Drew, your right on a number of counts and (sorry to say) completely wrong on some others.

As you rightly intimate, the rules have again been changed quite recently and only published April 2013.
So not much time to really evaluate those changes.

Your assumption about salary and savings is not correct. In order to be able to use savings to support the application in any way at all you will need to show savings amounts significantly ABOVE £16000.

The latest changes just published only make things far more complex rather than simpler and easier to understand.

Anyway Drew, I'll attempt to explain as simply as I can and I hope I don't slip up. If there's anything at all that doesn't seem right please shout out.

The very first and most important thing I want to say is this, please be aware that if you do not FULLY comply in every detail with the Financial Requirement, the application WILL fall for refusal. Period.

Secondly, I'll apologise now, but this is going to be a long and detailed reply, so please be patient with me, it's not my fault it's simply down to the complex immigration rules. Anyway here goes.

If you are an employee with an earned income, then you MUST be earning a salary of £18,600 for a couple.
Under these circumstances you will be applying under Category A

Category A is defined as being with your current employer for 6 months or more and also residing in the UK

There are some different ways to demonstrate this and in principle it depends on whether you are in salaried employment or you're in non-salaried employment.

Non-salaried employment includes that paid at an hourly or other rate or paid an amount which varies according to the work undertaken.
The only difference under Cat. A between 'salaried' and 'non-salaried employment' is how gross annual salary or employment income is calculated.

Where the person is in 'salaried employment' they must have been paid throughout the period of 6 months (prior to the date of application) at a level of gross annual salary which equals or exceeds the level relied upon in the application.(eg £18600 for a couple only)
This really means each monthly payslip should be a minimum of £18600 divided by 12 = £1550

Where the person is in 'non-salaried employment', the level of gross annual employment income relied upon in the application can be no greater than the annual equivalent of the person‟s average gross monthly income from non-salaried employment in the 6 months prior to the date of application (where that employment was held throughout that period).

To calculate this annualised average for non-salaried employment in Category A the following calculation is used:-

(Total gross income from employment held throughout the 6 month period, divided by 6) multiplied by 12 = Income from non-salaried employment that can be counted towards the financial requirement.

Now, also as an employee with an earned income there are circumstances where you may need to apply under what is called Category B
Category B is defined as being with your current employer for less than 6 months OR having a variable income and also residing in the UK

Under this category you can be in salaried or non-salaried employment at the date of application, but you have not been with your employer for 6 months OR you have not been earning the income level needed for at least 6 months prior to the date of application.
So this means category B should be used by those who have been with their current employer for less than 6 months, OR who have been with their current employer for at least 6 months BUT earning a variable income and wish to be considered in this category rather than under Category A.

To be compliant under Category B you must meet show evidence in two parts

Firstly
Where you are in 'salaried employment' at the date of application, and you have been with the same employer, or earning the amount relied upon, for less than the last 6 months, you can count the gross annual salary at the date of application towards the financial requirement.

Gross income from 'non-salaried employment' will be counted on the same basis as income from 'salaried employment' where you have been with the same employer, or earning the amount relied upon, for less than 6 months at the date of application. Again, 'non-salaried employment' includes that paid at an hourly or other rate or paid an amount which varies according to the work undertaken.

If you are in 'salaried employment', the level of gross annual income will be, that at the date of application.
When you're in 'non-salaried employment', the level of gross annual income relied upon in the application can be no greater than the annual equivalent of your average gross monthly income from 'non-salaried employment' in the 6 months prior to the date of application, regardless of whether that employment was held throughout that period.

So, the calculation will include all non-salaried employment undertaken during that 6 month period, and will be calculated over that 6 month period regardless of how much of that period was actually spent in employment.

The calculation for this annualised average of 'non-salaried employment' in Category B is made like this:-

(Total gross income from all employment undertaken during the 6 month period, divided by 6) multiplied by 12 = Income from non-salaried employment that can be counted towards the financial requirement.

Secondly

You must ADDITIONALLY have received in the 12 months before the date of application that level of income required to meet the financial requirement.

Drew, if you need to consider the addition of other income. Such as non-employment income, cash savings above £16,000 or pension payments the please
let us know as they can be included but do add some extra complexity.

I hope I've managed to explain the issues sufficiently well enough so you can figure it out.
But if not please don't feel shy to ask any questions.

UKBA love to make these things as complicated as possible with 'civil service speak'

Now, which category are you ?
I suspect from what you've divulged that you'd be going for Category B ?
But anyway read this a couple of times and decided where you sit.