I haven’t done a month by month count, but I notice Quicken says we’ve set aside $4000 in our car & house savings account since the beginning of the year. Plus I added $3000 in GICs in my TFSA from my personal accounts. But that was mostly an inheritance. That’s for January to April. So that’s $7000. That’s almost 22% of of our annual net income there. We earn a very low income.
May:
Pre tax income $2472
Total saved $500
20.2%
Another excellent sales month, and I think June will be also so that is great. I am still holding it all in my work “bank” but I should get nice commission pay this year if the market for new kitchens doesn’t dry up in the next few months.
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hello it looks like this year’s income will be about $12,500, not counting scholarships, so 22% will be $3800!
(I have to be really careful this fall semester because I can’t make over $16000 so I can keep Medicaid).
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| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | YTD Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OMD Net | $355.51 | $1,755.49 | $568.29 | $476.93 | $583.18 | $455.46 | $4,194.86 | ||||||
| Interest + Misc | $0.66 | $0.27 | $87.00 | $0.12 | $0.11 | $15.55 | $103.71 | ||||||
| Stimulus/Tax | $0.00 | ||||||||||||
| Total | $356.17 | $1,755.76 | $655.29 | $477.05 | $583.29 | $471.01 | $4,298.57 | ||||||
| OMD SEP-IRA | $400.00 | $100.00 | $300.00 | $800.00 | |||||||||
| Percentage Saved | 78.72% | 5.05% | 0% | 0% | 63.39% | 18.61% |
Nearly halfway through the year and still don’t have a day job income and therefore am not saving nearly as much, but The!Job!Is!Finally! starting.
But pretty rad that even though I have earned less than $5,000 in the past 6 months and I’ve still been able to pay for my living expenses and put money in my SEP-IRA. This is largely because of all the savings I did in 2020 and 2021 thanks to these challenges. So, very grateful for that.
Can’t wait to get more money in the door so I can save more though!
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Nice challenge. I guess it would be tricky if we every year enhance the stake. Btw, I wonder why did you choose that high percentage. I’m asking because, as I know, whiz folks in finances recommend 10% from salary.
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10% is considered pretty low for retirement savings - usual benchmark is 15%. But 22% won’t make sense for everyone at every stage.
If 22% doesn’t work for you (as it is hard for a lot of folks), we have another challenge - 22 in 2022 Challenge: Save $22 Per Week/Month ! remember debt repayment counts as well!
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How is the year half over???
June:
Pre tax income $3090
Total saved $625
20.2%
YTD
Pre tax income $20,227
Total saved $7250
35.9%
I should be getting a nice commission check soonish which will help. Still hoping to switch over to the $20,222 club!
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July:
Pre tax income $17,472
Total saved $10,500
60.1%
YTD:
Pre tax income $37,749
Total saved $17,750
47.1%
I am going to switch over to the $20,222 challenge. 
I got a $15,000 commission check! I also still have enough left in my work “bank” to pay my base salary for the rest of the year, so all sales now will go straight to a commission check at the end of the year. I am hoping for at least another $10,000 but more would certainly be better. It has been a very good sales year, comparing July 21 sales to July 22 sales, I am about 10% over. Last year was my highest sales to date, so there is a chance this year will end up as the highest but I am not counting on it…
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It’s been a minute since I’ve been by, so I’ll just do a YTD update.
2022 Income, all sources: $50,956
2022 Savings, all sinks: $17,111
2022 Percent Savings: 34%
The percentage will drop a bit more as some of the early months were major outliers. I’m also within striking distance of the 20K and something-something challenge, but it will be a buzzer-beater if so.
Though does it count as savings if the money that went into those accounts was eaten up in the stock market downturns this year? There is actually less in that pot than there was at the beginning of the year.
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Still counts! This is about your action towards saving, not the market ups and downs!
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| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | YTD Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OMD Net | $355.51 | $1,755.49 | $568.29 | $476.93 | $583.18 | $455.46 | $142.40 | $1249.42 | $2311.58 | *$7,934.30 | |||
| Interest + Misc | $0.66 | $0.27 | $87.00 | $0.12 | $0.11 | $15.55 | $12 | $.10 | $.51 | $104.44 | |||
| Other Jobs | $2,665.50 | $5,111.50 | $8,027 | ||||||||||
| Stimulus/Tax | $0.00 | ||||||||||||
| Total | $356.17 | $1,755.76 | $655.29 | $477.05 | $583.29 | $507.05 | $142.52 | $1,499.52 | $4,977.59 | $5,111.50 | $16,065,74 | ||
| SEP-IRA | $400.00 | $100.00 | $300.00 | $208.00 | $433.19 | $1151.03 | $2,592.22 | ||||||
| Cash | $2160.06 | $2,160.06 | |||||||||||
| Percentage Saved | 78.72% | 5.05% | 0% | 0% | 63.39% | 13.87% | 52.10% | 22.52% | 29.58% |
Things are picking back up now that I have three jobs again.
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How’s everyone doing with this challenge?
I’m actually still saving in my allowance, but spending the last of the inheritance. At some point those two cross (when I run out of inheritance) and I will no longer be able to save 22% of my allowance. They go into the same pot of money. To make up for that I have actually been saving 25% of my allowance.
We are not doing well for joint savings. A lot of unexpected expenses came up this year. I will be happy if we stay in the black.
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We have savings baked into the budget. I’d rather not get into specific numbers, but in terms of percentages we’re currently at:
Savings: 46.10%
Reserves: 5.55%
Total: 51.65%
Savings is probably more accurately described by “investments”, and reserves is money that is put aside for a specific use in the future. For example, home maintenance or vacation, etc. Savings includes dividends that are reinvested.
Having said that, we’re still down in terms of net worth for the year. 
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Waiting to see where I am at with income for the rest of the year, as still waiting on several checks. But doing decently- 27.42% YTD.
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Spoke with my dentist the other day about my concerns about the cost of the tooth implant skyrocketing. He gave me a quote in April. His front staff gave me a quote about $1000 higher in August. He confessed they always quote high on the front end. He did say he wouldn’t know until he does the scan, which will probably happen soon and only be a couple hundred dollars. That’ll be covered by our insurance…eventually.
So, all that is to say, that big expense will be in 2023, and not affect our savings for this year.
Still, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we aren’t going to make it. We have a low income and think I overestimated how much we could save. We had lots of unexpected expenses this year. Close to $10K of them. 
. Oh well, maybe next year.
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Ughhh so many!
You can always move to the $20/week challenge if that is more feasible.
I hope the tooth implant is way cheaper!
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Thank-you @anomalily I hope the tooth implant is cheaper too. The quotes were $3700 and $4900 CAD!
Some of those “unexpected expenses” were self inflicted. We chose to pay $2000 for two custom made raised beds and the dirt to fill them.
We chose to prune and cull trees on the property. Though they were hanging over rooftops, so it was really a safety thing for hurricane season. That was another $2400.
But we hadn’t planned on replacing the hot water heater ($1500), and other expenses.
So yeah, it’s been a bit discouraging. But I am preparing for next year now. Onward and upward! 
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I am in the process of building a triplex so I know all about unexpected self imposed expenses 
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Hello. It’s me. I am about as late to the 22 in 2022 party as it’s possible to be, but I think it would be good for me to be here. I won’t be saving 22% of my income unfortunately, but I am hoping to get my savings to £2200 before year’s end, which is going to require me to spend as little as possible for the next month. (Luckily I don’t do Christmas, so that will help).
At time of writing, I have £1832 squirreled away between Plum, and my savings account. And my next lot of income will be £345 on around the 5th of Dec, then some more (which covers all my expenses, with a bit left over), on the 17th. So, if I spend, I won’t make the £2200 goal, unless I also manage to sell some things on Ebay or whatever (which I also badly need to do).
Anyway. It’s squeaky bum time. Am hoping to be able to lock in this not spending and instead saving habit as firmly as possible. And also soon help the clearing, and the saving, by selling.
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So I posted in Jan about tentatively joining but I never officially joined here. However I track in my journal (somewhat sporadically) and I did it! Probably in October, but possibly in November (I have not been paying super close attention to save my sanity the past few months). My Dec 1 check in on my own journal revealed this to date:
HSA: $3,369
IRA: $4,500
mortgage principal: $9,263
Roth 401(k): $7,750
CapitalOne360: $550
…
Total: $25,432
2022 savings to date is 33% of gross income; I guess it is safe to say I will meet the 22% challenge as well as the $20,022 challenge, because there is no possible way for me to be below 22% by Dec 31, even if I contributed 0% more towards savings and got a full 80 hours per pay period (2 weeks) of pay for my December paychecks.
Forced saving (in the form of mortgage principal, extra $ put towards mortgage principal, and HSA, which can’t be changed after open enrollment) and automatic saving (auto deposit to IRA and CapOne360, as well as 401(k) contributions (currently at 10% but can be changed at any time) just did the job.
Next year my savings rate will be lower.
(I did say that last year too though. Last year savings on Dec 31 were 27% of gross, though, so I guess I didn’t follow through on the reducing savings, haha. I didn’t do any extra principal towards my mortgage last year, which is the bulk of the difference at 5k. I will likely stop that for next year because at this point it is stupid to do so, no matter how delightful paying off the mortgage in 15 years sounds rather than 30, because my interest rate is below 3%. It makes more sense to put that $ in CDs at this point! And my hours will (hopefully) be lower next year and consequently so will my pay.)
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