
How Much to Save for Retirement Based on Your Actual Income
The fifteen percent rule fits some incomes and fails others. How to size your savings rate from your target, your start date and Social Security.
9 plain-English reads on budgeting, saving, investing, debt, credit and taxes. Newest first unless you say otherwise.

The fifteen percent rule fits some incomes and fails others. How to size your savings rate from your target, your start date and Social Security.

Net worth is what you own minus what you owe, and trajectory matters more than the snapshot. What to count, what to omit and how often to track it.

Complete retirement contribution limits for 401k plans, IRAs, and HSAs in one reference table. Learn how to adjust your January payroll deductions smoothly.

The 4% rule originated in a 1994 historical study of 30-year retirements. Here is what it actually proved, what critics get right, and how dynamic guardrails work.

Catch-up rules allow extra retirement contributions from the year you turn 50, with a higher tier for ages 60 to 63. Here are the 2026 limits and contribution order.

$500 monthly needs $150,000 at a 4% withdrawal rate or $187,500 at a 3.2% dividend yield. Neither figure includes tax or guarantees the income.

The salary-multiple rules assume a career shape most people do not have. Here they are anyway, beside what people at each age actually hold.

"110 minus your age" is a starting point that ignores the two things that actually matter: when you need the money, and what you did last time it fell 30%.

An index fund is a rule, not a manager. What the rule costs, what it buys, and why 0.85% instead of 0.04% takes $70,624 off a thirty-year balance.
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