I've got a question for you guys...I know its going to come down to personal preference, but I'd love to hear different schools of thought:
What is a good amount of $ to be saving monthly after all expenses? I know there are blogs and sites out there, but I'd like to know what real people do/think. If we were to purchase a Tesla, after all our expenses, we would be saving about $2,500 a month, which comes to approximately 35% of our post tax income.
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My spouse and I have no children and are now in our 70's. So, reflecting, this is what we did.
From 18-27 everything I made I spent on education. In cash build I did not save except to pay for my next degree, but I ddi make enough money to pay for all my education from Bachelors to PhD on my own without help other than those invaluable, no longer existing, US Federal Government Grants and also education reimbursement by a couple of employers.
Second, through 15 years we travelled, lived in 16 countries and visited/worked in >150. That can be expensive, but somebody else paid for most of our travel. During that time I started businesses controlled by others, there were a half-dozen, located in a variety of LDC's. We saved nearly all our income in some of those years because there was no easy way to spend.
The next 25 years I started and ran companies controlled by me, there were five in total. One went broke, two I sold for substantial profits, one was more than that. One I kept.
During the business formation period we saved in two ways, building they businesses and real estate. We kept enough cash for six months running.
During all that time I never had an explicit goal to save x% of income. I did concentrate on building a business and did buy real estate and make improvements ranging from big city apartments to houses, usually doing gut rehabilitations. Those generated capital as did the company sales.
Once I effectively 'retired' I switched my emphasis to investment management and have had as a goal spending less than 80% of my income. Thanks to good luck in several situations we have yet to spend more than 70% of cash income.
This may not be helpful, but my personal advice is to do what you love doing, and avoid debt as much as possible. Maintain high liquidity, but expect to begin 'saving' vs 'investing' sometime around 45-50 years of age. before then make sure that what you do will help you be better prepared to handle whatever life throws your way.
I know investment advisors don't recommend this approach, after all they don't make much transactional income this way.
I am biased.
I loved travel, so I got jobs that made me travel;
I loved airplanes, so I started three aviation businesses, so I got to fly a lot;
I love cars, so I got auto maker clients which helped my car fixation;
My spouse and I both loved rebuilding houses, so we bought wrecks and rebuilt them;
We love skiing , so we rebuild a couple of ski houses;
We love diving, so we bought an island and rebuilt it.
Basically I think it is hard not to be financially successful if you study hard, learn about fundamentals, do what you love to do and avoid blowing money on frivolities, except when you sometimes cannot resist.
This may sound undisciplined but it does demand lots of long hours studying things and doing things you really love while making a living doing those things does make a risk of no longer loving the things in question. I have had this type of discussion with a number of people who are in a situation similar to mine. All of us are well enough off that we will not run out of money. None of us ever really had a long term financial plan and none of us do today. of my closest colleagues, all of us have had financial planners and all of us eliminated them. All of us do have at least one accountant and at least one attorney. Those last two go with the turf.
I realize I did not exactly answer your question. I hope it might be useful anyway.
