I’ve spent a lot of time wanting a big savings/investment account. The year-to-year reality is that I’m not even making forward progress on this goal. I did manage to get myself debt free for a tantalizing moment this summer, and I’m now fighting to keep debt at zero. This, for the first time in a long time, gives me real hope that I can put some money away.
Goal 1 of this macro goal to “establish a savings plan” is to save the equivalent of 6 months net pay—about $20000. I currently have $2500 stashed.
My plan for this year is to increase the emergency fund to $6000 by Sept 1, 2011. To accomplish this I will be saving, on average, $300-$350/month for the next 12 months. This is realistic, and I have an auto-deposit savings plan in place.
See you in a year!
The continuing goal in this series once I reach the first goal amount, will likely be to add $3600 to this account each year until I reach a fully funded 6 month emergency account. This will probably take a total of 5 years starting now. In the meantime, if I get unexpected cash, most of it will go toward this account, shortening the goal and allowing me to move on to other savings goals (home purchase money, college-fund, etc).
I hope I mean this.
