It depends on your income and not the theory of saving 1/3 or 1/2 of your salary. In OP's case, he is talking about a 3k income. Then if you are living in 3rd country or you are not married, it is super easy to save 1/3 of that income. But if your income is 1k$ or 500$ and you are married, then it must not be easy. However, if we really want to save money, I think we will always find a way to do so, it's up to us whether we do it or not.
I can vouch for the fact that anything a grand or lower in a third world country doesn't give you the freedom to save one third of your salary. First of all, we are living in such poverty as nations that some things are luxury to us to begin with, such as cars or the brand new iphone, or drinking starbucks everyday, these are all luxury.
The regular life stuff could be cheaper, the price of bread or rice or pasta or whatever, the life stuff, making a fettucini alfredo could be cheaper, but if I want to get the new playstation I would have to work over a month to pay for it. So we always spend more when we get some extra cash, in order to reach the western worlds life standards, and can't save.
That is not always the case. With the increasing price of commodities, the minimum salary now a day isn't enough to feed a family which is why both parents are working to at least give their family decent food on the table. Most families can't afford a decent meal, what more to save 1/3 of their income.
If you are in twenties or early thirties and remain single, earn $3,000 after tax per month, you will probably save $1,000 if you, let's say, spend $500 to $800 on rental, a guest bedroom in a shared house/apartment, $500 on food, $50 on utilities, $150 on phone/internet bills, $400 on commuting costs or gas/maintainance if you have a used car, $200 on occasional entertainment or others. This $1,000 savings will allow you to invest or place a house down payment when time is ripe. Is this possible based on where you live ?
That can happen, dude, the 1000$ that can be saved every month is a lot for me, but saving money is not based on the size of a person's salary whether he is an employee or not as long as you are strategic even Even if your profit is small every month, there is and you can save as long as you are determined and dedicated to what you do.
And a lot of people do what I'm saying, even if I have a debt, even if I save money even if it's just a small amount.
You cannot save money if you have debt. Because at the end of the day your saved money will be used to pay for your debt. You are not saving but accumulating funds to pay for your debt.
How can a person save money if he has negative return? You can only save money if you have extra and that is it. Saving money while you end up in a debt is not saving at all.