We have a lot of savings accounts, and most of them get automatic monthly deposits.
Long-ish Term:
- our retirement
- nursing school for me
- higher education for our kids
- future replacement vehicles
Shorter Term:
- annual auto insurance
- auto maintenance/repairs
- Christmas
- future vacations
- future home repairs/maintenance
- self-employment taxes
Basically, my goal in saving is to prepare for future expenses so that they are not financial emergencies. A healthy collection of savings accounts gives me financial margin, and that gives me mental margin too!
We’re pretty much always saving up for the inevitable no-income periods that are a part of self-employment. There are always a few months in the year when there’s a lag in my husband’s attorney payments and he gets no checks at all. Although, we no longer have NO income during those times, thanks to our two part-time jobs as teacher’s aide and bus driver. They don’t pay much, but it’s nice to know we have something coming in every month.
Other than that, I just recently opened 529s for my kids, but that was mostly because we had family members wanting to contribute. It was a good spur for me to do it, though, and since I was doing it, I set them up with an automatic contribution from us to each account every month. Not much, but I’m sure it will be appreciated when the time comes for the four of them to pursue whatever continuing education they choose.
We are actively saving for:
* college expenses (future and current as we have 2 kids in college and 1 upcoming)
* vacation
* upcoming home improvements (on the list: landscaping, wood floor refinishing, carpet replacement, front door replacement, cedar siding stain, chimney cleaning/repair)
* retirement
* vehicle replacement
College! We have my son going this fall. He is trying to decide between two. He has been offered great scholarships but it will still be very expensive. Unfortunately, we did not do a good job saving for college. It’s hard with 5 kids!
A replacement car
Household repair/replacement type things
Retirement
My “full retirement” age is when I’m 66 and four (five?) months, but my SS income at that point would be pitifully small and my husband had to take early SS, so his is quite small as well. If all works out, I will work until 70, drawing more SS after that, and have more in my retirement fund to boot. We did not have a lot to put aside when we were young. We made a few money mistakes, but mostly, we didn’t make very much, so we are late to saving. However, “now” beats “never.” I come from a family in which numerous close relatives lived to be in their 90’s, and three reached 100. I have to be prepared in case I live another 25 or 30 years after 70!
One final blow out trip to Europe. My illness is progressive and at some point I will not be able to walk (if I am lucky) a distance longer than from my bed to the bathroom. We have a house, garden and greenhouse designed to accommodate my wheelchair on days I need it, but travel is becoming increasingly difficult—in part because now we have to drag around medical equipment and a wheelchair. So, before I am homebound completely, we are going to take a month long trip to England and Scotland (where we used to live on a sheep farm and were married) and do it top of the line. First class flights, a fancy hotel, the best seats in the theater when we go to plays, and lots of fish and chips. Our house is paid off, we have retirement, we have health insurance to supplement Medicare, we support several charities. I want one last hurrah and I don’t want to have to do it on a budget.
Do it! And do it right! And then when you do, we want to hear ALL about it!
I really started to commit to saving for specific things when my dad died suddenly in 2017. My mum decided to sell off his pretty valuable stamp collection, and we Ebay’d some other bits, and she gave the money to my sister and I, and all-in, I came away with about £4500. I’ve added to it a bit myself, and it’s now just over 6000, but I still think of it all as “dad money”, and I use it for fun things. That mini-break? That theatre ticket? That fancy meal out? Dad pays for it! I think he’d definitely prefer me using his money for fun things, than paying household bills!
I also have an account that lets you set aside money in different “spaces”. Almost like a separate account.
I have clearly defined savings for car maintenance expenses, future pairs of new glasses (my prescription is difficult and therefore expensive), a future new mobile phone, and a sort-of savings account for my twin god-children (I put £4 a week in there for them, and come birthdays/christmas, use some of it for gifts. And I plan to gift it equally between them on their 21st birthdays).
Aww, I love that!