Writing a Saving Money Plan for 2009
The first step to saving more money is to figure out your plan of attack, which would indicate the need to develop a savings plan that is built into your overall financial goals for the year.
Today we will look at how to write your savings plan for 2009 so that you not only have a set of pre determined goals, but you also have the strategy in place to continue saving money and maximising your net worth over the course of the new year.
Step 1
Establish what money is going out of your account
You will need to sit down and write down all your outgoing costs, these include but not limited to things such as;
- Car loan repayments
- Insurance payments
- Mobile Bills
- Mortgage Repayments
- Child Care Fees
- School Fees
- Credit Card Repayments
- General Cost of living
along with any other large ticket items that you must pay on a monthly basis.
Once you have listed all these, find the total cost of each per month so that you know what your after costs monthly income is. I suggest using the budget spreadsheet I previously spoke of.
Step 2
Find out how much both you and your partner earn
Calculate your monthly incoming cash flow + any money you make from side business or once off work. Doing this will allow you to find the total monthly income you or your family earn and set the scene for calculating incoming minus outgoing costs.
Step 3
List 5 financial goals you want to achieve
This can include;
- Paying off your credit cards
- Increasing mortgage repayments to know time off your mortgage.
- Saving a certain percentage of your salary each month.
- Increasing your super contributions.
- Having left over money each month for spending.
Step 4
Find out how much money you have left monthly
Use this step to establish how much money you have each month leftover after paying all the items in Step 1.
The figure you get will allow you to understand how much money you have to play with in your savings plan.
Step 5
Setting the plan in place
The leftover money from step 4 can now be divided by your 5 goals, with the percentages according to your saving desires.
For me I have around $750 per month leftover that allows me to put $100 on my credit card, $300 into my nest egg, $100 extra into my super account + $250 left over each month for money that I can use on what I like, with the hope of not using it at all so I can further add it to my nest egg.
What will this plan achieve?
It may sound simple, but look at what this will do for me by the end of 2009:
- $1200 paid to my credit card (that means I have paid it off + accounted for using it again over the year)
- $3600 added to my nest egg, which is cooking away at 6% interest in my high interest account (add $216 in interest earned to this)
- $1200 extra contributed to my superannuation, as retiring will cost alot one day!
- $3000 in extra cash for me to use, and fingers crossed that I haven’t used it, resulting in an extra $2-3K added to my nest egg.
My next savings plan
It would be good practice and very helpful to develop a plan like this each year. As a result, I will be re-evaluating this savings plan as of 2010 in which hopefully I am earning more and can increase my numbers. Increasing year on year will help you reach your goals a lot faster and you will really start to see your savings start to grow, while your debts get lower.
Having a goal and a purpose greatly helps you to save money, so i thoroughly suggest adapting information similar to this to your own needs in the hope of finding a savings plan that is right for you.
Important Note
It is crucial to do the figures in step 1 and 2 properly, as it is best to find how much you can COMFORTABLY save rather then just skim by on. $100 in the nest egg is better then $300 that constantly gets redrawn at the end of each month because you are needing money!
You Tell Me!
I want to know what you think would be important for a Saving Money Plan. The best comment will be awarded $20AUD via PayPal.
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