CNN Article: http://money.cnn.com/2002/01/23/pf/q_budgetideal/index.htm The worksheet: http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/budget/budget.jsp
Ouch- I still have a LONG way to go! My debt to income ratio is around 50%- not the 30% the article says is ideal...Our rent is our biggest expense- takes up about 42%. I did bump up my automatic weekly savings deposit to ING Direct another $25- trying to build up a little nest egg so eventually we can get a mortgage with a less expensive payment.
That was really neat! Thanks! We got... Housing & Debt 12.67% (low) Taxes 18.67% (low) Insurance 4.67% (high) Savings & Investment 31.33% (high) Living Expenses 31.40% (low) We are also using ING and have been very pleased so far! Liked the $25 bonus!
smontoya5, Don't worry about the road ahead, just keep plugging away. Just a few years ago, I was spending 95% of my take home pay on getting DH & me (mostly me) out of debt. Student loans that were supposed to take between 5 and 10 years to pay off were done in 2 & 3 years' time respectively. We paid off other debts ahead of schedule, too. It was hard denying ourselves when we didn't have to, but it was well worth it. Now we're saving nearly 40% of our gross.
