Now that I’m more involved with the budget, I’ve had more interaction with the “blue book” that holds our life in it (aka…our budget/finances). As I was going through some of our old pages, I ran across a page I thought was very informative! It has recommended spending percentages from your household income. This was based off of some research Ryan did on the internet (I believe this came from Yahoo).
Recommended Spending Percentages:
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*Dave Ramsey suggests NO MORE than 25% of your take home pay go towards your house. So if your family brings home $4,000 a month, you should be paying no more than $1,000 a month for your house. This includes taxes. Yikes! I’m sure most of us are spending more than 25% of our take home pay on a house!
For more details on the percentages that you should be paying such as debt and savings, read my first post here!
Percentage bugdets are a good guideline of where to start, but beware of following it to a T! Read this article about why you should beware of percentage budgets.
Our Kind of Normal says
I am so encouraged by your blog. I too am a teacher, newly graduated with a load of student debt above my head. My husband too graduated with his masters in May. Though it ought to be a time of celebration it has been a lonely time of doubt and worry as it has placed us in this secret society of 'those with LOTS of debt' group. It has no members in our area but us though it does have many doubting onlookers. God got a hold of me a few months back to encourage me to do a few things, if done, He'll walk us through the seemingly impossible. One is to begin the Dave Ramsey series…Your story isn't the first I've read which has utilized Ramsey's wisdom but it has helped me see that our dilemma is not a problem to be fought alone. Congrats on your feat!