The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

How do you allocate your income?

Anything related to investing, including crypto

Smivs

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
57%
Nov 2, 2019
7
4
Hey FL'ers.

I'm curious to know how you allocate your income, be it from a job or income from your business(es).

I still have a job at this stage and I take home around $2,000.00 per month.

I want to optimise my finances to help me move forward on my Fast Lane lifestyle.

What 'pots' do you allocate funds to and at what percentages? I know this will vary but I'm keen to learn from others who have more insight than I currently do.

Things like:

- basic living expenses (rent, bills & food)
- emergency fund
- savings
- business growth
- investments
- etc

What 'pots' are you allocating each month, at what percentage of your income and why?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

PizzaOnTheRoof

Moving Forward
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
220%
Jul 30, 2018
1,218
2,682
Texas
What I did was set up 3 accounts and my paycheck is distributed between them based on a spending or savings percentage.

This worked well for me as I was paid biweekly instead of monthly, though it could work for either.

1. Weekly Spending: Meant for gas, groceries, and other variable expenses. 35% of check deposited here. Fluctuates with the size of paycheck.

2. Fixed expenses: Rent, bills, Netflix, and other recurring expenses. Flat $X transferred from savings account.

3. Savings: E-Fund, short/long term savings. 65% of check deposited here. Also fluctuates with the size of paycheck.

This usually ends up around a 10%-20% savings rate with plenty of spending money. However, my fixed expenses are very low (~$750/mo) but I was also only making ~$1,500/mo.

This is what got me out of the paycheck to paycheck grind once I had a cushion set up in the fixed expenses account.
 

Champion

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
103%
Apr 12, 2019
682
701
Hamburg, Germany
W
What I did was set up 3 accounts and my paycheck is distributed between them based on a spending or savings percentage.

This worked well for me as I was paid biweekly instead of monthly, though it could work for either.

1. Weekly Spending: Meant for gas, groceries, and other variable expenses. 35% of check deposited here. Fluctuates with the size of paycheck.

2. Fixed expenses: Rent, bills, Netflix, and other recurring expenses. Flat $X transferred from savings account.

3. Savings: E-Fund, short/long term savings. 65% of check deposited here. Also fluctuates with the size of paycheck.

This usually ends up around a 10%-20% savings rate with plenty of spending money. However, my fixed expenses are very low (~$750/mo) but I was also only making ~$1,500/mo.

This is what got me out of the paycheck to paycheck grind once I had a cushion set up in the fixed expenses account.

What about your business? Nothing went into that?
 
D

Deleted74396

Guest
I buy food and pay my bills o_O

When I was making decent money, my main goal was to save as much and avoid spending it! That's how I bought my own place at 20, after 7-8 years of saving whilst living with parents.

I moved 20% of my income to my savings and set up automated savings to save 10% of everything I spend to help build that account. I invested the money into my own business and side hustles!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

PizzaOnTheRoof

Moving Forward
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
220%
Jul 30, 2018
1,218
2,682
Texas

Indulgency

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
173%
Nov 3, 2019
15
26
My income:
Varies, at least $2,000/mo, usually closer to $2,500 (after taxes, no OT)
My expenses:
•$550/mo rent+utilities, flat rate for at least the next year
•Approx $700/mo budgeted for every other expense (food, travel, unexpected necessities, etc) •Community college tuition, approx $4,000/yr from 2019-2020
•University tuition, approx $10,000/yr from 2021-2023 (masters 4+1 program)
My assets:
•Approx $10,000 in savings acct, APY 2.00%
•Approx $1,000 in checking acct
•Expecting about $2,000 in extra bonuses in January
My liabilities:
•3 student loans, totalling approx $8,400, 4.66% interest on all 3
•Bad credit due to defaulting on these loans (basically just ignored them for 4 years like a dipshit)
•Probably unable to take any additional loans if I need to. Not sure on this one but I'm guessing it's a safe assumption based on my credit and loan history. Sometimes I take installment loans, in a time of desperation. Installment loans loans shouldn't be used in an ongoing manner, but if you're desperate (and can repay them) then I don't see why you can't use one to bail you out.
My situation: I've been out of school for about 4 years, but before taking this "break" I stupidly went to college without any aim for a semester after taking out some loans. After dropping out, I did my own thing for a couple years, basically not saving anything in the meantime. I got my first real job about a year ago and have been saving a chunk of each paycheck since day 1. As for the loans, I'm currently in a debt rehabilitation program where I pay a small amount monthly for 9 months which then supposedly improves my credit, at which point I plan on either repaying the debt in full, or if someone suggests anything smarter then I will do that instead. I plan on staying at my current job full time at least until it starts to affect my grades. I'm aiming to graduate with a Master's in Mechanical Engineering.
My goals:
•Have $30,000 saved up w/ no loans by 1/1/2022
•Be debt free or as close to it as possible by the time I graduate, and graduate on time
Any advice is greatly appreciated, especially poking holes in my plan so I can find where to improve, thanks!
 
Last edited:

Sethamus

Silver Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
179%
Sep 13, 2019
425
759
Northshore area, New Orleans
I do similar to @PizzaOnTheRoof with multiple accounts. I should have just drawn a diagram as this is long...

First I did a budget to get close to an average $ amount or % for your categories that is needed each month.

My wife's job pretty much pays for the bills besides a few things here and there. Her checks go straight into the spending account where everything is on autopay besides the credit cards. I have an auto minimum pay incase I forget, but I manually go and pay these off full every month so I can verify what is being charged. All comes out of this account. I left a small balance as a safety net in this account incase I need to draw money quickly (local bank) ~5-10k.

My checks would go into the second account (ally) as my income varied because of my schedule though typically a lot higher. I would transfer $x.xx at the end of the month for the next month with a little extra to my Bill's account. I would then throw everything else into a high yield savings account, also with Ally, leaving a bigger safety cushion incase I want to buy something nice and shiny.

In my ally savings I have my emergency fund fully funded at $X.xx amount and everything else in there is for future investments. If I want to buy a vehicle I would look into this account and decide if spending the cash is worth giving up this money for a potential investment.

For your categories: focus on the ones you can check off and not touch afterwards, creating extra money for the next category by your priority. For me it was emergency fund, which hasn't been pulled from or contributed to for over 6 years now. I'll never touch it hopefully and will not try to make money with it.

Not sure about fast lane mentality, but it allows you to know how much you can risk on an opportunity while keeping a safety net if you have family. The separate accounts is meant to deter you from using savings or investments for a big screen tv, the new Ford Bronco....etc.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top