Do i still need to save 50% of my income even after settling my emergency funds? For now, i am just saving $500 and dumping more $$ into investments.

The 50% savings rule is one of those financial guidelines that sounds impressive but rarely accounts for real-life circumstances or financial stages. I've found that optimal savings rates evolve based on where you are in your wealth-building journey.

Having a 6-month emergency fund properly established in a high-yield account is an excellent foundation. This represents the completion of your first major financial milestone. Once this safety net is in place, shifting your focus toward investing rather than continuing to build cash reserves is not just "ok" - it's often the strategic move for long-term wealth building.

Many professionals I work with face this exact inflection point. One client had diligently saved 50% of her income until she built a robust emergency fund. When she reached that milestone, we recalibrated her strategy to direct most of her savings toward investments while maintaining just enough cash flow to keep her emergency fund growing with inflation. Five years later, her investment portfolio has significantly outperformed what she would have accumulated had she continued with the high cash savings approach.

A common misconception is that "saving" exclusively means accumulating cash. In reality, investing is a form of saving - you're simply saving in assets with growth potential rather than in cash. The key difference is that you're allowing your money to work harder for you through potential market appreciation and compounding returns.

For most professionals with a solid emergency fund, I typically recommend:

1. Maintain your emergency fund's purchasing power: Review it annually and top it up just enough to account for inflation and any lifestyle changes that would affect your monthly expenses.
2. Focus on investment allocation over savings rate: Rather than fixating on saving 50% in cash, channel your efforts toward optimizing how you allocate investments across different asset classes based on your goals and time horizon.
3. Create a "financial opportunity fund": Consider maintaining a smaller secondary cash reserve (perhaps 3-6 months of investing contributions) that allows you to take advantage of market corrections or unexpected investment opportunities.

The evolution from saver to investor represents a fundamental shift in wealth-building strategy. While the discipline that helped you build your emergency fund remains valuable, the vehicles through which you grow your wealth should naturally shift toward investments as you progress in your financial journey.

For more specific investment allocation strategies and insights on navigating this transition, check out my Instagram (@ngooooied) where I regularly break down these wealth-building progression stages for Singapore professionals.

If you have appetite for some risk, why not try it out. You never know.

Once you have attained a comfortable emergency fund, you can consider deploying the excess in investment or continue to build a war chest.

You talk about saving 50%. Generally people don't save that ratio. Once you saved your emergency fund, carrying on to save is dependent on what you want to achieve. You could be saving for a house? A holiday? A business? Or just buying opportunity.

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another way is to save to generate interest like passive income. Even high interest accounts can generate interest close to $1000 a month if you have about $250,000 cash. So if you are a low spender, it means you could be FI if you are already debt free.