How do you decide where to put your savings? Do you do a % in emergency savings, car savings, retirement, kid's education, fun $? Do you do 401k through your company plus extra on your own? Just curious and what % of your gross actually goes to savings?

We each put 5% into 401K, this is for long-term retirement, and we forget about that money.

We also put left-over money from dh's paycheck, after bills each week into a regular saving account. When that amount is 1500, I switch it over to a money market account. I can still get the money our of market account, when I want it, but it pays more interest.

Then there is money that we have either inherited or cash in stock or bonds, and these are in CD's. When the CD's mature, I take the interest and put it into our money market account and reinvest the original amount of the CD's.

The CD's have to mature so you can really count on that money in an emergency.

So that is why I like our money market account.

The best thing to do is set down draw up a budget and then draw up a savings plan, out of the budget. If you have an older car or appliances that you might need to replace, start a savings fund for these things. Or at least put the money into a savings account that you can get to fast.

Thanks for the great advice!!

We are giving about 30% for emergency. It is useful as every month, the money piles up and goes on to savings.