Ownership, does come in to question in all walks of life. I can sit here and know I own my computer, but with out my own source of power that particular ownership is meaningless if it is not usable. You can almost own your own car, but with out a drivers license being able to use it is iffy, not to mention the constant tax of having to power it whether via gas or electricity. Once again no power, no ownership.
There really is no minimum needed, when trying to build a buffer. It is not something that can ever be a real number. While working if one wants to retire you need to be able to take at least 20% of you pre-tax income and be able to save it in a safe place for 30-35 years. Problem is determining what that safe place is.
Along with the safe place, you need to have those funds grow as the years pass by. Taking a ten dollar bill, putting it in a coffee can and burying it in the back yard is not going to be any help in 30 years.
Okay so a practical number to shoot for I would think would be one year of buffer income. That number is always going to grow each year as cost do have a tendency to rise. One year of house payments, one year of all current out going expenditures such as electric, water, sewer and what ever other monthly fees your country/town/city require. Being able to keep that roof over your head is the most important thing.
I know a lot of people will think different. But when you are out of work, need work, and are living on the street with no address, you are going to learn why it is so difficult to get off the streets. One of the first things I would think a potential employer is going to ask is, "is he reliable'? Living on the streets with no roof over your head does not in the minds of many equate to reliability. Truth or not, it is perception.
If I was to invesnt 100% clean and free power - do you think I would be able to release it freely?
I think the one year is a pretty good target and if working for 20 years, it means around about 5% saved a year (and growing a little) - which makes the amount of people one paycheck away from homeless quite scary. The median wage in the US is 34K - about 3K a month - so that means that a whole lot of people have debts and obligations without the savings to cover even one month.
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.