Savings questions...

[codeblue34]

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Some questions for you:
1. How much are most residents saving per month (percentage)- please include Roth IRA, investments, savings, etc.?
2. Are most of you putting money away to a IRA and/or investments? If so, how much?
3. How much money (dollars) are you putting away for Savings?

Thanks

 

[Winged Scapula]

Some questions for you:
1. How much are most residents saving per month (percentage)- please include Roth IRA, investments, savings, etc.?

0%

2. Are most of you putting money away to a IRA and/or investments? If so, how much?

None

3. How much money (dollars) are you putting away for Savings?

Thanks

Zip, zilch, nada.

 

[KidDr]

Some questions for you:
1. How much are most residents saving per month (percentage)- please include Roth IRA, investments, savings, etc.?
2. Are most of you putting money away to a IRA and/or investments? If so, how much?
3. How much money (dollars) are you putting away for Savings?

Thanks

1. For me, it probably ends up being about 25% of my post-tax income.

2. I've been putting $$ into a Roth IRA since starting residency. I contribute whatever amount I need to (monthly) so that I meet the yearly max (it was $4000 in 2006, and will be $5000 for 2007, I think)

3. I don't intentionally save any particular amount of $$, but I end up having about $500 a month extra after paying expenses (including student loans and a mortgage...no car payment or kids/family though), and it basically just sits in my checking acct....I need to figure out a better idea for this $$ though, because there's better places to have several $$ dollars than in an account making 0.1% interest (or something like that)

 

[Arch Guillotti]

I max out my Roth IRA as well as my 403b which is about $20,000 per year. Yes, I moonlight a lot.

 

[DrMom]

Some questions for you:
1. How much are most residents saving per month (percentage)- please include Roth IRA, investments, savings, etc.?
2. Are most of you putting money away to a IRA and/or investments? If so, how much?
3. How much money (dollars) are you putting away for Savings?

Thanks

I max out my retirement at work (the amount that the hospital matches), but that's about all I can pull off considering I'm the sole income in my family. I'll be all over the savings before too long, though. 🙂

 

[gwen]

maxing out your Roth and 403b is a great idea, for those of you who can afford to do it. others may have high rent (in metropolitan cities) and therefore a high cost of living. i actually saved my money during residency (into a money market) for a downpayment for my house when i became an attending and also used part of it for my wedding. just remember those things b/c you can't pull out the 403b or roth money without penalties then.

 

[eastcoastyall]

maxing out your Roth and 403b is a great idea, for those of you who can afford to do it. others may have high rent (in metropolitan cities) and therefore a high cost of living. i actually saved my money during residency (into a money market) for a downpayment for my house when i became an attending and also used part of it for my wedding. just remember those things b/c you can't pull out the 403b or roth money without penalties then.

This is completely correct. Savings are location dependent. If you are in an expensive city, such as NYC, Boston, San Fran, etc, all you can hope is that you break even because rent and other cost of living stuff are so expensive.

 

[Mumpu]

I just finally got to the point where I can put away 6 months' worth of basic expenses into a safety account (probably will do online ... ING offers a 4.5% APY on a savings account -- about the same as CD but without the withdrawal restrictions).

Honestly, I somewhat question the wisdom of dumping all your income into IRAs at this time -- 3 years of head start won't make that big of a difference in the long run (especially compared to what you will be able to invest after residency) and the money would be better used for house downpayment, etc., when you finish residency.

 

[Arch Guillotti]

Honestly, I somewhat question the wisdom of dumping all your income into IRAs at this time -- 3 years of head start won't make that big of a difference in the long run (especially compared to what you will be able to invest after residency) and the money would be better used for house downpayment, etc., when you finish residency.

That may be true in some circumstances or be what some people prefer to do. In my case, I already have some money in a Roth IRA that includes a rollover from previous employment by way of a traditional IRA. When I am finished with residency, I will roll my 403b directly into my Roth (not legal now, but will be in 2009 I believe, maybe 2010). At that point I will have >100K in a Roth that will grow interest free in mutual funds for >30 years. I don't have to do anything except watch my funds performance. You do the math.

 

[Methyldopa]

I just finally got to the point where I can put away 6 months' worth of basic expenses into a safety account (probably will do online ... ING offers a 4.5% APY on a savings account -- about the same as CD but without the withdrawal restrictions).

Honestly, I somewhat question the wisdom of dumping all your income into IRAs at this time -- 3 years of head start won't make that big of a difference in the long run (especially compared to what you will be able to invest after residency) and the money would be better used for house downpayment, etc., when you finish residency.

You can still kind of save for a house with a roth. You can withdraw all the money you contributed without penalties. You just can't withdraw the interest earned.

 

[Mman]

It's hard to guess what the "average" resident does, because I don't really share too many detailed financial discussions with my fellow residents.

As it stands, I probably save about $6,000 a year which works out to around 20% of my net income. 1/2 ends up in the Roth and 1/2 ends up in online savings accounts (ING, HSBC, etc) that pay around 4-5% interest.