goals

myfurbaby · December 2015

when i open my accounts, i want to set goals for myself. for my saving i would like to have 3000.00 saved by the end of the year 2016
i will open a checking account and i am not sure if i should leave money in it or not?
not sure about e-fund?

what are you guys money goals?
do you keep a buffer in a checking account?
once you reach your financial goal, do you keep saving or stop?

jessica490 · December 2015

1. We have 3 savings accounts One is our e-fund which we keep a certain amount in there. One is a vacation fund which we fill up for with a future vacation in mind. Our last one is our house account which goes towards projects or items we are wanting to buy.

2. It's always a good idea to leave a buffer in your checking account...anything could happen..one time I paid a bill twice which dropped account into the negative and I got hit with overdraft charges. We keep anywhere between $100-$300 dollars as a buffer.

3. We basically stop saving until we hit our financial goals..if we have too much money that we can save (which is never the case because there are always projects to be done or things to be bought with the new house) then we would bump up our retirement contributions.

julieanne912 · December 2015

I budget my checking account to zero for each paycheck, no buffer. If there's any money left over at the next payday, I either use it for something else (like spending money), or lately I've been transferring to savings.

Your E-fund should be separate from your checking account. It can either be a totally separate savings account, or just keep it in your regular savings account with the knowledge that X amount is for your E-fund.

Once I hit a financial goal, I just come up with a new one. So maybe once you get to your $3,000 in savings goal, maybe decide something else to save up for, or just decide to keep saving.

smetter04 · December 2015

I would definitely leave a buffer in your checking account. It's not only to guard against overdraft fees, but it gives a peace of mind. Right now we have our e-fund general savings in one account, but will be putting the e-fund into a separate money market account soon, so that it's easier to separately visualize the funds, and the money market provides a slightly higher interest rate.

Right now, we are in a similar place as you as far as establishing and planning for financial goals and getting into the swing of budgeting. It truly is all trial-and-error to see what works for you, what your comfort levels are, figuring out your priorities, and educating yourself on financial options (which is why you are here - great!)

At the moment, our financial goals are to fund upgrades to our car and house, get into the swing with budgeting/creating short-and-long-term financial plans, and beefing up our retirement funds/other investments. Our philosophy is to always save as much as possible while staying current on bills and maintaining a quality of life you are comfortable with. For example, this year we put more towards loans to pay them off, but not all of our surplus - saving at least a little bit was still important to us. Seeing your savings account increase each month, even if just by a little bit, is a nice morale boost

Good luck! And stick around, you'll learn a lot!

hoffse · December 2015

1) Our money goals for 2016 are to finish our home remodeling (we're close), finally buy some real furniture, and start our debt snowball next year when H's car is paid off. We're also planning at least one trip, possibly two if we end up with enough points.

Long-term, our goals include retiring in our 50's, significant amounts of travel, and probably owning a vacation property abroad that we also use for rental income.

2) We keep $1500 of our e-fund in our checking account to use as a buffer. It's really helpful because H and I have a lot of reimbursable expenses from our employers, but our reimbursements only come twice a month. Some months we have to float hundreds (even thousands) of dollars in expenses until the reimbursements appear. I would recommend keeping a buffer that's a nice round number in your checking account that you just mentally subtract when you see how much you have to spend. The rest of our efund is in a money market account at a different bank. The only time I move it out of that account is when 1) we are facing an emergency or 2) when we are traveling out of the country, and I want access to plenty of extra cash overseas. Any time we leave the country we move the entire amount to a checking account with a high daily ATM limit, so we can access it abroad in an emergency. Once we get home we move it back.

3) We always keep saving because some of our goals won't materialize for decades. We don't just look at very short-term savings goals, but we plan for the long-term also. When we hit our short-term savings goals, usually there is something else that pops up that we find we need to save for. If I don't have a short-term savings goal at the moment, I invest what we don't spend to build wealth.

cbee817 · December 2015

what are you guys money goals?

Ours is more retirement focused at this point- we save in 401K/403b and our Roth IRA accounts every year. We are also funding our girls' 529 plans for college.
do you keep a buffer in a checking account?

We try to leave at least $500 in both checking accounts, our efund is our savings account we can get to immediately (3+ months of expenses).
once you reach your financial goal, do you keep saving or stop?

Our goals are constantly evolving- some are completed quickly (within a year- home repairs/purchases, etc), some take longer (SL were about 5 years, car loans are 48 months), and others will be there for a long time (mortgage, college for the girls, retirement savings). As our girls get older and our income increases, our goals will shift. We adjust and change but keep the basics in place- all bills paid in full each month, 8 months of savings available, stability for the family.

dragonstarjk · December 2015

what are you guys money goals? Our current goals are paying off the front porch we just had built (within 3 years), adding $1000 to our e-fund by the end of 2016, and increasing my Roth IRA contribution to $100/month.

do you keep a buffer in a checking account? I budget to zero and I don't keep a buffer. My account currently has $58 in it (I get paid tomorrow). However, I have several different accounts that I could transfer in and out of if needed, and I am never worried that I will overdraw my account. Plus I work at the bank, so that makes it a little easier

once you reach your financial goal, do you keep saving or stop? Once we accomplish one goal, we will set a different goal. I like to have a mix of easy, short-term goals and longer-term goals. Long-term, we are planning for a super sweet retirement with lots of traveling, so we will be working on that goal for at least the next 20 years.

brij2006 · December 2015

i am not sure if i should leave money in it or not? I would use a checking account to run your day to day transaction, using a credit card or checks.
not sure about e-fund? We have an e-fund of 9 months of expenses. That is in our savings account.
what are you guys money goals? Our current money goal is to put 15% toward retirement, and save up for doing upgrades to the house and upgrade vehicles with cash.
do you keep a buffer in a checking account? Yes. When we were in debt payoff mode, we kept $500 buffer in there. I now keep $5,000 in there, but that's so we can make larger transactions without worrying about needing to transfer money from savings.
once you reach your financial goal, do you keep saving or stop?

We are always saving for something. We have an ongoing list on the side of our fridge that are "wants." We are always putting 15% of our income toward retirement each month. Beyond that, we have a list and prioritize which things/experiences/upgrades we need to save for next. We are cash paying people and don't take out debt. So right now our next item on our list is putting money aside to insulate and drywall our garage. We have anywhere from saving for items, to trips on that list.

AprilZ81 · December 2015

what are you guys money goals?

Right now we aren't working on anything specific, but we save monthly for retirement (both contributions to our 401(k) and ROTH IRAs), vacations, gifts, car repairs (or eventual down payment), and general savings. Right now our general savings account is for our master bathroom remodel that should be happening in January.
do you keep a buffer in a checking account?

Yes, we keep $2,000 as a buffer so that we can still pay bills no matter when our paychecks get deposited.
once you reach your financial goal, do you keep saving or stop?

We keep saving but we may just reallocate the money to a different goal.

lbonga1 · December 2015

I budget to zero, but I keep a small buffer in my checking account (about $100). Right now I'm trying to rebuild our emergency fund because we tapped into it a bit while I was on unemployment (I was the sole income provider for our family). So right now our financial goals are to finish paying off credit card debt (2 more payments), and rebuild our e-fund to 3 months expenses. I'm also trying to save more money to put toward my car when the lease expires, so that will happen concurrently to building our e-fund.

We will always have something we're paying down, or saving for. Next would be finishing paying off my car, student loans, and saving for a downpayment on a house. We'd also like to save for vacations, college for our kids, and obviously retirement.

As a suggestion, @myfurbaby, you should check out the 52 week double money challenge. It would get you pretty close to $3000 saved by the end of next year.

simplyelise · December 2015

1. Our #1 goal right now is to pay off DH's student loans. We started at $55k in October 2014 and we're down to 21K today. We also save a little each month towards a car replacement for DH's 2000 Malibu. After we pay off the loans, we'll be looking to beef up our e-fund to 5-6 months of expenses, up our retirement contributions, and save for a down payment.

2. We keep a buffer of about $750 in the checking account. It's just a preference for us because we don't want to have to check the account balance before we make any planned purchases. We don't have to worry about cash flow with the buffer in place.
once you reach your financial goal, do you keep saving or stop?

3. There is always another goal out there. I think it's nice to always have something in your mind that you're working towards. It helps me get through my daily work frustrations when I think about how awesome it is to be paying off our debt at the current rate. So even if it's saving for vacation or saving for christmas or saving for a goal retirement date, it is good to always have something in mind for your savings.

littlemushroom · December 2015

when i open my accounts, i want to set goals for myself. for my saving i would like to have 3000.00 saved by the end of the year 2016
i will open a checking account and i am not sure if i should leave money in it or not?
not sure about e-fund? We keep a buffer of $3000 in our checking account, and treat it as being at 0 when we hit 3000. That lets us not worry about when bills come out v when we get paid and acts as part of our efund. The rest of our efund is in a savings account.

what are you guys money goals? We don't have any debt except for our mortgage. Right now, we are trying to get a good budget together so we can get some whole life policies. We also want to pay our mortgage off in 15 years, save up a house/efund of around 20k, and get our 401k contributions up to 15%.
do you keep a buffer in a checking account? Yes, $3000. It had been $2000 for a long time, but we just bumped it up in case something happens with our new house. I keep a $1000 buffer in my individual checking account.

once you reach your financial goal, do you keep saving or stop? There will always be something to save for, whether it is a trip we want to take or for retirement. When our house/efund reaches 20k, we will probably allocate the amount we have been saving per month to other things, like more for retirement or short term investments. Same goes for when the house is paid off, we will allocate that money to other investments/savings. When we have to buy the new roof, we will start refilling that savings account to get back to 20k.

PurpleBookmark · December 2015

1. Our 2016 goals are to save 6 months worth of expenses in our emergency fund and possibly to save for a down payment on a house - these won't be accomplished in one year though.

2. We keep at least a $100 buffer in checking.

3. If we met our financial goals I would try to become debt free or to save to buy our next car with cash.

sillygoosegirl · December 2015

1. Financial Independence and Retire Early.

2. We try to keep a buffer in checking, especially lately as we've been too busy to manage our money as actively as we would like. The trick is not to let your buffer become an excuse to over-spend.

3. I was going to say always keep saving, but I suppose once we actually retire, we will stop saving. Until then and in the past, we've always had savings as part of our budget, even if there hasn't always been a specific goal associated with it.

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