by Hope
I mentioned in my recent Budget post about having a savings plan. While I do include these in my monthly “where are you spending your money” posts, I thought seeing a plan for the next 8 months in one place might help assuage some of the BAD commenters fear that I am no saving or prepared to be a home owner or…
But before I post my plan, let me caveat by saying that my ROTH IRA and 401K contributions are NOT LISTED here. They come out of my twice monthly paycheck before I even see my income so I do not account for them here. And this works best for me, I am not ever tempted to spend the money elsewhere.
Without further ado, here is my savings plan from now until May, 2022 (which is as far as my budget goes right now.)
| Savings Goals | Date | Amount |
| College Savings | 9/15/2021 | -500 |
| College Savings | 10/15/2021 | -500 |
| Christmas Savings | 10/30/2021 | -500 |
| College Savings | 11/15/2021 | -500 |
| Christmas Savings | 11/30/2021 | -500 |
| Christmas Savings | 12/15/2021 | -500 |
| College Savings | 12/15/2021 | -500 |
| Travel Savings | 1/1/2022 | -500 |
| Car Savings | 1/15/2022 | -750 |
| College Savings | 1/15/2022 | -500 |
| Christmas Savings | 1/30/2022 | -167 |
| House Savings | 1/30/2022 | -500 |
| Travel Savings | 2/1/2022 | -500 |
| Car Savings | 2/15/2022 | -750 |
| College Savings | 2/15/2022 | -500 |
| Christmas Savings | 2/28/2022 | -167 |
| House Savings | 2/28/2022 | -500 |
| Travel Savings | 3/1/2022 | -500 |
| Car Savings | 3/15/2022 | -750 |
| College Savings | 3/15/2022 | -500 |
| Christmas Savings | 3/29/2022 | -167 |
| House Savings | 3/31/2022 | -500 |
| Travel Savings | 4/1/2022 | -500 |
| Car Savings | 4/15/2022 | -750 |
| College Savings | 4/15/2022 | -500 |
| Christmas Savings | 4/27/2022 | -167 |
| House Savings | 4/30/2022 | -500 |
| Travel Savings | 5/1/2022 | -500 |
| Car Savings | 5/15/2022 | -750 |
| College Savings | 5/15/2022 | -500 |
| Christmas Savings | 5/26/2022 | -167 |
| House Savings | 5/31/2022 | -500 |
They are all marked as negative numbers, as they are getting transferred out of my personal/bill paying checking account and into the appropriate savings or checking accounts.
My 5 savings categories
You will note that beginning in 2022, I have 5 designated categories. For the remainder of 2021, there are only two. The reason for this is that I now know what Princess’ spring semester will cost me. I have divided that up and am focused on having that amount ready by January, 2022. For this fall semester, I dipped into my Christmas account to pay for college so I’m paying that account back.
For 2022, things will be a bit different:
Travel
The bulk, if not all of our travel over the last few years has been to Texas. And I foresee that being the case for the next several years with an increasing number of trips. My parents have been coming here twice a year for the last several years and then we go there a couple of times a year. However, my mom is no longer able to travel.
With my mom’s health on the decline, I anticipate Gymnast and I will be going there more frequently. (The other kids will most likely make the trip at least once a year.) I am preparing for this reality. My dad has been amazing at helping me with travel expenses. He is flying Gymnast out next month for a week. (Gymnast and my mom have a very special relationship, so as often as he can go, we facilitate that.)
Car
I recently sold Princess’ car for $2,000. (I mentioned this as a side note in a previous post.) That money went into a savings account for another kids’ car down the road. Gymnast and I are sharing a car which works out great since I rarely go anywhere. Knowing that another car is going to become a NEED versus a want sometime in the year or so, I am going to amp up the savings so I am not caught off guard and should have a healthy amount when the time comes.
I realize the BAD community is split on whether parents should help or buy kid’s cars. I come from a family who always have purchased the kid’s cars while they were in school. That is something I plan to continue as much as I can.
College Savings
I think this is self-explanatory. If not, our goal is for all 5 of my kids to get through college or technical training or whatever they choose after high school with no debt. The twins and Beauty, due to their circumstances, get a plethora of funding from the government. So much so that they all get refunds every semester. As long as they make wise decisions, they do not need any financial support from me on that front.
Princess and Gymnast do not get that type of funding. So this savings is to help them out. They both work and save toward college. And their dad has committed to pitching in where he can. This savings account will help cover semesters’ tuition and housing costs along with books, etc. It certainly won’t cover all of the expense but it will be available to help.
Christmas Savings
In 2022, I will return to my monthly Christmas savings. Yes, I tend to go big at Christmas, maybe bigger than I should as I working to get out of debt. And I may rethink this in regards to my goal of being debt free come May, 2023. But for now, I will continue setting money aside each month.
We always finish our Texas family Christmas shopping by November so we can take it with us at Thanksgiving versus having to pay for shipping. We are ramping up to do that now. I’ve been buying and wrapping Christmas presents for the last couple of months.
*Note: the kids’ birthdays are all included in my monthly budget. I don’t save specifically for them, but do have a dollar amount set aside to cover gifts and a nice family meal for each child’s birthday.
House Savings
I own a house now. I get chills every time I say that. It’s just so unreal to me still after dreaming about it for so long!
While there’s been a lot of work done to it, I realize that anything could happen. As of 2022, I am setting up a new savings account to save for “house emergencies”. My previous plan had $1,000 per month, but with my debt payoff goal and knowing all the work that has been done, I felt like $500 per month should be sufficient. I am very open to suggestions here as I am new to this one.
I carry the suggested home owner’s insurance through a reputable company, have a brand new roof, new electric, new A/C, new bathrooms/kitchens (including new plumbing and electric)…so I feel like I’m covered barring something catastrophic. But am certainly open to real world experience and guidance here.
Summary
Each of my 5 savings categories and budgeted amounts are wholly automated and have their own bank accounts. This was new for me last year and really helped. Kind of the whole “out of sight, out of mind” thing. The college savings is a checking account as there are expenditures from there more regularly then the others.
The others are just basic savings account. I would love some guidance especially on the housing account on if I should set it up differently as I anticipate it sitting a lot longer than the others. At least I hope so.
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
I think just adding a clarifying statement of “I contribute xx% of my income to the retirement plan my employer provides and I have $xxx in my emergency fund”. Your budget posts leave out these important details
I contribute 13% of my income to my employer based 401K.
I contribute enough throughout the year to max out my ROTH IRA ($6,000) although I’ve been warned I might need to modify this based on income.
I have $10K+ in a standalone savings account as my EF. I haven’t had to and don’t plan to touch this unless dire circumstances. This account is intentionally a little harder to get to.
I have around $2K in a savings account tied to my daily checking account as a quick withdrawal and replace EF. This is the one I am currently building. Goal is about $3K and then will stop contributing here. Thought it to cover those quick need emergencies – new tires, need a quick travel to get to parents, storm, I don’t know. Just quick need. I can literally transfer this money is seconds.
I have always heard that you should save 3% of your home’s value each year for emergencies. So if your home is worth 85k, then you should save at least $2.5k each year in a home emergency fund. Though once I write that out, it seems a little low…
Seems reasonable to me. I save a lot for house expenses and in the back of my mind, I can always use some of it for extra principal payments if maintenance costs are lower than expected.
I also think these savings accounts are very consistent with your values. Definitely making your budget work for you!
The rule of thumb for housing maintenance is to have 1 to 4% of house value in a small account for emergencies like failing roof, plumbing, appliances, etc etc. In your case your maintenance account should have between $1000 to $4000. If I remember correctly you covered getting the roof replaced as well as a lot of really expensive items so you might be okay on the lower end. That being said I’d fund that before I went crazy with spending on things that are decorative or largely just visual. I’ d then fund each project one at a time. For example I am presently saving for new fencing for my own house at $200 a payday.
Would it make sense to open a 529 account for the college savings so you get the state income tax deduction? I know with Princess already in college and Gymnast not too far away, the tax free growth won’t be much, but the tax deduction is worth a few hundred dollars a year.
The purpose of an emergency fund is to cover things such as home emergencies, vehicle breaking down, job loss or illness. An additional separate fund is duplicative. Decide on an amount for your emergency fund (example, six months of mandatory expenses that you would absolutely need to eat and stay in your home), store it in a high yield savings account and move on. Because you have multiple income streams you would probably be fine with a three month e-fund but I understand your ingrained fears about money.
Once that fund is full, and it does get full don’t fool yourself into thinking it doesn’t, I would encourage you to instead take that $500 you have already decided you would allocate toward your home emergency and put it toward your student loans.
Re: the car fund, I would again encourage you to decide on a number. How much will you spend on a car? Just from what you say above, you will have $5,750 saved. You have 4 kids who have left the nest and benefitted from the ‘family gives them a car’ practice. You should know the budget by now. Determine it, share it with us if you like, then stop contributing when you reach it and divert that $750 per month to your debt.
I would also encourage you to double check that your IRA and 401K are being invested. You have frequently mentioned not knowing much about retirement and/or investing and both those accounts have three steps (open the account, allocate the money, choose the investments). The last one is easily missed.
Finally, you are so happy in your new home and I hope you know that folks encouraging you to look at your house as an asset are doing so with the best of intentions. Even if you live in the house the rest of your life, if it is paid in full when you pass it becomes an opportunity to create generational wealth. Your children could use the proceeds of selling it to put your grandchildren through college, or your great-grandchildren. They could use the money to buy family members cars or help a friend with an emergency. Make the house your own, absolutely, but know that doing it in a way that increases its value could have effects for generations.