I was planning some savings goals. Such as six months of expenses plus $1000 emergency funds. Which came up to saving approx. $1500 a month for one year. I thought one year was a good time to shoot for. $1500 a month is not reasonable!! So I need a reality check. How long did you take you to reach your goals? How much did you save a month? I may take on a P/T job to help with our savings IF I can make arrangements for my three kids!! Otherwise we can only save UP TO $300 a month. I'm a little depressed.

If you are like most normal people you are probably being shackled by the weight of debt. Save $1,000 into a savings account then pay off all your debt except your mortgage, for most people it takes about 2 years to pay everything off. Then you will have plenty of money to save.

I am in a similar situation. I have put a priority on paying off debt right now and I am steadily adding to savings, but not much. One of the things I have done is put my long-term savings at a different bank. It is a credit union and the $ is difficult to get to (few branches, limited hours, no debit card, etc.). I am having funds directly deposited from my check so I never see them. It is building very slowly over time, but at least the balance keeps going up.

At the same time, I have short-term savings as well. This is to put money aside for known expenses such as my health insurance deductible, quarterly insurance payments, and any items I am saving to pay cash for instead of using credit (vacation fund, christmas money, etc.). This money is easier to get to so if there is a minor emergency, I don't have to tap in to my long term savings and deplete it. I do not want to cut out all of my extra spending completely. I am trying to reward myself for paying off debt and saving by carefully selecting one item at a time that I would like to save to purchase. I have cut out daily extras as well as entertainment, eating out, etc. in order to do this.

Once my debt is paid, I will be more aggresive with the long-term savings. By that time, I should have a pretty good start since the slow but steady deposits will be building.

I think it is great that you have a goal and are trying to figure out how to reach it! I think that sometimes it is better to approach things slowly and make sure you won't touch that money at all. For most, that means having a few concurrent savings plans.

Thankfully, we're not. We have our new mortgage and a car payment of $300, which is actually an over payment.

Keep paying extra on the car and that's an extra $300 per month you can save right there Paying etra on the car is an awesome plan IMHO.

I figure you probably have one of 3 things going on since you have little debt.
1: A mortgage that is more than 3X your annual income
2: No written budget
3: Other high monthly expense

I found it hard to begin & maintain my emergency fund....I decided to stop pissing away my IRS refund and to put it in the bank until an emergency....When I still had the refund in my acct 6 months later, I realized that I coulda been doing that my entire adult life, for the most part. So the next year I did the same thing.

Also, I divide my monthyl bills into 4 ( 4 payweeks a month) so for every month we have 5 weeks I put my ENTIRE net pay in the savings account.

Voila, hefty savings acct with little effort & no drain on my weekly pockets

Honestly, it took me about 2 yrs. I started with just $200/month.

*Everytime I got a bonus from work, I put it in savings.
*Everytime I got a raise, I maintained the same standard of living and put the difference in savings.
*I get paid every other week, so there is always 2 months when I get paid three times instead of two, so that third check would go into savings.

When I reached my e-fund savings goal (6 months of expenses), I felt empowered! So I created new $$ goals and opened new accounts to keep them separate.

Now I'm able to put $1,000/month in savings, split between investments, annual expenses (in the past, i used to go into debt or get behind on other bills when these were due), summer vacation fund, my quaterly shopping addiction (new seasons require new clothes, handbags, and shoes) , and gifts.

It's not that hard. The important thing is to save SOMETHING (whatever you can "comfortably" afford) and not focus on the balance. If you try to save so much that it makes you uncomfortable, you're more likely to quit saving all together or be tempted to dip into your savings when it's not a real emergency.

You should establish a budget with a lot of fluff (round everything UP) and don't create a misc category, label EVERYTHING. Whatever is left, put it into savings. When raises come or you get a large sum of money, don't spend it, save it. START RIGHT NOW!! Make saving a habit and put it into your budget spreadsheet like it's a bill. Before you know it, you will have reached your goal in no time!

I've been saving regularly for about 18 months. I still haven't reached ONE month expenses, but the size of my savings contribution goes up every month as I reduce my expenses. This month I will be able to put $75 into savings.

The budget is my best savings tool. I'm super obsessive about it. I use MS Money to enter all my receipts, sometimes to line item detail. (Have to track that sales tax now, you know). I have very specific budget categories and keep careful track of where the money goes.

Then each month I make a game of it. I try to shave something out of my budget. When I save, even if it's a few dollars, that's money extra that gets into savings.

I've also have a car loan that has an awful interest rate. I've been devoting quite a bit extra to that, and in Nov it will be paid off (early). Then that payment will instead go straight to savings.

-LB

Hmm, I know it will take me quite a while. I am about to put $900-1000 in an acct to *start* our e-fund...but from there on out it will be slow going as I'm trying to aggressively pay off our cc's. But I *do* want a little *just in case.*

Also, it'll depend on what goal you're looking at. I have a *shortterm* goal of an e-fund equal to about 3-6 months expenses (about $5000+/- for 3 mos). My LONG TERM goal, however, is to end up with 15-18 months expenses *just in case.* I just worry that 3-6 months wouldn't necessarily cut it if it's a REALLY large medical bill, or if one of us is unemployed for more than months...

I figure it'll take about 2 years to save to my short-term goal though. Then, by then, hopefully we will be able to save more because cc's are paid down (and if in use, we're PIF). The only problem I can see at about THAT time, is that I'll have started paying my student loans, and of course, I would think that our finances would have changed by then (I HOPE we don't have to rent for more than 2 more years!).

I took a second job for 7 months to eliminate all debt and help save $5325 in my emergency fund. I quit about 2 weeks ago and it feels great.

A lot of times a second job will really speed things up.