My wife’s sister messaged her on Skype the other day. She was curious as to about how much she should be spending on common household expenses. Well, we were curious also and decided to hit the books to see what good rules of thumb are.
According to the Motley Fool, you might consider the following very rough guidelines:
Housing and utilities, 25-30%
Food, 10-15%
Vehicles, 10-15%
Insurance, 5%
Saving and investing, 10-15%
Entertainment, 5%
Clothing, 5%
Medical, 5%
Childcare and education, 1-8%
Gifts and charity: Up to you!
Of course, where you live is a major factor in how little you pay for each category. For example the DC area, housing is very expensive. In a rural part of the country like Oregon rent and mortgage prices are more manageable.
DINKS (Dual Income No Kids) Finance is a blog discussing personal finance for couples. While by no means financial experts, we own a variety of assets including real estate and stocks. We've both been up to our eyeballs in debt and have made tons of financial mistakes. However, we've both successfully retired that debt and we both do learn from our failings. We hope that our voice in this blog can help others in achieving their goals!
