So I was visiting a few of the blogs listed on my blog roll and came across this post over at Get Rich Slowly.

I’ve been working on my budget lately and trying to develop one that works for me – a lot tougher than you think. I’ve debated moving to a cash only or envelope system, but I don’t know if I would be able to do it. Maybe I’m just afraid to commit to a set amount – but it seems like you can’t really make solid progress unless you are willing to make a commitment and just stop when there’s no more money in that envelope. Sure it seems to be common sense when written, but I can’t help thinking that it’s a lot harder than it sounds.

Anyway, in his post he mentions the book, The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need and the percentage breakdown that the author lists.

So I started to wonder what my current savings and debt payment percentages are:

Savings: 7.7% of monthly salary (including 401(k) it rises to 11.68%)
Debt: 39.6% of monthly salary

The debt makes sense since I’m trying to pay it down and therefore I guess the savings being so low makes sense too. I think it would be counter-productive if my savings % was anywhere near my debt %.

Has anyone else taken a similar look at their budgets?