added every year to my monthly contribution, I have well over 250k.

Also, look into a ROTH IRA. It grows tax free (it is after-tax money) and you can use it as an emergency account as well--you can use the principal at any time, just can't touch the interest. My husband and I both have one. His will be for his retirement since he owns his own business but mine is for an emergency account in case of job losses or medical bills etc.

Vanguard is a great place to start!

 

I pay about $320 into my pension and IRA accounts every month. In addition, my husband banks about $300-500 into our family savings account and I put in about $600. We have too much debt and we are trying to dig our way out of it.

We have 2 kids and make about $90k/year.

 

I make 32,000 a year before taxes. We have no kids, no house, a small car payment and a healthy enjoyment of beer. We put away about $1000 a month.

 

I make around $50,000 a year. The only debt I have is my student loans, which is almost completely paid off. I can usually knock away around $800-$900 a month.

Unfortunately that savings doesn't last long considering the way I travel. I have a goal to visit all 50 states and 7 continents before I turn 35. I have 7 years and 20 states and 3 continents left to go.

 

Didn't even think about investments and retirement! We toss about 400$ a month into those. It's fairly diversified. I don't "get" those, so we have a guy and my money-minded husband talks to him.

 

Currently (the last 2 months) I'm saving about one of my pay checks a month which is $1600. I have very low rent until the end of the month when I'm moving and will be paying a much higher rent. The reason for saving so much was so I could move. At the beginning of the school year I was using that money to pay down debts which I did 75% of.

I'm single and no kids so that's why it was probably easier to save. I'm hoping to save about $700 a month after my move. I plan to finish paying down my debt and add some money to my retirement plan.

 

I make $100K, plus about another $10K cash tutoring. In NJ, our required pension and healthcare contributions have risen so I'm actually clearing a few dollars less per paycheck than I was last year(and thats with a salary increase!)

 

100k salary?! Ok are you a teacher or a principal?

 

My husband is the saver but I'm not sure how much of his paycheck he socks away. I have been putting more $$ towards the mortgage to pay it down quicker so now I only end up saving $200 a month unless an unexpected expense comes up.

 

Teacher. Step 15 in Bergen county NJ

 

I make about 50,000 and my hubby is in the 200K range and we save about 40,000 of my salary every year because I have always taught in private school, I have no real retirement to speak of. We have 3 grown children so none at home and the last will graduate from college in December. The only thing that we owe is our house but have been paying two house notes a month instead of one so we can have that paid off when my husband retires which is about 10 years away.

 

Honestly I save nothing. I haven't had the luxury for almost a year. I get paid less than $20k per year (step 1 at a private school). I just finished paying off my car but I had to use my credit cards to pay for things in the meantime. Next year I should start putting money into a retirement account, then work on my savings.

 

We save next to nothing... we're paying cash/out of pocket for one daughter to go to college so that she doesn't have any student loans when she graduates.

 

Unfortunately I do not really save all that much per month. I try and get a good amount in there and then bam! something happens and I have to use it to pay for something. Hopefully will start to get it back up soon.

 

So hard to save any money when you live in a city like LA. I'm amazed/dumbfounded on how so many people of this day/age are able to purchase a home.

 

I make 56 K and this will be my third year. I'm a single mom with one child, I think I save about $600 / month. I always transfer $1000 into my savings, but then some of it wanders back into my checking. I can't complain though, I just bought a 2008 BMW X3 (wanted one for a year), I can pay all my bills, including my student loan and I get to go to Europe again this summer, with the daughter. I have off for the summer, but I'm subbing with my regular daily rate, so I get to have fun, get to work a little and make some extra money.
I live in the Central Valley where rent is cheap, things would be different if I lived in Southern California.

 

This year I brought home $2300/month after taxes- but I only get paid 10 months out of the year. Next year it'll be closer to $2500/month. I save close to $1000/month, but some of that is to compensate for not getting paid in the summer. So really it's closer to $600/month that goes to actual long term savings.

I do work a second job as a waitress in the summer. In the past (during college) that amounted to about another $6000, working 5-6 days a week. This year, though, I am only working a few days a week so I'm not sure how much it will wind up bringing in. Either way, that has always been my "fun money" to finance eating out, vacations, and my shoe habit!

 

I put $500 a month into personal savings and put in $100 in a 403b. So, I put $600 into savings altogether. I have no rent/mortgage, but I do have a car payment.

I'd like to put more into savings, but it's kind of hard when I don't make much more than 30k a year.

 

Teachers contact me with your 403b questions and concerns. I am a financial planner for teachers in CA with their CalSTRS accounts and 403b supplement accounts. There are ways to use these accounts to reduce your taxable income, which saves you on taxes and allows you to utilize the tax deferred savings plan. I do not charge fees, just here to help!

 

Wife and I both teach, 41k and 40k. Debt-free but we rent a house. Usually put around $1,000 a month in savings.

 

You are eligible to contribute $ 18,000 annually. Now, how much monthly contributions you are allowed to make is determined by your pay schedule. If you are on a 10 pay you can contribute $1,800 a pay period or month, 11 pay would be around $1,635, and a 12 pay would be about $1500 a month or pay period. This is for one person so if you and your wife were to both get involved, you would be allowed $36,000 annually. Depending on the tax bracket you are in, your monthly contribution of $1,000 can turn into about $1,400 monthly in a 403b. These accounts are far superior than public accounts as long as you know how to use them. Contact me for some more insight.

 

Ugh my financial situation is a mess. I make in the 60s (6th year teaching) and am unable to save AT ALL. I do autamtically have $100/paycheck going into a 403B and pay an exhorbitant amount towards pension/union/taxes so like half of my money is gone. I pay a ton to rent in NJ (1300/month and live alone) and pay student loans and a car payment that seem to never end. I also have a little bit of credit card debt from grad school and moving, so I'm basically paying all that off before I save. I don't have the luxury of a husband or roommate to save money I'm almost 30 and I need to get it together!
I used to make a ton less before I started grad school and getting a new car and regularly saved around $500/month. Can't feasibly do that anymore. I am able to pay all my bills and buy groceries, but I do like to shop sometimes so I guess if I cut out all shopping I could save.

 

I save $300 a month for a 529 account for my education purposes (which I'm going to be knocking out this next year). I "soft-save" $300 into one of my savings accounts for just savings purposes. I "soft-save" $200 for travel purposes. I "hard-save" $200 into another account just for savings. And I "hard-save" $100 for my IRA. That's all I can remember now.

So including everything I save $1100 a month for various reasons, but what I mean by soft-save is that if I incur some expenses that I didn't anticipate I might take money out of those accounts to make-up for it, making them not very reliable savings accounts all the time. Sometimes I am having a good few months, and I take out a large chunk and "hard-save" it, meaning I put it into an account that I can't really access very easily.

If I just count hard-savings, I save only about $300 a month.

I had some loans, but I they're almost all paid off due to a combination of teacher loan forgiveness programs, and me stupidly paying off some of those loans before I realized there are teacher loan forgiveness programs.

I have a cheap cheap car, and I just wear hand-me-downs for everything. The only thing I spend a lot on is school/lab supplies (I know the school should supply that but they don't and I don't want to teach unless I can do fun activities with students, so I'm willing to spend some of my own money for this) and food. I love food and eating out. My BF puts quite a few limitations on my food spending.

 

Jadorelafrance. Up your contributions to your 403b to combat your taxes and drop your taxable income. If you are getting money back on your tax return then you can adjust your withholdings to break even and give yourself more money in the year on each paycheck.