When To Swim Against The Tide

We found five rules of thumb that you may want to bend— or ignore.

- Patricia Mertz Esswein

Financial rules of thumb circle around the internet like flotsam caught in an eddy. We scrutinized five particularly persistent ones to see how they hold up. Our conclusion: Most have merit as a starting point for setting a financial goal. But depending on your personal circumstances, you may benefit from bending the rules.

BUDGET

Spend no more than half of your income on living expenses, keep discretionary items to 30%, and save the rest.

In her 2005 book, All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan, Elizabeth Warren, then a Harvard professor, presented “the balanced money formula,” which has since been popularized as the 50/30/20 rule. Under this rule, you allot 50% of your takehome pay to “must haves,” 30% to “wants” and 20% to savings.

Must haves include housing, utilities, medical care, insurance, transportation, child care and minimum payments on any legal obligations, such as student loans, child support or anything for which you’ve signed a long-term contract. Why only 50%? Warren says it’s sustainable, leaving you with plenty of money for the rest of your life, including fun and the future. When things go wrong, you may be able to cover the basics with an unemployment or disability check or, if you’re married, live on one paycheck for a while.

The 20% for savings is automatic— debited directly from your paycheck— not an afterthought. Use the money to build an emergency fund, pay off debt and save for retirement.

That leaves 30% of your budget for your wants (including charitable giving), which allows you to avoid the cycle of binge spending and crash-diet budgeting, writes Warren. If something goes wrong, this category is the first place you cut.