My Dream in 23 Years – What’s Yours?
One of the important components of the All Your Worth Balanced Money Formula is the Dream Fund. Of the 20% of take-home pay that is supposed to go toward savings, 25% of it is for your dreams – aside from retirement and all of that. When I was a kid I thought I would want to own a beach house. Maybe some other people want a plane, an around-the-world cruise, or to pay for their grandkids’ college educations.
While we do broadly follow the BMF, we’re not saving for any dreams right now. (I think the BMF is quite light on long-term savings so we save more than the 10% recommended.) Part of that is that our future looks very fuzzy beyond graduation – we don’t really know where we’ll live, how many kids we’ll have, when we can buy a house, or a lot of other things.
But I realized that I do have one dream for the far-off future. It’s not something that we should start saving for now, but probably only a few years in advance. Kyle and I got married a couple months before we turned 25 (we were born in the same month and year), which means that our 25th wedding anniversary and our 50th birthdays fall in the same summer. And I want to have a GIANT party to celebrate those milestones – a wedding-scale blowout that our friends and family will fly in for. I’m not sure if the party would actually include a vow renewal but that would be an option.
I’ve written before about what a high priority we place on attending weddings, and that’s really because we want to visit, feel connected to, and celebrate with our friends. And I want a second chance at having a big reunion-type event where we can acknowledge many of the people who have loved and supported us through the years.
So that is my dream! Not necessary to start saving right now but I hope to recall it a few years in advance of that summer so we can begin saving and planning. If babymaking goes as we expect, our kids might be in their late teens to early twenties, so we’ll likely be saddled with some college expenses but hopefully not expenses for their weddings yet. Plus, if we get this party to celebrate our marriage and birthdays, we won’t be tempted to add our friends into our children’s wedding guest lists.
What is your far-off dream and when do you think you’ll start saving for it? Do you plan to celebrate any birthdays or anniversaries in a big way?
Filed under: goals, luxuries, marriage, personal, values · Tags: dream fund, party, reunion, wedding
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We are hoping to go to Europe by the time we turn 30 (two more years). I’m not sure if it will happen and we certainly haven’t started saving for it yet.
We just keep trying to chunk away at that debt and we’re working on increasing the income. Once the debt is taken care of then we’ll take a more serious look at saving for the far-off dream.
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Kyle and I have never been to Europe and I’m very interested in going in the next few years, but like you it’s not something we can save for yet.
My husband’s grandparents have a perfect example of a Dream Fund. I’m not sure when they got the idea, but on each of their children’s 50th birthdays (they have 5 kids!) they sponsor a week-long trip for the entire family (all 5 kids + spouses, their kids + spouses and their kids’ kids) to anywhere in the world. Each person/family usually pays their own travel, but G&G pay for all the lodging/activities for the week. So far they’ve gone to Belize, Nova Scotia, the Pacific NW, and Ireland. I would love to have a Dream Fund like that!
Wow!!! I love this idea! And I love the idea of having a big party too!!! It’s nice to dream about something besides getting the kids through college. 😉
Duuuuuuuude. That is a majorly awesome dream. What an incredible gift.
I’m not a huge fan of how little the Balanced Money Formula suggests for saving either. My split is closer to 30% needs, 20% wants, 50% savings.
That’s an awesome idea! My family always does nice meals out for the couple celebrating a big milestone like that, which is a nice touch.
To be completely honest, I’m not sure what I would save for in a dream fund that is that far off. I’m single and I don’t have any plans to have kids (yet). That’s definitely something to think about for after a mortgage is paid off though.
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It’s hard to look that far into a fuzzy future. I think you can save for nearer-term dreams even as you pay off your mortgage, though!
Our dream entails us semi-retiring early (in our 40s) and being able to travel!
Interesting. Are you implementing strategies for passive income already?
I haven’t thought about anything that far off into the future yet. Throwing a huge party sounds like fun, though I wouldn’t to plan for for awhile.
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I don’t think I’m going to make the planning nearly as complicated as wedding planning was!
I’d love to travel Europe. Also take my family to Disney and a long trip to Hawaii. A lot of savins need to happen first though.
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I’ve never been to HI but Kyle tells me it’s wonderful – we’ll have to make it happen at some point! I first went to Disneyland as an adult and didn’t find it too amazing so I definitely support taking children there.
We’ve talked about visiting Ireland one day, since we are both part Irish. Other than that, the only long-term goals we have are buying our own land and her surgery so we can have kids. I’d love to visit the moon, but I’m not sure that will be a possibility in my lifetime.
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I’m part Irish, too! I didn’t know your wife needed surgery. I would think that would be a very near-term goal!
It’s an elective surgery, so nothing life-threatening or pressing. To be honest, I don’t even know what the surgery is, just the medical issue that is affecting her fertility.
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A far off dream of mine would be to move back to the city where I went to University. It’s an awesome city but very expensive for home owners, hence why we moved away in the first place. I’d love to move back there eventually.
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We want to move to a high-cost area too. I guess I don’t know much about it, but we’re just going to buy what we can afford in a good area and hope that the rising tide of property values with help us move to a larger place eventually.
My far off dream plan is to progress steadily and become a better person. Secondarily I would like some financial stability and to be able to enjoy a nice retirement (without financial stress).
We can never eliminate all the stress in our lives. But it sure would be nice to not have to worry about money!
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I share that dream too, as I’m sure many do!
I have deer in the headlights with twins going to college in 2013, so I haven’t thought past that much!
I do like the fact that you allocate more than 10 percent to the formula. Generic formulas for saving drive me crazy because it’s so easy to actually account for your own dreams and come up with your own amount needed to save.
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Double college, yikes! Are you going to let them go to an expensive school without many grants/scholarships like my parents did? :/ Or do they have to go to public school?
I wouldn’t say it’s easy to come up with what we need to save! As discussed in the comments, so much is still unknown about our lives – jobs, kids, house. 10% just feels too low, and definitely won’t get us to a proper endowment for our retirement.
You’ve been posting great stuff lately, Emily.. Keep up the good work!
My dreams at this point mainly involve helping my kids grow up to be healthy and happy.. And I do try to fund that as much as I can..
But I also have a love of travel, and that one hasn’t gotten as much investment lately.. I need to work on that..
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[…] passed on a great idea for a dream fund from her grandparents-in-law! ”On each of their children’s 50th birthdays (they have 5 […]
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