Savings allocations

[working on it]

Other than the $1000 EF, what portions of of your savings are allocated towards what? IE: unforseen expenses, vacation, christmas etc. I like having a specific goal like the EF.

[Lindsey]

Hmm, how we do things: We make a list on what's most important for us and save in that order... This is AFTER saving for retirement.

For us vacationing while we live in Europe is more important to us than a Christmas fund.
We guess what each thing will cost and then divide by 12 or however long until it gets there (might be 6 months) and then go down the list with the money we have and at the end of the list if we run out of money the rest doesn't get paid. But we also have monthly things at the bottom of the list as simple as pork chops. They are very expensive and because of that we only have them 1 or 2 times a year depends on how the money holds out going down the list.

Some things we save for.
A house when we go back stateside, so at least a 20% down pymt divided by 3 years (how long were here for).
A car in 4 or more years. We just divided it by 4 years though.
Christmas/birthdays/anniversary
Vacation
Clothes
a computer in 5 or more years.
New tires for the car we have now by next winter.
An Army fund for gear my DH might be told he has to have, but they don't issue.

Can't think of anything else right now.
HTH.

[JustJoy]

I have two accounts with ING. One is our EF the other is our VA (vacation fund).

[dcompton]

I have two savings accounts at the moment. One is for taxes and insurance - I prorate the amount the put it in monthly.

The other is long term savings. I have started building a ladder of short term CDs, each covering a month of fixed expenses - rent, utilities, insurance, phone. I like having that locked away, and the CDs earn, at present, a little more than the savings accounts - mine are at HSBC online.

I have in the past pulled money from this long term account for unplanned expenses as they come up, and I can continue to do that, but I am considering starting another little money pot funded by the change jar for occasional things like routine car maintenance. I really want to keep the long term one untouched - more a catastrophe than an emergency fund.

[itlw8]

remember that EF is just a start not the finish of emergency savings.

BEFORE you even think of saving for that big vacation do you have 10 months income saved.

I like to watch Suze Orman the can I affor it segment... it really starte to get drummed into your head when she denies people not just becaus ethey have debt but because they have no savinges except retirement savings.


so my answer is 10% off the top but really that has gotten me into the problems I have already.... so all the extra I have found to pay off debt will be going into savings I am working toward the 10 month income that should last us more than a year if we had to

[Wendy99]

Other than the $1000 EF, what portions of of your savings are allocated towards what? IE: unforseen expenses, vacation, christmas etc. I like having a specific goal like the EF.

I like to save in chunks. I had a personal goal of getting our EF to $1,500.00 by Christmas. We have reached that early, so we are working at getting our EF to $2,000.00 by the new year. After that I will be saving for our new living room window (about $2,000), then our summer holidays ($1500 +/-), then for a new to us car/van ($5000 +/-). As priorities and situations change so do our goals .. so that is the "rough draft" of what we hope to accomplish, but things pop up etc. We just keep frugal and save the most we can no matter what category it falls under.

So in other words, I guess I like to snowball our savings one item , then the next in a priority sequence.

[gmanch]

Everybody has different ways of saving (or many who do not save at all). The most important thing is to set your goals and to stick to them. Because I myself did not follow that rule, I find myself at 60 years old with lots of money in investments but little in easily accessible savings for emergencies. I understand the above post about "snowballing" savings and changing priorities, but for most people, a plan that constantly changes is a plan that will fail - too easy to divert savings to wants instead of critical needs and too easy to focus on short term instead of long term goals. Just my thoughts; the best plan would be different for each person or family.

Gordon

[MomToTwoBoys]

We don't have anything in savings beyond the $1k BEF right now because of debt repayment. Once the debt repayment is finished, then our savings will be allocated as follows:

1) 3 to 6 months living expenses (this is groceries, utilities, mortgage, cable/phone/internet, cell phone, etc.)

2) New tires for the van (both winter and non-winter pairs)

3) Money to replace furniture pieces, including laundry and bedroom suites

I haven't looked much more beyond that because we have alot of stuff on our plates right now. We at least want to put away enough for YDS to go to college, even before the possibility of scholarships.

[madhen]

I have approx $200 per month direct-deposited into mutual funds. Also, my retirement is taken directly out of my paycheck, and I contribute the full amount possible.

Out of the remaining money, I am currently sending approx $400 per month into various savings account. I am still building up my BEF, so $25 goes into that every week. $25 to my Christmas 2009 fund. $25 to savings and $25 to checking in my ING account. The rest is in my regular account, and is for bills and everyday expenses. I am thinking of starting a remodeling account in 2009 and putting $25/week into that, since I have several really big projects that I would like to get done, but that will require several thousands of dollars each.