What does "saving" mean?

[Anonymous]

What do you mean when you say you are saving "$x" every month? Does that usually mean pre- or post- retirement? What about 529s? Does it count as "saving" if you are refilling the emergency fund or know the will go toward a specific purchase or vacation?

[Anonymous]

I think of it in two ways. One is a total of why we saved for the year to include retirement, college, etc. The other way is just the money we save that isn't earmarked for something like retirement of college.

[Anonymous]

Michelle singletary recommends an emergency fund of 6 months living expenses, and a "life happens fund" of at least $1k for car repairs, dishwasher breaks, etc.

We auto deduct monthly into a separate saving account that holds these two funds together, and we only dip in when life happens in s major way.

If you don't have at least 3 months of cash flow I would focus on that before retirement or debt payoff.

[Anonymous]

I have:

--retirement savings (automatically deducted from my paycheck into TSP plus some other stuff)
--college savings (auto payments monthly to a 529 account)
--emergency savings (a general amount I try to have safely stashed somewhere pretty accessible and that I work on rebuilding if I tap it for any reason.)
--short term savings (I actually keep this in the same account as my emergency savings so it's just a mental difference. I add to it as often as possible (I used to auto-deposit but had to stop temporarily and am hoping to restart soon) and I use it to pay for stuff that isn't part of my regular budget like vacations or other large purchases.

[Anonymous]

Any money we don't spend. Some of it is save to spend (college), some is for general purposes (retirement), some is for specific things (emergency fund). I kind of mentally adjust how we are doing based on how everything is funded. But it is all savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have:

--retirement savings (automatically deducted from my paycheck into TSP plus some other stuff)
--college savings (auto payments monthly to a 529 account)
--emergency savings (a general amount I try to have safely stashed somewhere pretty accessible and that I work on rebuilding if I tap it for any reason.)
<b>--short term savings (I actually keep this in the same account as my emergency savings so it's just a mental difference. I add to it as often as possible (I used to auto-deposit but had to stop temporarily and am hoping to restart soon) and I use it to pay for stuff that isn't part of my regular budget like vacations or other large purchases.</b>

That last part is what I am usually thinking about when I say I "save" $x a month. Retirement and college is out of sight, out of mind and the emergency fund is generally stable so I don't need to add to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean when you say you are saving "$x" every month?

Does that usually mean pre- or post- retirement? Both

What about 529s? Yes

Does it count as "saving" if you are refilling the emergency fund. yes

or know the will go toward a specific purchase or vacation? No

We have saved the 6-12 month emergency fund and basically for college. Everything else is for retirement regardless of if it is in a retirement vehicle like 401ks or IRAs. The ROTH IRAs are dual purpose, retirement and college if needed.

[Anonymous]

It's what we don't spend on consumption ando spending. So cash savings of any sort, retirement, and college.

[Anonymous]

We max out both of our 401(k)s and our nondeductible IRAs. so I don't think of those items when I say I save $X a month. But I do include them when I figure we save $170,000 a year.

[Anonymous]

I have to categories: (i) retirement; and (ii) whatever is left over that didn't get spent.

[Anonymous]

On DCUM, it means the amount left after you have maxed out 2 retirement accounts, put $1000 into each child's retirement fund, and otherwise funded whatever other retirement saving vehicles you have (IRA, stocks, etc.).

If you're able to set aside another $3-5k per month as "savings," but have nothing left over to spend frivolously on hats, you are among the poors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We max out both of our 401(k)s and our nondeductible IRAs. so I don't think of those items when I say I save $X a month. But I do include them when I figure we save $170,000 a year.

Nice job sliding it in there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On DCUM, it means the amount left after you have maxed out 2 retirement accounts, put $1000 into each child's retirement fund, and otherwise funded whatever other retirement saving vehicles you have (IRA, stocks, etc.).

If you're able to set aside another $3-5k per month as "savings," but have nothing left over to spend frivolously on hats, you are among the poors.

lol. this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Michelle singletary recommends an emergency fund of 6 months living expenses, and a "life happens fund" of at least $1k for car repairs, dishwasher breaks, etc.

We auto deduct monthly into a separate saving account that holds these two funds together, and we only dip in when life happens in s major way.

If you don't have at least 3 months of cash flow I would focus on that before retirement or debt payoff.

My golden retriever understands more about personal finance than Michelle Singletary.

[Anonymous]

Haha about the golden retriever. Yeah she's not my favorite but I do think people need a life happens find, at least mentally.