How much should I save each month?

Search for how much to save and you will find confident numbers: 10%, 20%, half your raise. They are all reasonable starting points and none of them knows your rent, your debts or your plans. A better approach is to decide in order: first protect yourself, then pick a percentage you can sustain, then let your actual goals refine it.

This guide walks through those three layers. It is general education, not personal advice, and the right answer for you depends on your situation.

The first job of savings is to stop a surprise bill from becoming debt. In the Federal Reserve’s survey of US households for 2024, 63% of adults said they would cover a $400 emergency expense with cash or its equivalent, which means many others would borrow or could not cover it at all.

Start with a starter buffer, roughly one month of essential costs, kept in a separate account. Then grow it towards three to six months over time. Our guide on how to build an emergency fund goes into the details.

If you have expensive debt, such as an overdraft or a credit card balance, many people keep the starter buffer and then focus on that debt, because its interest usually costs more than savings earn. See how much your overdraft really costs.

Once you have a buffer, a percentage of take-home pay gives you a simple default. The best-known is the 50/30/20 rule: about 50% for needs, 30% for wants and 20% for savings and extra debt payments.

Twenty percent is a target, not a test. If your needs take 60% of your income, 10% saved is a real achievement. If they take 40%, aim higher than 20%. The useful part is the habit: a fixed share that leaves your account every payday. The 50/30/20 calculator shows the split for your income.

Remember what is already being saved for you. If your employer pays into a pension, part of your long-term saving is happening before your salary arrives, so your 20% can focus on shorter-term goals.

Percentages are abstract. Goals are not. A trip next summer, a deposit on a flat, a new laptop: each has a cost and a date, and that turns into a monthly number:

Monthly saving = (target − already saved) ÷ months until the date

For example, a ₪9,000 trip in 10 months with ₪1,500 already saved needs ₪750 a month. Add up all your goals and compare the total with your percentage from layer 2. If the goals need more than you can save, move a date or lower a target; do not just hope.

The savings goal calculator does this maths for you and shows what changes if you start later or save a bit more.

Your stage of life changes what saving is for, even if the method stays the same:

• Starting out: the buffer is everything. Aim for one month of essentials, then three. Even 5% saved automatically builds the habit that matters most.
• Renting and planning a move or a wedding: dated goals dominate. Give each one its own target and date, and save for them separately from the emergency fund.
• Saving for a home: a deposit is usually the largest goal most people ever save for. Work backwards from the amount and the year, and expect it to take a large share of your savings for a while.
• With children: costs rise and become less predictable, so a bigger buffer, closer to six months, brings real peace of mind.
• Later in your career: check that long-term savings and pension contributions are on track, and use pay rises to raise the percentage rather than only your spending.

At every stage, the question is the same: what is the money for, and by when? Once you can answer that, the monthly number follows.

Freelancers, shift workers and anyone on commission should save a percentage of each payment rather than a fixed monthly amount, and set aside tax first if they are self-employed. In good months, top up your buffer before anything else. Our guide to budgeting with an irregular income has a full method.

The amount matters less than whether it happens every month. Three ways to make sure it does:

• Pay yourself first. A standing transfer to a savings account on payday, before you have a chance to spend it.
• Add spare change. Some banks can sweep spare change into savings; in an app like Balance, round-ups count it toward a goal so you can move it yourself.
• Check in monthly. Are you on pace for each goal? Adjust the date, the target or the amount.

In Balance, every goal has a target and a date with the monthly amount needed to get there, and round-ups count the spare change from each purchase toward one goal. Balance never moves money, so the transfers stay with your bank; it keeps the plan and the progress in one calm place.