September was a good month for saving. I made $2304.71 and saved $1000 for 43.3% of my income saved. This was below my goal of saving 50% of my income, but I am still on track for the year. I lowered my SWR to 49.28% from 52.2% the month before. I’ve finally gotten my SWR back below the 50% mark. Although it is still a long way from my goal of a 4% SWR it is good to see progress.
The 4% SWR translates into having 25x your annual expenses in savings or 300 months of expenses in savings. Once I reach that point I will consider myself financially independent. I have 24.34 months of living expenses saved now. It is nice to have two years of living expenses in savings. I’m now basically at the same point I was at the end of April. I hope I’ll be able to make more progress the rest of the year. October will probably see me go backwards again since I won’t be making much money and will be spending quite a bit for our cruise. I’ll have to really step up my earnings and decrease my expenses in November and December to make up for October and end the year on a good note.
Great job with the savings this month! If you can save 43% of an income of $2300 many more people can certainly do it. Keep on trucking!
Thanks, I hope to keep it up.
I have maintained a 35% savings rate for in excess of 12 years. My children are grown, I downsized (16 years ago) and relatively debt free. We still do the things we enjoy doing. A 50% savings rate would force us to make some serious changes.
A 50% savings rate isn’t that difficult for me as long as I have a reasonable income. I’m hoping to increase my income so I can save more.