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?