I recently had a discussion with my fiancé on some long term savings goals that we have and I thought I would share some of our discussion and the expected dollar amounts that would end up being. Please note however that a lot of these are mostly my goals (i.e. retirement contribution), but for longer term things we would be saving together (wedding savings, buying an apartment, emergency savings, etc.).
Within the Next 1-2 years:
As you all know, I’ve been paying off my credit card and the end is in sight (expected completion is August 2020). Once this debt is eliminated I’ll be able to contribute more regularly to my other savings goals.
- Travel Savings ($1,000)
- Pet Savings ($2,000)
- Pay off credit card ($5,000)
Within the next 3-5 years:
Our expected wedding date a bit far off, around 3 years away. This will give us (hopefully) enough time to save up our money for the wedding, however our goal does not include contribution from family, though we do want to try for the entire cost to be under the average cost for wedding, so we’ll see if we’ll succeed. (I do plan on writing a post in the future that breaks down our wedding budget a bit more so this is just a rough estimate.) Other goals outside of wedding planning include an emergency fund that covers our living expenses should one of us be out of a job, and increasing my contributions to my retirement account through my job (in theory this would be increasing each year as my salary increased).
- Wedding savings ($20,000)
- Emergency Savings that covers 3-6 months living expenses ($5,000-15,000)
- Increasing contributions to retirement (10%-15% or $4,500-$6,500 minimum)
- Increasing contributions to HSA ($500/year)
Within the next 5-10 years:
Here’s the section that is a bit abstract for me. We have talked about owning some property in the future. Depending on our lifestyle, we don’t know whether we’ll be buying a home or apartment, or if we’re going to continue to live in Brooklyn when we buy. Separately, I think that once we have our savings accounts and debts paid we should open an investment account and make contributions to that as a secondary source of income. I’ve set the goal for opening the account at $10k though I’d need to do more research about best options because I know we can open an investment account for much less.
- Home/Apartment Savings ($30,000-50,000)
- Opening an investment account ($10,000)
I feel like this list is not that surprising or unusual. As people head into adulthood these are typical goals that everyone has. I think this list is more surprising to me because in some ways I’m still getting used to having joint financial goals that exceed 1-2 years down the road. If I had to give an impression of my 20’s it was that I was a spender, and if I had to make a wish for how I see my 30’s it would be that I was a saver. It’s kind of ironic, however, that I’m wrapping up this list of savings goals that I didn’t once consider paying off my student loans to be a part of my overall goals. I feel resigned to the fact that I’ll be paying them forever, but maybe I’m also stuck in the mindset that I’ll never be in a position to pay them aggressively and I’d rather put the money toward other savings goals. Only time will tell!
Heather Allen 