My partner and I have a couple different savings accounts but I wouldn’t say we are saving very efficiently. We are paying off credit cards every month, and our only debt is our mortgage. My partner is on board with whatever makes sense. I’d like to work toward having the following, unless I’m going about this all wrong:
1- a bare bones emergency account to cover our expenses for 6 months (we currently have 4 months saved up), based on needing $5k per month.
2- a savings account that is dedicated to health related needs (dr. visits, deductibles, etc) that covers our average yearly spending. We’re about 50% there and would replenish after using to maintain. I’m really bad at using FSAs and usually have money left over that gets “donated” to the company, so I would prefer to not have to go that route
3- a house repairs savings account. We just drained most of the money we had in this account for replacing our roof and getting a new HVAC system which was desperately needed and is already saving us money on electricity. I would like to get this back to $20k and keep it there (replenish after using) as we have crawl space abatement, siding, countertops and windows that also need to get done in the next 5 years.
4- a general emergency fund for emergency expenses, that I would like to have be at $5k, but currently doesn’t exist.
5- a down payment on a car- if not paid in full. Mine will need replacing before my partners though it’s a 2015 Corolla with 70k, so it should be good to go for quite some time still, fingers crossed. Also doesn’t exist yet. My original goal was to save about $5k, but now I’m wondering if $10k would be more reasonable?
6- professional advancement savings- I have to maintain my certification which is usually about $5k every 3 years, and my partner would potentially like to take more classes in their field to earn a higher wage/have more flexibility. There is about $4k in this account, because my certification is due again next year.
My retirement accounts/investments are scarily underfunded- I have no good excuse, so that is also a concern, though my partner is on track and is putting in max towards his 401k, with employer matching.
We’re in our early 40s and are DINKs if that helps.
My specific questions are:
-is it better to prioritize the savings accounts (e.g., emergency accounts first), and get them fully funded first
-to continue to put some in each account monthly which is what we’re doing now and doesn’t seem very effective especially since we’re adding new savings accounts,
-put all savings into a single account and just keep track of what is slated for what, and do some CDs or something with money we aren’t using right away,
-do emergency fund but then focus on getting retirement accounts up to speed and then resume savings?
-Or something else completely?
We also need to create a new budget because some costs have shifted over the last year, but that’s something we’re both good at sticking to once it’s in place. We’re currently putting $2500/mo towards savings monthly. We can probably contribute more once budget is updated.
Submitted April 17, 2021 at 11:02AM by Peskypikachu https://ift.tt/3gibzl5
