TL;DR: forget about current wages, think about what you value, and experiment.

Think about your preferred consumption path

How will your wages in 1, 3, 10, or 30 years compare to your wages today? How much will you need in retirement? How important is it to you to have roughly the same spending at different stages of your life? What quantity of rainy-day savings might make you feel comfortable?

(I can’t answer these questions for you, although this financial life calculator I made might help. A good fraction of the time I find that, by their own values, friends are being significantly too cautious or incautious about their saving behavior.)

As a first step, it’s helpful to know the annual spending we are working with. If you’re currently focused on saving up rainy-day funds, the amount you have to spend this year might be less than your annual income; if you have savings and are early in your career (or otherwise in an unusually low-paying job relative to your anticipated future career path), the amount you have to spend this year might be more than your annual income.

Set an hourly rate that feels a bit too high

For most people, I expect that the best way to learn about what feels like the ‘right number’ is to start valuing time more highly, at least for a short time.

I suggest that you start with perhaps 2 * {annual spending} / ({40 hours} * {50 weeks}). (As of the time of writing, I typically value time at closer to 4x.)

Introspect on the features of time that really matter to you

What are the key features of an hour that make it more or less valuable to you? (I especially value morning work, intentional socializing in the evening, and sleep.)

Adjust the above hourly rate for hours that do or do not have the features that most matter to you. For instance, you might try out 3 * {annual spending} / ({40 hours} * {50 weeks}) when comparing travel options that eat into morning work time, but only 1 * {annual spending} / ({40 hours} * {50 weeks}) for evening travel. Or you might go with 4 * {annual spending} / ({40 hours} * {50 weeks}) when on holiday, versus 0.5 * {annual spending} / ({40 hours} * {50 weeks}) for laid-back weekends at home.

Live your life, playing around with the number every month or so

When you get to the end of some time experimenting with your number, consider questions like:

1. Did this number get in the way of your saving goals?
2. What have you sacrificed at the margin in order to achieve this number? Are the things you sacrificed more or less valuable to you than the marginal time you purchased?
3. If you now raise your number, what marginal time might you purchase? Is this more worthwhile than the purchases you might need to give up?
4. If you don’t have clear answers to the above questions: would raising or lowering your number help you learn more?

Nudge your number up or down depending on your answers.

Repeat until you get something that feels right

Or, you know, forever.