Savings rate is the only number that survives a decade

Most financial advice optimises the wrong variable. Returns are largely out of your hands over any single decade. Savings rate is not.

Track the ratio, not the amount

Track it monthly as a percentage of net income, not as an absolute figure. Absolutes flatter you in good months and punish you in bad ones; the ratio tells you whether your behaviour changed.

• 01Count transfers to investment accounts only when they clear.
• 02Count one-off windfalls separately so they do not inflate the trend.
• 03Keep a twelve-month rolling average next to the monthly figure.

What a good number looks like

There is no universal target. The useful comparison is your own last twelve months. A rate that moves from 9% to 14% and holds is worth more than a single 40% month after a bonus.

A budget that is never reviewed is a document, not an instrument.

Review once a month, in the same half hour, with the same sheet open. That is the whole method.