Level 3 · Breathing room
Savings-rate calculator: how much do you really keep?
Your savings rate is the biggest lever on the path to freedom: it lowers your target and fills it faster at the same time. Enter income and expenses.
Target = annual expenses × 25 in today’s money — so the return is after inflation. Spending less counts twice: it fills the target faster and makes it smaller.
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How to go about it
- Enter your income. Enter your monthly net income — everything that actually lands in your account.
- Enter your expenses. Enter your monthly expenses, including fixed costs and irregular items spread across the month.
- Read the result. The savings rate is (income − expenses) ÷ income. The calculator also shows how long that rate takes to reach independence.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good savings rate?
The average household savings rate in Germany has sat in the low double digits for years. For a fast path towards independence, 20 percent or more is the usual target in the FIRE community.
Why does the savings rate count twice?
Spending less means saving more — and it also shrinks the target, because the target is tied to your expenses (annual expenses × 25). Both effects pull the same way.
Does employer pension contribution count?
The calculator works with what lands in your account. Occupational and state pensions are wealth, but they do not show up here — plan for them separately.
Related
Estimated or measured?
Most people underestimate their spending — and so overestimate their savings rate. sum works both out from your real transactions: income, spending, detected fixed costs and subscriptions, plus a flexible budget for what is genuinely left. Today you bring your transactions in via CSV import; the automatic bank connection (PSD2) is in the works.
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