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My boyfriend's paycheck varies every week because the hours he works depend on the volume of business. While usually around 40 hours, sometimes it is quite a bit less or quite a bit more.

The financial advice I follow says pick a percentage and stick with it in good times and in bad. So 15% of the paycheck directly into savings. We want to automate this to both save time and discourage overspending. But our work only lets you deposit specific set amounts, like exactly $50 each week for example.

So how can I do percentages automatically? I tried to look at banks but it doesn't seem like they list this kind of specific info.

Jemmeh
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2 Answers2

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You just need to average out the weekly hours and income over the year. So if his yearly income is $100,000 p.a. then this would average out to $2000 per week of which 15% would be $300 per week.

It does not have to be exactly 15% per week as long as over the long run your saving your target 15%. If he gets a pay rise you can include this in the saving plan. Say he gets a 5% increase in pay you would increase the $300 per week by 5% to $315 per week.

Victor
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  • It's almost impossible to predict our income in a way that would be meaningful enough to average it. But I appreciate that would work for a lot of people. +1 – Jemmeh Jan 12 '15 at 17:42
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When I have been faced with this sort of situation I have done the split at the bank.

They had the ability to recognize the deposit as a payroll transfer and split it the way I wanted. I put a specific amount of money into checking, another amount of money into the mortgage, and a specific amount of money into another fund. The balance, whether it was $1 or any other amount, went in to savings. That meant that I transferred the amounts I needed to pay my budgeted living expenses and what ever I made above that went to savings. In months I made extra, more was available to be saved.

verdammelt
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mhoran_psprep
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  • Ah, so some banks do recognize a payroll deposit. It's good to know that at least exists out there somewhere. Now I just have to figure out which ones. – Jemmeh Jan 12 '15 at 17:43