How much into savings?

I am signing papers at HR tomorrow for my first job out of college. I am 23 with no credit cards, no car payment, cheap rent and few utilities. I do, however, have a student loan payment. After I take out all of these expenses I’ve about $2,000 - $2,500 left over per month. I am going to put 10% of my income into a 401k but I was wondering how much I should put into savings? Thank you for any help!

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Answer:
First of all, you are light-years ahead of most people your age in your desire to save and having the good sense to get started. As a general rule, 10-15% is a good start for saving but at this point in your life, you could easily save much more than that. 25-35% might not even be that difficult. The first thing I would recommend is to save hard for 3-4 months (by saving hard I mean at least $1500-2000 of your “leftover” income with the rest going to knock out that student loan) so that you can build up an emergency fund that’s equal to 3-6 months of expenses. Once you’ve the emergency fund saved up, begin a Roth IRA and contribute as much as you possibly can while you're young and have the extra money (the limit right now is $5k annually). The ideal advice I would give to any young person just getting out of college is to keep living like a poor college student. The money that you save now has 40-50 years to grow and you’ll be amazed at how fast it can grow if you’re diligent in saving now.

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Answer:
Short answer is: as much as possible. When you're starting your first job, it is SO tempting to find all sorts of things to spend money on, but it is also the perfect time to begin some good financial habits instead of bad ones. You obviously have a great begin (”no credit cards, no…”), so pause to congratulate yourself. Then keep going. One good rule of thumb that makes sense in your situation is to accumulate 3-6 months of living expenses into your savings account (separate from your 401k or other investments). Then you will be insulated from any possible unexpected expenses or other unplanned financial needs that may come up.

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Answer:
Now is not a good time to have a 401k due to the stock market. My wife already lost over $7,000 in 2 weeks. Of course, they'll tell you in will turn around but the question is when. Talk to your bank about a ROTH IRA's or invest in insurance that has nothing to do with the stock market. The days of huge returns are done. When I invested $100,000 back in 1990, I made $30,000 the first year, then it's been down hill ever since. If you invest in insurance, tell them you want a fixed rate.

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Answer:
A good rule of thumb is to maintain a “rainy day” fund worth at least 3 months of your monthly expenses (more if your income is unstable; i.e. commision based) that you set aside in a high yield savings account and never touch except for true financial emergencies.

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