PLAN to SAVE!

If you fail to plan then you plan to fail. PERIOD! The fact of the matter is we all have quirks, hobbies, overpriced toys that we would like to indulge in. For me personally, I love to shop and travel. I’ve never been one to go into a store and buy things full priced but I still would like to have a closet of nice things!

It’s also my plan to take yearly vacations; preferably 2. One with the family and the other with my girls! Also, one of my hobbies is taking pictures and I have a dream of becoming a photographer. With the lenses costing more than the camera…this is not going to be a cheap hobby to get into!

Another goal that I have is to have a substantial savings for Kennedy so that when she gets of age, I’ll be able to buy that first car outright or if she decides that she wants to take a year before going to college to travel the world, she’ll be able to. And not only that and probably most importantly, I want a substantial savings for emergencies! So when the brakes on my car goes (which they are now :( ) I can dip into my emergency fund and fix them rather than driving around scared out of my wits!

So since I PLAN to accomplish all of the above, I obviously have to figure a way to do so and the most simplistic way is to save! It doesn’t matter how small the amount is, the only thing that matters is consistency!

I divided my savings goals into 5 categories: Kennedy, Long Term Savings, Short Term Savings, Vacations and Holiday. (see budget spreadsheet)

• 
  Kennedy is pretty self explanatory. I plan on using this account for those big purchases that need to be made in the future. I also plan on using this as a learning tool. For every dollar that she gets for a birthday or holiday, we’ll go to the bank and deposit a percentage of it so she’ll know the value of savings early on!
• Long term savings will be for my emergencies and rainy day
• 
  The short term savings is for my splurges! We work hard so don’t feel bad about putting a little aside for YOU! Just make sure you PLAN for it! So right now, my big splurge is my Nikon D90 and I’m excited to say that I have saved already $116 towards my goal! Other options are the new wardrobe you’ve been wanting or that ipod touch that you just have to have!
• 
  Holiday- I just recently opened up this account with my credit union! The money that I put into it won’t be available for withdrawal until each November. No more breaking the bank running around at the last min buying Christmas gifts! Even if you don’t’ have a tons of gifts to buy, you can use this money for Black Friday! I was so disappointed this past year when Wal-Mart had those great deals on flat screens and I couldn’t purchase one! Well I’ll be more than prepared next year because I would have PLANNED for that purchase!
• 
  Vacation- Although I don’t’ have an official vacation account I do have an account dedicated to this expenditure but I do plan on opening one. It usually works the same as the holiday account but the money is available each June/July.

The easiest way for me to keep track of my individual savings goals is to have separate accounts where a portion of my check automatically goes into each one. I know that’s a lot of accounts but it works for me! I even go so far as to label my accounts so when I log in online, my goals are clear and visual. My short term savings account is actually marked “Nikon D90” and when this short term goal changes so will the name of my account!

Also, it’s important to be realistic! Don’t’ have 40% of your salary going towards your “wardrobe” savings when you’re 3 months behind in your credit cards. And with that said, don’t feel trapped in your initial allocations! Use my spreadsheet on the right to tailor your goals on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis! If you know that you have a big bill approaching in April (although with this savings structure you would have already prepared for that that expenditure!) rather than having 20% of your income going towards savings, scale back to 10%. The most important thing is to remain consistent!