Budgeting for PFC group

Saving
#1

What are the budgets people use? I know with FI/RE, it is suggested to use over 50% of your take home salary. Here is what Dave Ramsey suggests: http://tightfistfinance.com/dave-ramsey-budget-percentages/

He states to only put 10-15% in your savings. He is a pretty conservative guy but when it comes to savings he talks about 15% , even the 50/30/20 budget suggests to put 20% in savings. What are people’s thoughts on this?

@Jeremy what do you suggest the budget should be? Do you have a suggested budget allocation as the one created by Dave Ramsey?

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#2

I’m not nearly so prescriptive about individual budget categories. I’m a realist in that 95% or more of people will never actually create and stick to a budget. If I propose “20% should be spent on food” or something like that, it’s just ludicrous without knowing income, debt, cost of living neighborhood, etc.

I think for most people a more broad strokes approach, of automated transfers is likely to work better. i.e. on payday, have $10% go directly to your IRA, 15% go to 401k, 10% to savings, rent/mortgage paid automatically, and everything else, spend as you see fit! That forces the gap between income and spending, as well as investing early and often (the two rules!). And it feels less restrictive and more likely to work than arbitrary category limits.

(Personally, I use YNAB for my budget, but I’m a not exactly a typical user when it comes to personal finance stuff)

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