Saving for multiple things

[Minniesgal]

I save for school fees and rainy day money by using separate accounts and once money goes into them it is ring fenced and I don't touch it.

I don't physically save for anything else

What i do do is run a spreadsheet with 3 years income and outgoings. Once we plan something the expenditure is put into the spreadsheet so it is essentially gone from our 3 year budget but the cash will still be sitting in the current account. For example of I want to save 350 a month for disney I put a 350 false outgoing in my current account every month until we go so although that money is still in the current account it is as if it is gone. that way when we go to disney the cash is just sitting there to be used.

 

[kace08]

Consider getting a part time job that you dedicate your earnings to a specific goal unless you have a lot of flexibility in your budget.

 

[MrInfinity]

I appreciate the advice, but there have been many things that have happened lately that have driven home the point that none of us are promised tomorrow. One of which was a co-worker who was waiting to retire to travel the world with her mom. Less than a year before she was set to retire, her mom was diagnosed with cancer and died. Heard a lot of "If onlys" before she did retire. I'm not going to put my life on hold until I am debt free. I won't add to any debt that I have, and I am also paying it down, but nope. Not going to stop enjoying life in the meantime.

I agree with you, and disagree with those who have suggested strict segmentation of savings and not spending on yourself until you have paid off your debt. The problem with the protectionist view of don't spend anything on vacations until you've secured the essentials, is that you will not reach this point until well into your career when your kids are grown. In the interest of experiencing things like Disney World when your kids are 3-9 years old, you have to do this in a phase of life when you're most likely not financially secure (having 6 mo of life in the bank, cars paid off and no cc/school debt). The keys here are balance and reason. Having debt is not a bad thing ~if~ you have reasonable foresight and envision a path to getting ahead... and, if you demonstrate that your foresight has a history of playing out the way you think it will. Even if taking vacations requires taking them with borrowed money, since you get more out of them going when your kids are little, it's worth it over waiting 20 years and going when you can pay cash.

An ideal life path of funds would involve spending more in your early years when you earn less but need to spend more... which tapers off thru life... crossing with an income path that starts low, advances steadily, and ends high. When all is said and done, in the end you should end up ahead. You accomplish these things by borrowing while young -- but in a reasonable enough way that you will reach a point around mid-life when you'll start accumulating wealth even while paying off your youth debt.

And as you say none of us are promised tomorrow, nor are we promised a tomorrow with someone else, so you should do whatever *you* think is important, now. If saving at all costs to be secure before you get a vacation makes you happy, you should do that. If going to Disney World makes you happy, you should do that. But again falling back to balance and reason -- and proving to yourself that what you think is reasonable actually plays out the way you think it will.