Can't seem to save anything outside of retirement/college accounts. I feel guilty. Is this common?

[Anonymous]

As long as you have some type of emergency fund already, I wouldn't worry too much about not saving outside if retirement/college.

[Anonymous]

The auto transfer from checking a pp suggested is what worked for me. Even a little bit of money really adds up over time.

[Anonymous]

we are not saving for college yet, can only cover daycare, mortgage and expenses and not even maxing out retirement--and we are in our 40s. Feel better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But I can't shake the feeling that we should be doing more.

My boss told me the other day that she opened savings accounts for her kids (who are 13 and 15 now, I think?) when they were little. She's putting maybe $50 per month per kid in a savings account for each of them that will account for incidentals when they're older - books in college, outfitting dorm rooms, etc. Stuff that her kids will need that won't be something that's eligible under the 529 which is only tuition, I think.

Something my dad did: he opened a small brokerage account for each of us, paid for three years of college, then gave us the amount in the brokerage account for senior year and said, "Here, it's yours. Pay tuition, books, room & board, car payment, car insurance, with this now." (They didn't buy my car - I paid for the half downpayment with savings from working two jobs for three summers and part-time while in college and financed the rest.) It was a good budgeting lesson.

You could also buy an investment property down the road.

529s can be used for other expenses related to the cost of attending school, not just tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a very comfortable income and are able to save a lot (at least in my mind) for retirement and kids' college funds - we fund these accounts to the max allowed (or for the college accounts, to the max we can deduct on our taxes). Altogether, we are saving about 20% of our income, but I feel like it's not enough because it's mostly dedicated to retirement and college. We have an ample emergency fund, and other than possible someday renovations to the house, we don't have any particular goals to save for beyond our retirement and kids' college. But I can't shake the feeling that we should be doing more. Anyone else feel like this?

Have you done any analysis to see if the amounts you are saving are sufficient for retirement or college? We have found the maximums (like 401K or IRA's or 529's or prepaid tuition) fall short of what we think we need for both. So, we save more in a non-tax deductible account but we still think of it as retirement/college.