am i the only saver?

saverhottsaver · November 2015

MY NAME IS MELISSA AND I AM A HUGE SAVER. I SAVE TO THE POINT WHERE I CANT ENJOY LIFE BECAUSE I'M AFRAID THAT IF I DON'T SAVE THAT'S WHEN AN EMERGENCY WILL ARISE. AM I THE ONLY ONE LIKE THAT? MY QUESTION'S TO ALL OF YOU MONEY SAVVVY NESTIES ARE
1. HOW MUCH DO YOU SAVE PER MONTH IN A SAVINGS ACCOUNT
2. DO YOU HAVE A YEAR END SAVINGS GOAL LIKE FROM JANUARY 2016-DECEMBER 2016- HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT IN LIQUID SAVINGS?

saverhottsaver · November 2015

my husband and i save 3000.00 a month just in liquid . we make good money and we max out our retirement. next year i want to be able to save a set amount and make a year end goal for us which i am still working on.

brij2006 · November 2015

I'm a saver. I really don't think I could have enough money in the bank to feel comfortable.
We just spent $5,000 on carpet, and I had to make my H write out the check for it because I hate seeing the money go. Even when funding our retirement, I hate seeing the money out of the account, even though I know it's technically still saving.

hoffse · November 2015

saverhottsaver said:

my husband and i save 3000.00 a month just in liquid . we make good money and we max out our retirement. next year i want to be able to save a set amount and make a year end goal for us which i am still working on.

As a fellow saver who has suffered "savings guilt" when we saved $2300 vs. $2400, my advice to you is to chill out on it a little bit. If you guys are natural savers, loosening the belt isn't going to cause you to take a financial nosedive.

I finally loosened up when I realized H was asking me if we could budget in a $3 bucket of balls for him to hit at the golf course. That's when I knew I had gotten ridiculous, and I needed to just lighten up. I posted my budget in another thread, but I finally started lumping all of our true misc. expenses and extras into a "save or spend" category. It's generous and enables us to live well, but realistically my H and I are both cost-conscious people, so we wind up putting most of it toward savings anyway. But I mean, it sure does help my marriage that my H isn't asking permission to spend $3, and it really helps relieve any guilt I might feel over having a spendier month than usual.

Also, sending $3000/month to liquid doesn't make sense as a long-term strategy. After your emergency fund is in place, start investing that money. You lose 1-2% per year that it sits in a basic savings account just based on inflation.

To answer your original questions:

1) It varies from $0 if we are doing some remodeling to over $2,000.

2) We keep about $10K on us in liquid cash form at any given time. Other than that, our money is being invested or spent or saved for a very short-term thing like a vacation or home improvement.

PurpleBookmark · November 2015

1. Our goal is $100 per month into savings. That doesn't always happen, depending on what expenses come up.

2. I don't really have a year end savings goal, just our ultimate savings goal which is 6 months worth of expenses. Our monthly savings, "extra" paychecks and tax returns all can contribute to this goal.

Maybe once you have a plan you will feel less anxious. It sounds like you're doing great, but of course I don't know your expenses. The ladies on this board have some great advice.

brij2006 · November 2015

If you're putting aside $3,000/month, I would try to find some goals for that money.

We live Dave Ramseys' principals, so we plan for give/save/spend with our extra money.

So we have a running list of items we need to save for, a list of things or places we want to give to, and a vacation on our list to spend on.

We chat often about those goals. Right now they're as follows:

Give - Operation Christmas Child, and give our sitter a Christmas bonus

Save - Put money aside to drywall and insulate our garage to help with heating costs in the home (we consider this savings because we're re-investing in our home).

Spend - We would like to replace our stand up freezer, so we are planning to spend toward that.

So to break it down, this month we will have $750 left over after all of our budgeted items. We will put $300 toward the freezer, $300 toward giving, and $150 toward saving for the garage project.

Not all months are split this way. Some months we go to a small percentage on 2 categories, but beef up the 3rd if we're getting closer to wrapping up a project or know we have a benefit we're attending that we want to give graciously to.

short+sassy · November 2015

Keep in mind, those are really broad questions that will be very different for different posters...depending on what their financial goals are. Without knowing anything else about your goals, I'll make a generalization that if you are debt-free except for a mortgage, have a retirement plan and are sticking to it, and have an e-fund equal to 6 months basic living expenses...you are in super good shape and definitely need to ease up on yourself.

But, even if you don't have every one of those items checked off, if your income nicely outpaces your expenses/bills than you need to give yourself permission to live a little.

I'm not nearly as MM as a lot of the folks on this board and I'll tell you why. My father had a fatal heart attack at the young age of 49. He wasn't obese. He exercised daily and ate fairly healthy. Turns out he had a minor heart defect that was never diagnosed while he was alive and it was exacerbated by a medicine he had just started taking.

LIFE IS SHORT. None of us know how long we have. And, while that shouldn't be an excuse to go crazy and live paycheck to paycheck, I'm also not going to deny myself living a comfortable life today. With my caveat being I have enough income to pay bills, spend more lavishly if I wish, and still put money working for me to an early retirement.

I'll travel now to exotic places I want to visit (though I haven't done this nearly enough!). Eat at 3-4 star restaurants on occasion. Grill up steaks instead of hamburgers if we're in a mood and wash them down with pricier good quality beer. Because who knows what my world will look like 10-20-30 years from now. Me or my H might be deceased or have a medical condition that makes traveling impossible.

There is certainly a line/range between saving for the future/rainy day and spending some of your excess income now to more enjoy life. And, to a certain extent, there is not a "right" range. It will be different for each person and not everyone has the same financial picture or risk tolerance.

GL with your financial goals and start considering a "mad money" line item in your budget. Use that money to do something more frivolous for you. Whether it be a massage, fancy dinner, hobby... whatever brings you a bit of happiness and joy.

KatieCutie05 · November 2015

I'm a big Saver - in the sense that I can't stand spending on reckless things. I'm frugal really. I've become a bit more lax then i used to be as i've learned the value of "buy once, cry once". But I still get really excited when i save money.

We aren't currently contributing to a liquid savings account as we're in debt payoff mode. So all that money is going to debts instead. But we have a specific "goal amount" for our extra payment and what we should have paid off by a certain date.

jessica490 · November 2015

We are savers but we still like to have fun. Our age and health wont last forever

1. What we save monthly varies depending on the bills we have to pay, house projects, vet bills, and other expenses that come up so there is no set amount. Plus we just bought a house so we just finally banked something after 2 months of buying things for the house. We save for retirement monthly and have a good savings account, so we are comfortable with whatever we can contribute every month

2. We like to keep X amount in our savings account so if we don't have any projects going on we will put it towards a ROTH IRA we are saving up for to open next year, vacations etc...so no, no set amount

cbee817 · November 2015

I used to be like this, but have lightened up a bit. Most of it comes from how I grew up poor with a single mom who was constantly working/going to school to make life better for us. Since having kids of my own, I've actually become better about keeping 6 months of expenses relatively liquid (savings account and CDs) and using any extra to fund 529 plans for the girls, Roth IRA accounts, vacation fund for future trips, a date night with DH, something fun for the girls (doesn't have to be a toy), or some home repairs. I get the peace of mind I need with a good emergency fund and can put the extra to better use and for actual goals for our family.

AprilZ81 · November 2015

I'm probably right down the middle between spend & save, I think we have a pretty good balance to allow us to have fun and still save for the future.

Our only debt is our mortgage and a small HELOC, so we have a lot of money that we can play with.

DH does 5% (with a 5% match) to his 401(k) and I do 6% (with a 50% match of the first 6%).

Post tax we save:

$50 into a Car Fund (repairs, registrations, down payment)
$700 into General Savings
$250 into Vacation Fund
$250 into Christmas/Birthday/Other Gifts
$915 into ROTHs

We also have a sinking fund $101 a month for the small things (Netflix) and annual subscriptions (Amazon Prime, Sirius Radio, etc) and a few irregular expenses.

We also budget for $100 a month for "Home Improvement" to catch those small runs to Home Depot for paint, electrical outlets and small items. That rolls over each month it doesn't get used.

We budget $50 a month for "Clothes" that rolls over each month it doesn't get used.

jessica490 · November 2015

short+sassy said:

Keep in mind, those are really broad questions that will be very different for different posters...depending on what their financial goals are. Without knowing anything else about your goals, I'll make a generalization that if you are debt-free except for a mortgage, have a retirement plan and are sticking to it, and have an e-fund equal to 6 months basic living expenses...you are in super good shape and definitely need to ease up on yourself.
But, even if you don't have every one of those items checked off, if your income nicely outpaces your expenses/bills than you need to give yourself permission to live a little.
I'm not nearly as MM as a lot of the folks on this board and I'll tell you why. My father had a fatal heart attack at the young age of 49. He wasn't obese. He exercised daily and ate fairly healthy. Turns out he had a minor heart defect that was never diagnosed while he was alive and it was exacerbated by a medicine he had just started taking.
LIFE IS SHORT. None of us know how long we have. And, while that shouldn't be an excuse to go crazy and live paycheck to paycheck, I'm also not going to deny myself living a comfortable life today. With my caveat being I have enough income to pay bills, spend more lavishly if I wish, and still put money working for me to an early retirement.
I'll travel now to exotic places I want to visit (though I haven't done this nearly enough!). Eat at 3-4 star restaurants on occasion. Grill up steaks instead of hamburgers if we're in a mood and wash them down with pricier good quality beer. Because who knows what my world will look like 10-20-30 years from now. Me or my H might be deceased or have a medical condition that makes traveling impossible.
There is certainly a line/range between saving for the future/rainy day and spending some of your excess income now to more enjoy life. And, to a certain extent, there is not a "right" range. It will be different for each person and not everyone has the same financial picture or risk tolerance.
GL with your financial goals and start considering a "mad money" line item in your budget. Use that money to do something more frivolous for you. Whether it be a massage, fancy dinner, hobby... whatever brings you a bit of happiness and joy.

I'm sorry about your dad. And I love what you are saying....you never know when your day is so enjoy it while you can. I've watched both my grandmas go into nursing homes and the money they had mostly got taken by the nursing home to pay for her monthly stays...so if you don't use it you loose it eventually

hoffse · November 2015

@short+sassy is wise.

It's about finding that balance between saving, spending, long-term goals, short-term goals, and spending that extra $30 every once in awhile to buy the shoes you really want vs. the ones that are just cheap.

That balance will be different for every person, and it will be colored by family history, medical history, income expectations, even politics and religion.

It might take you years to figure out the best balance for yourself.

But I agree with her that if your income is really outpacing your expenses by $3000/month or $36,000/year... spend the extra $30 on shoes once in awhile and allow yourself to live a little.

For H and I, we plan for a future we really hope we will have. Our families have been healthy, and all of our grandparents have survived to their 80's or 90's. But we also know we might not be here tomorrow, and it's not worth making ourselves miserable over money today because of arbitrary financial goals.

bmo88 · November 2015

saverhottsaver: First, read this article about money disorders:

http://www.moneymozart.com/money-disorders/?utm_content=bufferbfe27&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Saving to the detriment of your happiness, life experiences and negative impact on your relationships does nothing good for you. What's the point of having all that money if you are never going to spend it to enjoy life? It's unhealthy to let money control you like that.

As others have said, it's about finding a balance. Which takes spending time to intentional figure out goals, setting realistic parameters for spending and then spending money in a meaningful way.

Per your questions:

1. HOW MUCH DO YOU SAVE PER MONTH IN A SAVINGS ACCOUNT:

Emergency: We have 5 months emergency expenses saved up at this point; temporarily postponing saving more until debt is paid off
General Savings: We save about $500 a month
Retirement: $1,800 a month (roths and 401k)
Vacation Savings: $200 a month
Total: $2,500 a month (about 20% of our annual income)

2. DO YOU HAVE A YEAR END SAVINGS GOAL LIKE FROM JANUARY 2016-DECEMBER 2016- HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT IN LIQUID SAVINGS?

Not really a year end goal, but we have about $18,000 in liquid savings that is easily accessible. The rest is in the market via retirement accounts.

KAdams767 · November 2015

I am a saver. As a previous poster said, it stems from growing up poor and being afraid of being in that position again. Saving as much as possible over time has brought me a lot of perspective though and I have lightened up a lot more recently. I used to be in the camp of "no amount in savings will ever make me feel secure or be enough" but I've started to realize that is not true.

How did I get there? Time. Our first goal was to fund a basic emergency fund. I started out with the goal of that being $25,000 liquid at all times. Once we were there, we started investing most of our long-term savings, at a rate of $1,000/month. After awhile, I realized that we literally did not ever miss a month of putting that $1,000 into our investment account, and we hadn't taken a dollar out of that $25,000 e-fund either. So eventually, I dropped the e-fund to a lower amount, $10k, and invested the rest. I am comfortable with this as our cushion, since we are now at a point that we've had the $10k sitting there in cash and invested $1,000/month for 6 years, without ever withdrawing any of it or decreasing the contributions. I am OK continuing on this path and this being enough savings moving forward that we can comfortable spend and enjoy our lives.

simplyelise · November 2015

I'm a saver, but our focus right now is debt payoff. Once we are debt free in July, we're going to take a look at loosening our very strict budget a little. We desperately need to start replacing some clothes, so we'll probably be doing $100 a month just to start updating our wardrobes. We will also be putting a little money each month towards entertainment. Right now our only entertainment line item is $50/month for date(s). I definitely agree with previous posters that you've got to figure out a good balance and it's completely individual. I also agree that if you've met your emergency fund goal and you're funding retirement at 15% or so, then you should be strategizing about a better place for your surplus money. Maybe it's saving for a house or saving to replace vehicles. Or maybe it's putting it in mutual funds. If you're very risk-averse, you can start out small and with more stable investments until you figure out what you prefer.

1. HOW MUCH DO YOU SAVE PER MONTH IN A SAVINGS ACCOUNT:

We're in debt-payoff mode, so we send $2500/month to debt
We also save $100/month to car replacement

2. DO YOU HAVE A YEAR END SAVINGS GOAL LIKE FROM JANUARY 2016-DECEMBER 2016- HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT IN LIQUID SAVINGS?

Once we're debt free, we'd like to save up 6 months of expenses in our emergency fund. That works out to about 15k for us currently. Once we hit that target, we'll transfer our surplus towards saving for a house. But we will loosen up our budget a bit when we hit the efund goal.

kmurphy2131 · November 2015

brij2006 said:

I'm a saver. I really don't think I could have enough money in the bank to feel comfortable.
We just spent $5,000 on carpet, and I had to make my H write out the check for it because I hate seeing the money go. Even when funding our retirement, I hate seeing the money out of the account, even though I know it's technically still saving.

I'm so glad I am not alone on that. We are in a temporary situation of lower income and I keep saying "we aren't savings a dime!" and H has to remind me that retirement is savings

Erikan73 · November 2015

Reward yourself & enjoy life. Take advantage of dollar days or discount days at the movies. Watch your local events listing for events in your area from free concerts, festivals and fairs. It can be fun to just go to those events and walk around looking at things and people watching. You don't have to spend any or much money at those. Maybe allow yourself $5-$10 to get a drink or food or a splurge if you find a great deal on something you love. When you see a pair of shows you love on a clearance rack for $5.00 and you know you'll wear them a lot, treat yourself to them. It's great to save money, but it's not a good life if all you are doing is living to save.

CuriousKiddosMama · November 2015

Right now we consider our emergency fund to be fully funded, so our savings every month goes towards all sorts of things. Retirement is about 20%, we save for vacations, cars, and other miscellaneous funds every month for when yearly expenses come up. All our extra $ right now is going towards baby #2. We have cut our budget a bit so we can have as much as possible set aside before he arrives in February just in case there is a nicu stay or some other complication involved.

I do agree that life is short and you have to reach some sort of balance. I don't seem to buy much for myself anymore since having a kid, I find more joy in buying him clothes than in buying clothes for myself. We do this through our pocket money every month. Or is there is something bigger we need or want, we discuss it and budget for it.

als1982 · November 2015

We keep very little (only $1,000) in liquid savings, but we're big into retirement savings. Right now, we're putting 22% of income away for retirement and we've already bumped that up to 25% starting January 2016.

We enjoy life but honestly the least enjoyable aspect for me is work, which is why we focus on front loading our retirement accounts and paying off debt (both student loans and mortgage) to set ourselves up for freedom and flexibity. I'm guessing my job will feel much differently when it's not something I have to do, but instead want to do. In the meantime, we do carve out a chunk of our budget for vacations to help keep us going!

am i the only saver?

Re: am i the only saver?

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