Dreaming of a Giant Nest Egg
*Copied and edited from TiredButHappy
How much money are you saving, and do you feel that it's enough? Do you ever daydream about being able to save more?I'm always thinking wistfully of how much money I'd LIKE to be saving.
Just for fun, I decided to create a wishlist of each savings category I'd like to have, and how much money I'd like to be saving in each category. Of course, over time, I'd like to save even more, but this is how much I wish I was saving right now. In most categories, I'm already working towards meeting my goal, but for the most part, I'm not even close. Most of the categories are to cover short-term expenses. I'm tired of scrambling to pay for things that I should be able to predict and save for ahead of time. Here's my list.
Category: Workplace retirement accounts
Short or long term: Long
Current savings level: $235/month
Monthly goal: $1000
Annual goal: $12000
Notes: I'm fairly satisfied with my current savings level here. Of course it would be nice to max out my accounts, but that would be almost half my gross income. It's not gonna happen for a long while, at least not until my income increases dramatically.
Category: Roth IRAs
Short or long term: Long
Current savings level: $60
Monthly goal: $650
Annual goal: $7800
Notes: Currently only making a small contribution to my Roth IRA. I am aware that current limits only allow us to put in $8000/year for the wife and I, but Elissa is using all of her income currently to pay down our credit card debt, and putting her savings money into high yield accounts that she can access immediately, rather than when she is 60. Still, it's better than nothing.
Category: College
Short or long term: Long (no children yet)
Current savings level: $0/month
Monthly goal: $100
Annual goal: $1200
Notes: Until I have some children that I have to put through college, this isn't really an issue. I'm counting Elissa's college degree as a bill NOW, rather than a savings plan that we have to put aside for someday in the future.
Category: Irregular bills
Short or long term: Short
Current savings level: $20.37/week
Monthly goal: $150/month
Annual goal: $1800
Notes: I just started doing this and I hope to keep it up. This is meant to cover irregular expenses like contact lenses, appliance replacements or other things that are usually budget busters.
Category: Travel fund
Short or long term: Short
Current savings level: $0
Monthly goal: $250
Annual goal: $3000
Notes: My wife's biggest wish is to travel all over the world learning languages and interacting with different cultures. I could care less, but I do enjoy a vacation every now and again, so I would like to start saving up for this kind of thing.
Category: Car fund
Short or long term: Long
Current savings level: $32
Monthly goal: $300
Annual goal: $3600
Notes: My car is a relatively new Ford Escape. It has 16Kmiles on it. Elissa's car is a '99 VW Cabrio with over 90K miles on it. Both will need to be replaced eventually, but I'm hoping to hold out until we hit at least 180K miles on a car before we replace it. That should give me enough time to save up the necessary funds to buy a new car...CASH. This fund should also (ideally) be able to cover insurance premiums and periodic maintenance (oil changes and such).
Category: Gifts
Short or long term: Short
Current savings level: $25
Monthly goal: $100
Annual goal: $1200
Notes: I am a cheap bastard when it comes to buying gifts for people...but I still end up spending entirely too much. It would be nice to have a clearly set aside amount that I could designate for gifts only. $600 on Xmas, $400 on birthdays throughout the year, and about $100 on things like mother's day and father's day.
Category: Donations
Short or long term: Short
Current savings level: $0
Monthly goal: $50
Annual goal: $600
Notes: This is such a pitifully small percentage of my income but it's a start. I currently don't donate to charity very often right now, because I don't recieve charity, and have only so many causes that I support. HOWEVER...in this fantasy scenario, where I have gobs of money available to save, I would definately want to support lukemia research, homeless shelters and various other causes that are important to me.
Total current saving (monthly): about $435
Total current saving (annually): about $5225
Goal short-term saving (monthly): $550
Goal short-term saving (annually): $6600
Goal long-term saving (monthly): $2050
Goal long-term saving (annually): $24600
Total goal saving (monthly): $2600
Total goal saving (annually): $31200
Given that my gross household income is about $45,800, or $3800/month, this would be a pretty high savings rate. Now, this was just a game. I obviously can't suddenly nearly quadruple my savings rate. More accurately, my family wouldn't be willing to let me quadruple our savings rate. But there are a few areas where the money is already accounted for in my budget. I'm just not saving for most of these expenses ahead of time, so I have to scramble when it's time to come up with the cash. Here are a few ideas for easy steps I could take toward making this happen.
1. When I pay off the loan on the car, I plan to take the $427.81 that I am currently sending off as a car payment and up my other savings amounts.
2. My spouse is paying off the credit cards. When she finishes with that, I imagine that some of her money will start going towards savings goals (like upping that Roth IRA contribution).
3. I am getting a couple pay raises in the next 12 months. Most of that money will automatically go towards increasing our workplace retirement contributions, but at least some of that could go to upping short term savings too.
4. That leaves donations, and travel. I really should donate and travel more, but the funds just aren't there yet....Anyway, it was an interesting exercise.
What's your savings wish list?
Note: I was trying to think like a team player here, so all numbers refer to joint finances, not just my own personal money.
How much money are you saving, and do you feel that it's enough? Do you ever daydream about being able to save more?I'm always thinking wistfully of how much money I'd LIKE to be saving.
Just for fun, I decided to create a wishlist of each savings category I'd like to have, and how much money I'd like to be saving in each category. Of course, over time, I'd like to save even more, but this is how much I wish I was saving right now. In most categories, I'm already working towards meeting my goal, but for the most part, I'm not even close. Most of the categories are to cover short-term expenses. I'm tired of scrambling to pay for things that I should be able to predict and save for ahead of time. Here's my list.
Category: Workplace retirement accounts
Short or long term: Long
Current savings level: $235/month
Monthly goal: $1000
Annual goal: $12000
Notes: I'm fairly satisfied with my current savings level here. Of course it would be nice to max out my accounts, but that would be almost half my gross income. It's not gonna happen for a long while, at least not until my income increases dramatically.
Category: Roth IRAs
Short or long term: Long
Current savings level: $60
Monthly goal: $650
Annual goal: $7800
Notes: Currently only making a small contribution to my Roth IRA. I am aware that current limits only allow us to put in $8000/year for the wife and I, but Elissa is using all of her income currently to pay down our credit card debt, and putting her savings money into high yield accounts that she can access immediately, rather than when she is 60. Still, it's better than nothing.
Category: College
Short or long term: Long (no children yet)
Current savings level: $0/month
Monthly goal: $100
Annual goal: $1200
Notes: Until I have some children that I have to put through college, this isn't really an issue. I'm counting Elissa's college degree as a bill NOW, rather than a savings plan that we have to put aside for someday in the future.
Category: Irregular bills
Short or long term: Short
Current savings level: $20.37/week
Monthly goal: $150/month
Annual goal: $1800
Notes: I just started doing this and I hope to keep it up. This is meant to cover irregular expenses like contact lenses, appliance replacements or other things that are usually budget busters.
Category: Travel fund
Short or long term: Short
Current savings level: $0
Monthly goal: $250
Annual goal: $3000
Notes: My wife's biggest wish is to travel all over the world learning languages and interacting with different cultures. I could care less, but I do enjoy a vacation every now and again, so I would like to start saving up for this kind of thing.
Category: Car fund
Short or long term: Long
Current savings level: $32
Monthly goal: $300
Annual goal: $3600
Notes: My car is a relatively new Ford Escape. It has 16Kmiles on it. Elissa's car is a '99 VW Cabrio with over 90K miles on it. Both will need to be replaced eventually, but I'm hoping to hold out until we hit at least 180K miles on a car before we replace it. That should give me enough time to save up the necessary funds to buy a new car...CASH. This fund should also (ideally) be able to cover insurance premiums and periodic maintenance (oil changes and such).
Category: Gifts
Short or long term: Short
Current savings level: $25
Monthly goal: $100
Annual goal: $1200
Notes: I am a cheap bastard when it comes to buying gifts for people...but I still end up spending entirely too much. It would be nice to have a clearly set aside amount that I could designate for gifts only. $600 on Xmas, $400 on birthdays throughout the year, and about $100 on things like mother's day and father's day.
Category: Donations
Short or long term: Short
Current savings level: $0
Monthly goal: $50
Annual goal: $600
Notes: This is such a pitifully small percentage of my income but it's a start. I currently don't donate to charity very often right now, because I don't recieve charity, and have only so many causes that I support. HOWEVER...in this fantasy scenario, where I have gobs of money available to save, I would definately want to support lukemia research, homeless shelters and various other causes that are important to me.
Total current saving (monthly): about $435
Total current saving (annually): about $5225
Goal short-term saving (monthly): $550
Goal short-term saving (annually): $6600
Goal long-term saving (monthly): $2050
Goal long-term saving (annually): $24600
Total goal saving (monthly): $2600
Total goal saving (annually): $31200
Given that my gross household income is about $45,800, or $3800/month, this would be a pretty high savings rate. Now, this was just a game. I obviously can't suddenly nearly quadruple my savings rate. More accurately, my family wouldn't be willing to let me quadruple our savings rate. But there are a few areas where the money is already accounted for in my budget. I'm just not saving for most of these expenses ahead of time, so I have to scramble when it's time to come up with the cash. Here are a few ideas for easy steps I could take toward making this happen.
1. When I pay off the loan on the car, I plan to take the $427.81 that I am currently sending off as a car payment and up my other savings amounts.
2. My spouse is paying off the credit cards. When she finishes with that, I imagine that some of her money will start going towards savings goals (like upping that Roth IRA contribution).
3. I am getting a couple pay raises in the next 12 months. Most of that money will automatically go towards increasing our workplace retirement contributions, but at least some of that could go to upping short term savings too.
4. That leaves donations, and travel. I really should donate and travel more, but the funds just aren't there yet....Anyway, it was an interesting exercise.
What's your savings wish list?
Note: I was trying to think like a team player here, so all numbers refer to joint finances, not just my own personal money.
posted by ~Scott~ at 12:30 PM
1 Comments:
Wow, it's fascinating seeing my weird quirky post, down to the exact language and everything, repeated here with Scott's numbers.
Very interesting.
If anybody's interested in my original post, you can check it out here:
Savings goals: A girl can dream, right?
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