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How To Save 50% Or More Of Your Income

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 110 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hello! If you are new here, welcome to my post detailing the ways you can learn how to save 50% or more of your income. I suggest that you read my welcome page (which lists my most popular and helpful posts) and my latest monthly blogging/online income report.

Before I started blogging, I thought a good percentage to save each month was anywhere from 10% to 20%. I have even read an article where a “finance expert” recommended 5% for retirement savings because they said it was good enough.

Now that I look back on those figures, that is just not nearly enough.

However, that’s what many news articles will tell you. They will tell you that anywhere from 5% to 20% is all you really need. That might work for some, but that’s just not good enough for me.

Recently, I was talking to someone who told me that they save around 85% of their after-tax income each month. I thought that was absolutely insane, but I was a little jealous.

This person goes a little to the extreme in order to save this crazy amount of money each month, but they are happy and that’s all that matters, right?

Right now, we save around 60% of our income. That amount could be a little bit higher but we recently had our wedding (and shoveled a lot of our money towards that), we have been traveling more (we have bought a fair amount of camping and hiking equipment in the past 2 months), and a lot of my business income each month goes towards taxes.

Saving a decent percentage of your income each month can mean that you can reach your financial goals quicker. I was able to pay off my $40,000 student loan debt because of my savings habit!

Here are different ways to save 50% or more of your income:

 

Make more money so that you can save half your income each month.

Making more money can really help you reach an income percentage goal of over 50%. This is because there is usually only so much money you can save, but the amount of money you can make is endless.

You could work a part-time job, a full-time job, multiple jobs, start a business, freelance, and so on. You could also search for passive income and bring in more money with minimal effort.

There are so many things you can do out there to try to make more money.

Some side gigs you may be interested in may include:

  • Blogging is how I make a living and just a few years ago I never thought it would be possible. I made over $150,000 last year by blogging and will make more than that in 2015. You can create your own blog here with my easy-to-use tutorial. You can start your blog for as low as $2.95 per month plus you get a free domain if you sign-up through my tutorial.
  • Becoming a virtual assistant.
  • Survey companies I recommend include Survey Junkie, Pinecone Research, Opinion Outpost, Prize Rebel, and Harris Poll Online. They’re free to join and free to use! You get paid to answer surveys and to test products. It’s best to sign up for as many as you can as that way you can receive the most surveys and make the most money.
  • Become an Uber or Lyft driver – Spending your spare time by driving others around can be a great money maker. Read more about this in my post – How To Become An Uber Or Lyft Driver. Click here to join Uber and start making money ASAP.
  • Swagbucks is something I don’t use as much, but I do occasionally earn Amazon gift cards with very little work. Swagbucks is just like using Google to do your online searches, except you get rewarded “Swagbucks” for the things you do through their website. Then, when you have enough Swagbucks, you can redeem them for cash, gift cards, and more. You’ll receive a free $5 bonus just for signing up today!
  • InboxDollars is an online rewards website I recommend. You can earn cash by taking surveys, playing games, shopping online, searching the web, redeeming grocery coupons, and more. Also, by signing up through my link, you will receive $5.00 for free just for signing up!

Related articles on how to save 50% of your income:

 

Lower your budget so that you can save half your income each month.

Okay, one of the reasons for why I am able to save so much money each month is because of the amount of money I make. I am not going to try to hide that.

However, just because you make less money does not mean that you can’t save money as well.

The person who I mentioned above who saves 85% of their income makes around $3,000 a month. Yes, so that means they spend $450 a month. I know this isn’t possible for everyone, but if this person can cut their budget then I’m sure others can save more than 20% of their income.

There are many different expenses that you can probably cut out of your budget or at least lower. Just because you are lowering your budget doesn’t mean that you are going to hate life.

Some expenses you can lower or ways to save money include the below. Like I said, everything isn’t for everyone, but even a small change can help you out.

  • Lower your cell phone bill. Instead of paying the $150 or more that you spend on your cell phone bill, there are companies out there like Republic Wireless that offer cell phone service starting at $5. YES, I SAID $5! If you use my Republic Wireless affiliate link, you can change your life and start saving thousands of dollars a year on your cell phone service. I created a full review on Republic Wireless as well if you are interested in hearing more. I’ve been using them for over a year and they are great.
  • ATM fees. Why do people do this to themselves?
  • TV. Cut your cable, satellite, etc. Even go as far to go without Netflix or Hulu. Buy a digital antenna and enjoy free TV – this is what we do!
  • Sign up for a website like Ebates where you can earn CASH BACK for just spending like how you normally would online. The service is free too! Plus, when you sign up through my link, you also receive a free $10 gift card bonus to Macys, Walmart, Target, or Kohls!
  • Restaurant spending. Start eating at home more! Become an amazing at-home chef and make your family love your new found skills 🙂
  • Bring your lunch to work. When I had my day job, I always brought my lunch. This was to save money, but also because I hated wasting most of my lunch hour driving somewhere to get food.
  • Cut your travel budget. There are plenty of ways to travel on a budget. One way is to start earning credit card rewards.
  • Use a programmable thermostat so that you can heat and cool your home efficiently and more affordably.
  • Pay bills on time. The goal here is to try to avoid any late fees.
  • Shop around for insurance. This includes health insurance, car insurance, life insurance, home insurance and so on. Insurance pricing can vary significantly from one company to the next. When we were shopping for car insurance last, we found that our old company wanted something like $205 to insure one car for one month, whereas the new company we have now charges $50 a month for the same exact coverage. INSANE!
  • Save money on food. I recently joined $5 Meal Plan in order to help me eat at home more and cut my food spending. It’s only $5 a month (the first four weeks are free too) and you get meal plans sent straight to you along with the exact shopping list you need in order to create the meals. Each meal costs around $2 per person or less. This allows you to save time because you won’t have to meal plan anymore, and it will save you money as well!
  • Fuel savings. Combine your car trips, drive more efficiently, get a fuel efficient car, etc.
  • Trade in your car for a cheaper one. For us, we are car people. Cars are one of our splurges. However, if you only have a nice car to keep up with the Joneses, then you might want to get rid of it and get something that makes more sense.
  • Live in a cheaper home. I’m not saying you need to go live in a box, but if you live in a McMansion then you may want to think about a smaller home. This way you can save money on utility bills and your mortgage payment.
  • Learn to have more frugal fun. We don’t spend anywhere near the same amount of money on entertainment as we used to. There are plenty of ways to have frugal fun.
  • DIY certain projects. I recently did a post about DIY wedding ideas and whether they were worth it or not. Read it! 🙂
  • I highly recommend that you check out Personal Capital (a free service) if you are interested in gaining control of your financial situation. Personal Capital is very similar to Mint.com, but 100 times better as it allows you to gain control of your investment and retirement accounts, whereas Mint.com does not. Personal Capital allows you to aggregate your financial accounts so that you can easily see your financial situation, your cash flow, detailed graphs, and more. You can connect accounts such as your mortgage, bank accounts, credit card accounts, investment accounts, retirement accounts, and more, and it is FREE.

I spend less money than I used to and I am happier than ever.

Are you trying to save 50% or more of your income? Why or why not? What is your savings rate right now? What are you doing to reach your goal of saving more of your income?

Related Posts

About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. Holly@ClubThrifty says

    We save around 50%- sometimes 40% and other times 60%. It just depends. I always think of how much more I could save if I didn’t pay taxes! My tax bill eats up so much of my productivity each month/year.

    Reply

    • Michelle S. says

      Yes, our percentage varies as well. The month of our wedding I think we were at 0% haha!

      And yes, I always think about how different it would be if it weren’t for taxes, that would be the life!

      Reply

  2. Retired by 40 says

    Saving 50% of our income is our goal. It’s definitely going to take some time, but we’ll be out of debt in under 3 years! Yipee! There are definitely a lot of perks to saving that much, not just retirement! So, right now we’re paying off debt and learning to make more money 🙂

    Reply

  3. Mike Collins says

    I’m not saving anywhere near 50% right now. With a mortgage, NJ property taxes, and other bills to pay that’s just not possible unless I start earning a lot more…guess I better get working on it!

    Reply

  4. Anne @ Money Propeller says

    Yup – I am in the save-half facebook group. We actually aim higher than that, but tend to measure it in dollars, instead of percentages. We figure we need to make hay while the sun is shining, and the sooner we can treat work as an option, the better.

    Reply

  5. MomCents says

    I want to hear more about the person that only spends $450/mo?! Specifically, do they own their home outright? That would barely cover rent in the Midwest!

    It may be a while before I can save 50%, but one way to get there over time is to avoid lifestyle inflation. When there are raises…save that money instead of spending it…I mean…you’ve done without it before.

    Reply

    • Rachel R. says

      That would NOT cover housing here. We have a mortgage — because it’s actually LESS to pay EXTRA on a mortgage than to pay rent — and we pay twice that for our house alone.

      I honestly can’t fathom saving 50%. I can’t fathom saving 5%, unfortunately.

      Reply

      • Bren says

        Rachel, I completely agree. My mortgage in FL and my mortgage in NY combined is almost 5 times that. Let’s not forget utilities, vehicles, car insurance…. yeah. 5%/month is not even do-able at this moment every month.

        Working towards it tho…working towards a 20% within the next 5 years, then I should be able to dramatically increase to 40%. it’s hard. And it needs to be taught wayyy earlier in life.

        Reply

  6. kammi says

    I save about that pretty much a month; a little around 60. And yes, I’m the one who takes public transportation, brings my lunch to work, cooks at home. I’m picky about food so I’m usually angry when I eat out because the food is usually too salty, too sweet, too much butter, etc. And I”m lactose intolerant, so that doesn’t help, either. I literally spent $20 eating out this entire month. Don’t have cable, etc. My water/gas etc bill is $40 for three months. It’s really not that difficult, especially if you keep the right company. The WORST is having friends who fritter money away and are always complaining that they are broke. Many of my friends like reading or going places (hiking, going to the park or a museum for free, etc). You basically decide if you’re going to be a builder/ someone who makes (whether businesses, family relationships or actual products) versus someone who consumes, and we’re ‘trained’ to be consumers via ads, etc. Also, if you have a student ID (I’m constantly learning so I have one) it’s great because you get discounts 🙂

    Reply

    • Rachel R. says

      “It’s really not that difficult, especially if you keep the right company.”

      …and live in a reasonably inexpensive part of the country. 😉 Really, there’s only SO much a person can do to cut housing costs, utilities, and food. Transportation, too, depending on where/how you’re situated.

      Too many people make the mistake of assuming that what is possible for THEM is possible for EVERYONE, when living situations vary wildly. Then they get a bit presumptuous about what everyone else “must not be doing.”

      Reply

      • Genie says

        I totally agree! I also notice a lot of people who are writing these “just do it, it’s SOOOO easy” articles are not single, self-supporting people with one income, and a lot of them don’t really say what their husband does to allow them to live on just his income. It’s a little insulting sometimes but I’m trying to look past that to the advice itself. Not all tips will work for everyone, but something will!

        Reply

  7. Deb @ Saving the Crumbs says

    My husband and I give 20% of our gross income to charity and then live on 50% after that (which is about $1500, including a mortgage). We save on utilities by installing energy saving light bulbs, toilet flushers, and faucets. Only eat out when we get birthday freebies, of course. And grocery shop around sales (our average food budget for the 2 of us is about $60/mo). Still trying to find ways to increase earning power, but that seems a bit harder. 🙂

    Reply

  8. Darian says

    I am married with 3 kids. My wife is a stay at home mom. We are trying to make more money by starting this errands business and also we have used cars that we own. we do not have cable my job pays part of our cell phone bill. So we only pay about 35 dollars a month on our cell phone bill.

    We have a long way to go but we are on our way.

    Reply

  9. Little House says

    I’d love to save 50% of my income. However, living in Los Angeles, it’s a little more difficult. But…I’m working towards saving 30-35% of my income come this fall – after I pay off a couple of things. 😉 I started working on a side project, selling my teacher lesson plans on TPT, to make some extra cash to SAVE. If this goes well, that extra income could potentially push my savings closer to 50%.

    Reply

  10. Cindy @ GrowingHerWorth says

    I’m still in the debt-payoff club, but hope to graduate into the 50% savings club in the next couple of years. I’m slowly working on both sides of the equation: Cutting spending and earning more. I’m always jealous of people who have made better choices than I have, and who are further along in their path to FI. But I’ll get there someday!

    Reply

  12. nicoleandmaggie says

    Nope! We have lived on less than 50% in the past, but now we have a lot of savings and two kids and no desire to retire so it’s time to loosen up a little bit. Currently I think we’re only putting 20% away for retirement, and prepaying the mortgage another 10%, so I guess we’re living on 70% of our income right now. Oh, I forgot the 529s, so make that 65% of our income. Yay auto-deductions. We’re living on 65% of our gross pre-tax income.

    We’re starting to do some much needed deferred home renovations with some of that money. (Got any thoughts on what to do with the 30K we’ve saved up?)

    Reply

    • Michelle S. says

      Sounds like you are doing well 🙂 Sounds like there are a lot of things that you want to change in your home, I hope you figure out what to do with the $30K!

      Reply

  14. Jason B says

    I’m actively looking for ways to increase my income. You can only cut so much. I want to start saving between 40-50% of my income before the year is over.

    Reply

  16. Kasia says

    Wow, 75% saved while earning $3000pm sounds tough, I know I definitely couldn’t be that frugal. But like you say that sort of thing isn’t for everyone. Although it’s always interesting to hear these people’s stories.
    Before I went on maternity leave we were saving 30-40% of our income although expenses that arose ate into that and diminished our savings drastically. Now that I’m at home with the little one we’re down to about 15-20% depending on the month and the account is slowly building back up. Once our income returns to normal levels and hopefully continues to grow we would like to aim for 50% savings rate.

    Reply

  17. Dan @ Our Big Fat Wallet says

    Ive cut the cable for the summer and have noticed a few side benefits – more time to spend outdoors and Ive also lost weight. I don’t even miss it right now…..but that may change when the NHL season starts 🙂

    Reply

  19. Michelle S. says

    Yeah I made the mistake of having an extra large emergency fund when I still had student loans. I ended up nearly liquidating that putting it towards my student loans.

    Reply

  20. Sara says

    We recently had our youngest child start public school full time, so we have been able to bump up our savings to about 43%. I need to go back through the budget again to find a few more things we can cut. I’d like to get to 50%.

    Reply

  22. Heather McKenzie Carter says

    We have a large family so its important to us to pay cash whenever possible and not amass debt. We bought our home as a fixer upper with cash 5 years ago and have been working on it while living on it since. We only buy vehicles used, and after we save for them in order to avoid loans. We do not have cable, however we do use netflix and hulu. We do not use smartphones because we can pay $50 a month for both my line and my husbands line and thats unlimited talk and text. We use coupons and only eat out three nights a month. We garden to help supplement our food source. When people see that we have ten kids, they often think “how do you do it!?” We only buy what we can afford, save for what we need and I always get the best deals on items we think we need/want. I think a lot of people *think they need more than they really do. When you simplify and save for what you want, instead of impulse buying I think that makes a world of difference!

    Reply

  25. Joanne D says

    Making more money is my goal! I have certainly reached the threshold of cutting down my budget, and am making good progress on my high student debt. In order to save more, I definitely need to earn more! Finding a good side job right now is a major goal of mine, while developing my website. It’s slow-moving but I just need to learn the ropes. Your website is such a good resources for that! Thanks for all the insight you offer 🙂

    Reply

  26. Alisa @ Common Cents Today says

    What a great post! I love the enthusiasm from the comments–it’s rare to find people who value great saving habits. We are days away from being debt-free (except the mortgage) and we save about 10-15% each month. Once the debt is gone, saving at least 25-30% of our income would be amazing.

    Reply

  27. Jon @ Money Smart Guides says

    My wife and I are on pace to save 50% of our income this year. We are doing it by both increasing our incomes and watching how we spend our money. We sat down and looked over our big expenses – cell phones, insurance, etc and tackled them first. After we were able to save some money there, we looked over smaller expenses and cut some there too. At the end of the day, it all comes down to how bad you want it.

    Reply

  28. Diana Corlett says

    These are all great goals, but I am in a position at the moment where I can barely save 10%, even by living frugally. In order to start saving more, the situation will have to change drastically. We are moving forward toward that, but have a long long way to go. Never say never, though.

    Reply

  29. Erin G says

    I am not currently saving much…def. not close to 50% I chose to become a stay at home mom when we had my daughter 2 years ago and living off of one income when we really can’t afford to be makes it impossible to save. We don’t however have any debt and we are excellent with budgeting, just not enough to save. I will be heading back to work soon and hope to put most of my money into saving since we know it is possible to live off one income, just not comfortable. My savings rate is literally zero 🙁 We have untouched credit cards for emergencies, but again this should change soon!! I WILL reach my goal once I go back to work!

    Reply

  30. EarlyRetirementGuy says

    Including the workplace pension, I save about 60% of my income which is funneled into mortgage over-payments and index funds. Here in the UK they also spout the “Save 5% for retirement” link which too many people blindly follow. I wish more people would wake up and realise that they dont NEED to be working till 70!

    Reply

  31. Susan Smith says

    I wish we could save that much but we have a son in college right now but when he graduates we plan on saving more money. We are trying to improve our income as my husband has taken on a second job and we are reducing our expenses by eating in more and cutting back on vacations.

    Reply

  32. Amy Heffernan says

    Great tips to save. I wish i could save some also. So hard with a big family. 5 kiddies and hubby only working right now. Hoping to return to work in Sept when my youngest goes to school!

    Reply

  33. Ellen Ross says

    Im actually shooting for 30% fo rnow because im also paying down my debt. Im making extra money by blogging and selling stuff on ebay. so thats helping a lot!

    Reply

  34. carol clark says

    i wish i could save 50% i have two kids so it is hard and i do go without things a lady needs so i can help get my daughter a car

    Reply

  36. Kohaku Pen says

    Considering I’m still in community college. A lot think I don’t understand the means of savings, income, when in fact I do. Right now I help my household save up about 45%. I don’t enjoy talking over phone, so my sister and I decided while paying rent to our parents; we can take minutes off the phone bill. It works well!

    Reply

  38. Jill Myrick says

    My savings at the moment is 25% of my income because of a few unforseen expenses that I am currently paying off. I cut coupons, stay at home more and rarely ever eat out to try and save more.

    jweezie43[at]gmail[dot]com

    Reply

  39. Shane Prather says

    This would be a great goal for me one day but considering I am in an entry level position fresh out of college and living in a very expensive city for the year (sydney) I may have to wait until I am back in the states to achieve this!

    Reply

  40. Holly Storm-Burge says

    We’re not saving anything right now. I keep thinking, “Next month…”, but it never happens. Thanks for this article, it was an eye-opener.

    Reply

  41. Vasileios Zografos says

    Don’t know how much I save, but I try my best.. Always make a list of what you want to buy and never go berserk on the store!! Do a price check before buying something you want. Search for offers/special deals etc. You can even try to talk to the manager to make you a discount. That’s my basic rules about saving money.

    Reply

  42. Richard Hicks says

    We probably sock away around 30%. We are also always looking for ways to trim the budget. 50% is a good goal to strive for

    Reply

  43. Taz W says

    thanks for your article as it gave me another possibililty of looking at this retirement issue….

    i m currently saving only about 5% of my income
    – have not thought of trying to save 50% of my income

    my goal is still a retirement where there’s no need to worry about $$

    Reply

  45. Dan @ HWDC says

    I wish I could save 50% of my income! I’m currently saving around 25-30%, I need to get out of the silly spending habits!

    I’m new to your blog but this post has interested me so I’m sure I’ll be reading much more 🙂

    Thanks

    Reply

  46. Stacey Roberson says

    We are currently saving money for buying a house next year and have dedicated a portion of each paycheck to go into savings.

    Reply

  47. Jennifer Speed says

    I am trying to save 50% or more of your income, so that I can get my own place and move out of my parents house and especially because I don’t have the job that I want right now.

    Reply

  48. MichelleS says

    A lot of these are no brainers, but the “making more money” isn’t necessarily a luxury people have if you’re already working 40 hours a week. Well, you could, but you’d have no time to relax. We only have: rent, utilities, phone, netflix, internet, and food. Wear what you have, make one splurge on filling the freezer and eat from there. Meal prep cuts it down so you’re not going out to eat and spending $5-$10/person when that money can be spent on meals that you can prep at home.

    Reply

  49. Carrie Messer says

    Thanks for some great tips! We are currently trying to save more. We are still no where near 50% but I know we’ll get there one day!

    Reply

  50. Stefanie Foote says

    You offer some good tips. Right now, I’m not able to put back much money at all. I’m starting with small goals and I’d like to hit 10%, then move on from there.

    Reply

  51. Sarah Emma says

    O my God this shopping habit of mine has always destroyed a big amount of my income… but thanks to coupon websites they are just so much helpful to save my money… such as savings.com, LavishCouponcom, ClothingRiccom and also so many…

    Reply

  52. Katelyn Fagan says

    I’m a blogger, and right now my income is supplementing our income so that we can live easier, but also start paying for my husband’s doctoral degree instead of having to take out (more) student loans.

    When my husband is done earning his Ph.D. we really hope to use about half of his income and aggressively pay off his student loan debts for a few years. This will then allow us to better afford our (first) future dream home! It’s a long road, but living frugally really allows for more. I think saving 50% of our income some day sounds amazing, especially as we have zero in retirement right now.

    Reply

  54. Savannah @ Budget Preps says

    We would love to get to that level of savings! Right now, we have our emergency fund and every other cent is budgeted and gone towards debt. We are on a 2 year plan! Thank you for the recommendations — I’m going to look into Republic. We need to lower our cell bill!

    Reply

  55. Jeremiah says

    MMM is an amazing blogger with real life experience and relatability. My favorite financial blogger no doubt. He has inspired us and we are saving 28% of a 50k salary with four children. Its what works for each thats important.

    Reply

  56. Shey says

    I just wanted to share one of my mental tricks that I use to save money. I have a goal of something I want to buy, and when I’ve saved that dollar amount, then I know I can buy it. But I don’t just pull the money out of savings to pay for it. I then look for an alternative way to pay for it. Maybe 0% financing with no transaction fee for 18 months. Then I use those next 18 months to aggressively work to pay it off. I know I already have that amount saved, so it doesn’t stress me out, but the little bit of stress does give me incentive to pay it off. This trick usually helps me to save more because I am in “debt mode.” At the end, I still have that amount in savings, plus my usual savings growth from regular contributions.

    Reply

  57. Matt says

    My wife and I are in the 40’s% this year. We were fortunate to never have significant debt but primarily have had poor financial planning skills to blame. We are turning that around now and would love to hit 50% in the near future. It doesn’t seem impossible, just need to create a better balance between a happy life and happy bank accounts!

    Reply

  58. T Jozwick says

    For the antenna, which options do you recommend if you live in an area that does not get really good antenna reception or the only channels that you get are the PBS ones?

    Reply

  59. Emenike Emmanuel says

    Thanks Michelle.

    With this article, you have liberated someone (me) today.

    Every month, I get mad at myself when I start looking for where my money went.

    I spend so much money furnishing frivolities while playing down on savings.

    This year, I have resolved to save at least 50% of every money I make and channel them into an investment that I’m considering so seriously.

    I will do my best to keep to it.

    Thanks.

    Emenike

    Reply

  60. Brittany says

    All your ideas are sound and I love that they are in one place, easy to read, and practical. However, we have almost $180,000 in student loan debt and our income barely covers our bills each month. I have tried many of the ideas and while great, I wish there was more. I’m overwhelmed.

    Reply

    • Abayomi says

      Hello Brittany,
      Though, I’m reading and replying your comment about a year later, I wish you luck in your endeavour to get out of debt.

      Reply

  61. Sally says

    I have an online business that give time and financial freedom. I came across this business few months ago and I was amazed at how people were able to Quit their jobs, pay off their mortgage, but their dream home or go on long vacations! So I joined and yesterday I just fired my boss!

    Reply

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