How Much Did You Save in 2013?

April 21st, 2014 by 
PK

Some of our longer term readers enjoy this time of year on DQYDJ, because we post a Personal Finance article actually directed inwardly - namely, an expose of the PK household spending habits.

We appreciate being held accountable on this front - it's hard to trust random voices on the internet, so only by looking at results and history can you truly level a fair judgement.  We wouldn't want you to blindly trust us if we were secretly part of that oh-so-annoying "fake it until you make it" crowd.

So, today we share wit you and we ask: how much did you save in 2013?

(And yes, long term readers also know that we use a controversial calculation of savings - not including principal paydown in our totals, .  We know it underestimates the true amount but we're sticking to it - unlike Federal Agencies, we'll keep our methodology constant.)

PK Household Savings Rate, Last 9 Years

Net savings rate - so get rid of that tax you paid to compare.

pksavings2013

Tabular form:

Year200520062007200820092010201120122013
Savings Rate (Strict)6.91%11.02%31.63%27.31%21.68%21.47%22.96%23.99%29.68%

How Did We Do?

Good?  Bad?  Middling?

We've got a few benchmarks here.  Let's play.

The Good.

First, you've got the overall savings rate in the US, which was in the low to mid 4%s through 2013.  Of course, that doesn't factor in whether folks are in a position to save - don't want to be comparing savings rates to students in college or retirees now, do we?

The Middling.

Our results by household income and age are mixed.  Those calculators are here:

The Bad.  (The Ugly?)

Here in the Personal Finance Sphere, our combination of a strict calculation and including both the income of my wife and myself probably leaves 29.68% on the low end of reported savings rates.

Of course, that discounts the savings rates of the many bloggers which don't report - so we won't be losing any sleep over this one.

How Did You Do?

Let's play the voyeur, if only for one day: how did you do in 2013?  Rough year?  Good year?

And, of course, if you haven't seen it - we have an infamous calculator which links savings rate to retirement date - enjoy that!

      

PK

PK started DQYDJ in 2009 to research and discuss finance and investing and help answer financial questions. He's expanded DQYDJ to build visualizations, calculators, and interactive tools.

PK lives in New Hampshire with his wife, kids, and dog.

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