How much should I save from every paycheck?

Most experts say if you're in your 20s, you should be saving at least 10 percent or more of your income, especially if you're single [source: Spiegelman]. The earlier you start, the more time your investments have to grow [source: Lankford]. If you start saving when you are older, you will need to set aside more of your income, because your investments will have less time to mature. Plus, the older you get, the more bills you have.

So what's the bottom line? Financial experts at Charles Schwab estimate you will likely spend 80 percent of your pre-retirement, pre-tax income to live on for at least 30 years of retirement [source: Spiegelman]. If you have zip, zero, nada, in your retirement account and are in your 20s, you should be saving between 10 and 15 percent of your yearly income. If you're in your 30s, you should be saving between 15 and 25 percent. If you're in your early 40s, you should be squirreling away between 25 and 35 percent [source: Spiegelman].

What does this all add up to? If you're in your mid-20s and have the discipline to save at least 12 percent of your income each year, then you won't have to increase that percentage as you get older [source: Spiegelman]. If you're 25, have no savings, and make $40,000 a year, you should be socking between $4,000 and $6,000 away annually. If you're 35 and make $50,000, you should be saving between $10,500 and $17,500 a year.

Don't get discouraged. No matter how much your paycheck is, if you want to save money, you can. That's the conclusion of economists Steven Venti and David Wise. The two found a wide disparity in how much people at the same income levels saved. Astonishingly, the pair found that those in the lowest income groups saved more than those in the middle -- as much as $100,000 more [source: Mulrean]. So what can you do to save more of your income? Here are some tips you can follow to get started:

When it comes right down to it, people want to save as much money as they can. The only thing that holds them back is self control. Two economists, the University of Chicago's Richard H. Thaler and UCLA's Shlomo Benartzi have taken the "self" out of self control with their "Save More Tomorrow" plan.

The program works something like this: Whenever an employee gets a pay raise, they should put some of it, or all of it, into their 401(k) account. By timing the contribution to coincide with the pay increase, the employee won't see any less money in their paychecks. That's a big psychological boost -- you won't miss what you haven't seen. While an employee can opt out at any time, they rarely do [source: Thaler and Benartzi]. In fact the plan worked so well at one manufacturing firm, 98 percent stuck with the program through two pay raises, and 80 percent remained through three pay raises [source: Thaler and Benartzi].

Workers who don't have access to a "Save More Tomorrow" plan, or even a 401(k), can use the same approach, although it will take a bit more, um, self control. Not only can you save scheduled pay hikes, but you can also stash away any other income such as tax refunds, bonuses, birthday and holiday money, profits from a tag sale or the proceeds from an inheritance. The key is not to raise your lifestyle with such "added" income. Instead, you're saving money that you never had -- or in many cases, expected -- in the first place [source: Dunleavey].

For more tips on how to budget and save, read on.