Happy new year, Penny Hoarders! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your loved ones.
Now that we’ve waived goodbye to 2022, does anyone have a big money goal they’re hoping to conquer in 2023?
My goal isn’t particularly exciting. As I mentioned in the community a couple weeks ago, I’ve put my goal of buying a home on simmer for a while. My main money goal is to build back my emergency fund to six months’ savings.
I had a six-month emergency fund for the first half of 2022. Then I withdrew $6,000 from my savings (plus even more from my checking account) for an emergency vet bill. After that, I went on a vacation. Between vacation and the holidays, I’ve been very sluggish about saving lately. Plus with inflation, I need more in my emergency fund in 2023 than I did at the start of 2022. So my goal is to add about $8K to my emergency fund.
If I’m disciplined, I think I can save about $1K a month. Of course, that’s assuming no more emergencies. I guess the hard part about building an emergency fund is that it’s a boring goal to work toward. At least when you’re saving for a house or a car or a vacation, you get to dream about the house or car or vacation you get once you’ve reached your goal. But I’ll definitely sleep better at night with more savings.
How about you? What’s your biggest money goal for 2023?
Like you, Penny, my goal is not all that exciting. Actually, I have a few kind of boring goals:
Add 3K to my emergency fund
Add 2K to home maintenance/improvement fund. Not for anything fabulous or specific, just to have some available that doesn’t take from my personal savings account.
For the first 3 months this year (at least 3 months), I am tracking every single penny that comes in or leaves my account. I’ve committed to myself that my tax return and any extra money like a very unlikely bonus will go to sinking funds or the above savings accounts. Hopefully that tracking of money will show me how I can save some extra. Really, I don’t need anything so I may as well really buckle down for the winter and do this.
Like you said, it’s easier to save when there is a tangible result of it- a vacation, new house, new car, haircut, etc. I guess that’s why I have been rather lax on this. Well, I can surely do this for 3 months!
@kellyfromkeene Do you use an app to track your spending or do you do it manually? I feel like I benefit from tracking it manually, even though it’s a pain. It makes me think harder about my spending and what’s really necessary.
I do it manually. But I will also be entering everything in a spreadsheet. I know it’s twice the work, but I want to be sure I’m exact. I’m definitely a pen to paper person- it makes me focus more on what I’m doing.
Twofold for me. Get out of credit card debt while building up an emergency fund. I was being a little too aggressive about paying down the debt when an unforeseen expense has me strapped for cash. That emergency fund is SO IMPORTANT!
Same here, all. Beef back up my emergency fund and continue to add to sinking funds. Also, punch out as much debt as I can. I’ll also try to cut down on some of the tracking. I currently track in three places (spreadsheet, Mint app, a desktop folder where I screen capture each payment made for each recurring bill. It’s labeled “Financials” and each category has its own folder). Whew! Just writing it out here seems like a little overkill.
Happy New Year! Moving to a new state in 2022 ate a lot of savings. More important, I’m so happy I did this! I also used more savings to register for a course for my business. Then I used my credit card before going back to working my day job.
This 2023, I need to pay off credit card debt, as well as increase sinking funds and savings. It seems like a repeat of goals in past years, but oh well. Sometimes I just have to prioritize time over money.
Ha, @sthom , part of my goal this year is to increase my tracking! I’m tracking in 2 places for 3 months. I feel like I’m missing something, so hoping to catch it this way.
I really liked the America Saves perspective on having extra savings for unexpected expenses. Sometimes those unexpected expenses can be fun things like a concert/show, friends visiting from out of town, or spontaneous road trip. Also, although it’s not as exciting as buying a tangible treat for yourself, think of how that money in savings will help you when you need it most. It’ll be there for you for peace of mind when the unexpected comes your way. That’s worth so much more than anything you can buy.
