What do you consider savings?

[Anonymous]

When there's a thread about how much people save, I always wonder how everyone else is defining "savings." I generally define it as money set aside for retirement or other unspecified uses. But is that too cramped a definition? Consider the following categories:

Money put aside to pay property taxes
Money put aside for home repairs
Money put aside to pay next year's insurance premiums
Money put aside for next year's vacation
Money put aside for college
Money put aside for clothing purchases
Money put aside for large purchases that can't be paid out of monthly income
Money put into an HSA account
Money put aside to purchase a car/pay for auto expenses
Money put aside for the holidays (Christmas gifts, party costs, etc.)

Interested in which, of those categories others would consider "savings."

[Anonymous]

To me? None, except college. All of those re just funds already earmarked to be spent. If you don't plan on still having the money in 24 months, its not savings, its just cash flow planning and or emergency funds.

[Anonymous]

Only college and retirement.

[Anonymous]

I don't consider college and retirement as savings.
Savings are only amounts you have put aside for an unspecified purpose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To me? None, except college. All of those re just funds already earmarked to be spent. If you don't plan on still having the money in 24 months, its not savings, its just cash flow planning and or emergency funds.

Agreed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't consider college and retirement as savings.
Savings are only amounts you have put aside for an unspecified purpose.

Well, We call it "retirement". The more we save the better our retirement.

[Anonymous]

But just because its earmarked for something doesn't mean that in an emergency it can't be used for something else (with the exception of property taxes which have to be paid). I'd call all of that savings except property taxes and HSA (which can't be used for other purchases).

[Anonymous]

We have retirement, house down payment, 6 month emergency fund. Besides college, all the other things you list are part of our budget, reviewed quarterly.

DH and I both contribute to a joint account (proportional to our incomes) for things in the budget. Sometimes that account is larger until the big ticket items are due (we pay quarterly taxes for DH's fellowship stipend). If something unexpected happens, we use the 6 month fund and then top it up over the next few months.

Clothing comes out of our own money - the money we don't put in the joint account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me? None, except college. All of those re just funds already earmarked to be spent. If you don't plan on still having the money in 24 months, its not savings, its just cash flow planning and or emergency funds.

Agreed

This is the OP, and this is my thinking as well. It's budgeting/cash flow, not savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me? None, except college. All of those re just funds already earmarked to be spent. If you don't plan on still having the money in 24 months, its not savings, its just cash flow planning and or emergency funds.

Agreed

+2

What OP posted is budgeting.

[Anonymous]

Savings are any money not reserved for current expenses.

[Anonymous]

We keep $75K in cash, for all the things OP listed, and the rest goes into retirement. Once we max out tax deferred accounts, we put the extra into a joint brokerage account, which is the majority of our retirement savings.

[Anonymous]

To me, savings is retirement (401K, rollover IRA and Roth IRA), college (529) and some liquid savings not earmarked for anything. ($20K or so.)

I budget everything else - income and projected outflows - for the year so I can see if there's any extra that can be put into savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To me, savings is retirement (401K, rollover IRA and Roth IRA), college (529) and some liquid savings not earmarked for anything. ($20K or so.)

I budget everything else - income and projected outflows - for the year so I can see if there's any extra that can be put into savings.

Huh.

I don't consider those things savings. I consider them retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me, savings is retirement (401K, rollover IRA and Roth IRA), college (529) and some liquid savings not earmarked for anything. ($20K or so.)

I budget everything else - income and projected outflows - for the year so I can see if there's any extra that can be put into savings.

Huh.

I don't consider those things savings. I consider them retirement.

I call it saving for retirement.