Depends on where the home is. With admonishments from every corner for my not squirreling away $100/month out of my ~$1800 take-home pay, someone making $250k a year should be able to easily put away the linear equivalent of $10k a year. 5 years of that is a down payment on something decent, somewhere decent.
Of course, my bread costs about as much as their bread, so they could probably getaway with a bit more. It's all about making good financial decisions, right?
Just to toss out another example. I make about $150k. I'm a single father. I put the legal maximum into my retirement account every year, which I think is $19k this year. I have 6 months of expenses saved up in my emergency fund. We take a nice vacation every year and have luxuries like season passes to Broadway. Yes, I think it's all about making good financial decisions.
When I was making $35k/yr I was putting 10% in my retirement plan. I just had cheaper vacations, older cars, and fewer luxuries. People don't like to hear it but most financial problems are a character problem more than they are an income problem. The good news is that character flaws are not permanent. We all have them and if we can be self aware enough to acknowledge them, we can address them.
>Did you rely on your family/friends for ANYTHING (including something as innocuous as "storing your childhood possessions")?
>Did you have any chronic or acute health issues?
>How far did you have to drive for work?
>Did you have friends or family you were obliged to support, even occasionally?
>Did you have a side hustle?
And so on.
Broadly-speaking, making $35k before taxes in 2020 in any major metropolitan area is a tightrope walk at best. The best way to encourage saving is to pay people enough money that they feel comfortable charting out a plan to save. That's a sliding scale, but I would say you hit 80% around the median wage, which is not $35k/yr.
IME the people giving this advice have a critical misunderstanding of either costs or the value of cash relative to when they started out.
Before, median household income for my city at that time was mid-50ks. Of course median household income is with 1.5-2 workers. I wasn't married, but I did split rent on a house with friends... so adjust accordingly I guess.
>What year?
circa 2005
>Where did you live?
A 2nd tier major metro. Not NY/SF/LA, but a city you've definitely heard of.
>What was your monthly rent?
I don't remember
>Did you rely on your family/friends for ANYTHING (including something as innocuous as "storing your childhood possessions")?
No. My parents did have my childhood possessions but I grew up in an abusive household and never went back to retrieve those items.
>Did you have any chronic or acute health issues?
No
>How far did you have to drive for work?
30 mins
>Did you have friends or family you were obliged to support, even occasionally?
Yes, I helped friends pay rent a few times if that counts.
>Did you have a side hustle?
No
IME people will look for any excuse not to face their own personal failings. These are all the wrong kinds of questions. Instead of seeking an excuse for bad behavior, the right kinds of questions are about strategies for achieving better outcomes.
No, I think you've proven my point. $35k in 2005 is roughly $43k in 2016, which I'll use as a point of comparison because it was when I was myself making roughly $32k before taxes.
I'll just stop now to point out that this would be enough alone to allow you to drop 10% - and then some - into retirement savings, without living any more or less comfortably than I did. As I said before, the best way to encourage saving is to increase pay.
I assume you were paying less than my $900/month in rent (a studio price in a similar market to the one you describe), between your having the privilege of being able to split rent, and dealing with rents that were ~5% lower on average. This, again, would allow for a hefty savings rate compared to my baseline of losing roughly $100/month on necessities, even without the higher pay rate.
Considering all of this, I have to conclude that you were actually a poorer financial steward of your income than I was - again, even though I was losing money every month. Living under circumstances similar to yours (higher pay, lower rent), I could easily have put away 20%+ of "my" earnings - you only managed 10%. However, the truth is that we lived under different circumstances, yours much more forgiving of carelessness or mistakes.
Of course, my bread costs about as much as their bread, so they could probably getaway with a bit more. It's all about making good financial decisions, right?