How much of your salary (not bonus, if treated differently) winds up in your bank account? I want to compare myself to others.
Mine is right at 50%:
25% for retirement savings, including HSA contributions (note that I do not consider my OASDI tax as part of this, that’s under taxes, even though on some level that’s contributing to my retirement savings, hopefully)
6% for all benefits
19% for all taxes (will be lower once I hit the wage base limit for the year, but that’s not until much later)
My savings feels really high, especially once you factor in my 7% employer match (4% 401k + 3% cash balance), but my divorce at 28 pretty much reset my savings to almost zero, and then having kids meant I wasn’t saving as much as I wanted to be until the last few years, so I’m pretty behind (and I have my fellowship in retirement, so I have absolutely no excuse!).
About 60% of gross is net pay.
17% tax
22% 401k/HSA/limited FSA
2% other including insurances.
Historically about 2.5% of the remainder goes to IRAs, this year doing 5%.
That’s just my salary but mine is over double my partner’s salary. Accounting that they don’t pay for the insurances but save a higher % in the 401k, I don’t think it changes our numbers much except maybe tax decreasing a bit.
5.2% of our combined salary is going into a brokerage account that is a loose slush fund for a new car, vacation, etc. and “umbrella insurance emergency fund”, but may eventually be our gap coverage for retirement before 59.5. I don’t count that as retirement savings until we are getting close to utilizing it. It’s just “money that hit my bank then was moved to another account” so it’s semi-locked away but not actually locked if needed.
It sounds like with IRAs we have comparable retirement savings, then. Although I don’t do FSAs and I know those are use it or lose it so presumably that’s going toward healthcare and not retirement.
66% of my gross pay hits my checking account (same as NA, that’s current but I won’t pay SS tax all year either), but I have some savings into brokerage that is automated, if you account for that I bring home 53% of gross.
My savings rate has come down to fund the home renovations, if and when I can get the house in shape I will get back to saving 50%+ of net income.
My taxable income is also reduced by my 401k contributions (I contribute about 13% pre-tax), but I am just taking dollars going to various sources regardless of pre- or post-tax.
If my salary is $1,000 per month, then $250 would be going to savings (some reducing my taxable income, some not), $190 would be going to taxes, and $60 would be going to benefits (some reducing my taxable income, some not).
SS tax is only collected up to (and benefits are only paid based on) a dollar amount ($168,600 this year - and this is reduced for some pre-tax things, but not reduced for retirement savings, so I hit it later in the year).
Lots of employers who have defined benefit pension plans (which is not many) will increase the amount of benefits for wages in excess of this amount, to reflect SS benefits being “reduced” due to being over the wage base.
Net pay would be a little higher, but I’m withholding extra for federal taxes right now because we got zapped on that last year and I’m trying to make sure we don’t have that happen again this year.
I don’t think the US allows deducting company car use if it’s just commuting. If you use it to visit clients or places other than your primary workplace then that use is deductible, for everything else it’s not. Someone correct me if this is not the case.
In the UK, can your company pay for your car for commutes or personal use without it being taxable?