How long to save
for a Home down payment (20% of $400k)?
At $80,000, the answer depends on what you earn and how much of it you keep. Here is the matrix for 9 wage tiers and 3 savings rates. Rows are gross hourly; columns are the percentage of take-home pay you set aside.
How long it takes
| Your wage | 10% of pay | 25% of pay | 50% of pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| $15/hr | 34.2 years | 13.7 years | 6.8 years |
| $20/hr | 25.6 years | 10.3 years | 5.1 years |
| $25/hr | 20.5 years | 8.2 years | 4.1 years |
| $30/hr | 17.1 years | 6.8 years | 3.4 years |
| $40/hr | 12.8 years | 5.1 years | 2.6 years |
| $50/hr | 10.3 years | 4.1 years | 2.1 years |
| $65/hr | 7.9 years | 3.2 years | 1.6 years |
| $80/hr | 6.4 years | 2.6 years | 1.3 years |
| $100/hr | 5.1 years | 2.1 years | 1.0 years |
Assumes 40-hour week, 25% tax/withholding, straight-line saving from zero. Real life will be faster if you already have savings, slower if you have an emergency along the way.
Two catches the table hides
1. Your real hourly wage is lower. The table uses the gross rate you type into the first column. Subtract your unpaid commute, work clothes, and the other costs of having a job, and the real rate can be 25-40% lower. That shifts every cell to the right.
2. Saving rate ≠ budget reality. "50% of take-home" sounds aggressive but is achievable with housemates, no car, and modest habits. "10%" is the US personal-savings-rate ballpark. Be honest with the column you pick.
Useful pages
- Home down payment (20% of $400k)
- Work-hours calculator — reframe any purchase as duration.
- Philosophy — why hours are a more honest unit than dollars.
Want this tracked automatically? Set this as a Pursuit in the HourSpend iOS app and the running balance plus the hours-of-life-gained show up on your dashboard.
Get HourSpend