Evolving Personal Finance » targeted savings
The Slippery Slope of Separate Money
One of the basic rules of marriage that we were introduced to in premarital counseling: Don’t keep track. Life is not 50:50, nor should it be. While both spouses should contribute to a marriage and household, it’s both fruitless and fodder for fights to try to make everything fair and even. At the moment, we keep our finances completely joint. We still have some leftover separate accounts, but all of our functioning money is joint. And … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, marriage, personal, spending, targeted savings
Do You Ever Just Give In and Spend?
I’ve written several times about our targeted short-term savings accounts. For the most part these work very well for us in saving for our anticipated expenses. But sometimes, the system backfires – specifically, when we need (?) something that we haven’t saved for, or haven’t saved enough for. Dividing up our cash among all these accounts means we have to do some psychological tricks to get the money from elsewhere. We’ve had two instances of this … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, choices, spending, targeted savings
First Major Travel Plans of 2012!
We just booked our first flights and RSVP’d to our first wedding in 2012! Both events are taking place in April. We’ve been quite light on travel in the last few months – we haven’t flown anywhere since last November – so this feels great. Our April is going to be quite busy! We have something major going on every weekend except one. March 29 – April 2: I’m traveling to Atlanta to be part of a … Read entire article »
Filed under: personal, targeted savings, travel
Spend $1600 or Become a One-Car Family?
Irony: My car breaking down the day after writing about our disagreement over carpooling to work! When I published that post on Monday becoming a one-car family seemed a remote possibility, but as of this writing on Tuesday evening we are giving it serious consideration. So much can change in 36 hours! For the last few months, my car has been shaking considerably when its speed exceeds 65 mph. I knew I would eventually need to get … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, cars, choices, emergency fund, targeted savings
Hobbies vs. Values in Targeted Savings
Kyle and I had an argument recently about one of those nooks and crannies of our financial life that you could never predict would come up. When we were in premarital counseling, we agreed almost totally on how to (theoretically) manage our finances, but of course when it comes to implementation thing never go as smoothly as planned. You can agree on 95% of topics but still argue over the remaining 5%! A few months ago … Read entire article »
Filed under: marriage, personal, targeted savings, values
Our Short-Term Savings Accounts
The aspect of our financial situation of which I’m most proud is our short-term targeted savings accounts. I’m proud of them because they are a solution to a recurring monthly-budgeting problem – regular but infrequent expenses – that I came up with all on my own. (Not that I’m the only one, of course – I just did it independent of those others.) And I actually think they’re really fun. Targeted savings accounts: 1) Take the stress … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, savings, targeted savings
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