How Do You Set Up Your Funds??

A lot of people discuss putting money away in an Emergency Fund, a Christmas Fund, a Shopping Fund, a Wedding Fund, a House Fund, a Summer Fund, a Vacation Fund, you get the idea.

I want to know if you separate all of these accounts? Do you have a different savings account for each within your bank? Or do you just add them all to the same account and know what you have saved the money for?

I want to set up different funds as well once I pay off my family loan and want to know an easy way to do it. I will be setting up an ING account in the new year and that may be a way to do it. But I also don't want to have a ton of transactions coming from my bank account each month. I also don't want automatic withdrawals into these funds because having a variable income there could be some months I am not able to contribute.

How do you set up for your different savings funds??

House Envy

Serendipity discussed in her last post her dream house and wanted to know what the dream house was like for others.

I too have a lot of house envy. Living at home with family is nice, but I would love to have a place of my own. More space! I have a friend that is getting married next summer and just bought her grandma's house last month. I would love to be able to do that, but unfortunately is too expensive for me at this point.

I think what will happen is that I will move to where the boyfriend lives, and rent an apartment together. Live there for a couple of years and save up for a house while starting our careers. Then get married and move into a house. It's a dream of mine to move into a house once I get married.

What that house would look like:

• It would be located in a small town
• 3-4 bedrooms (future for kids, and a workspace area for lesson planning, crafting)
• 2 bathrooms
• Open concept
• Large enough living room for entertaining and playing games
• Large kitchen is important, with dining area attached or in same area (likely the space where most of the time is spent)
• A den area for watching movies, and playing wii
• Big enough backyard for gardening and playing
• Garage (place to store bikes, yard equipment, and of course car, double garage would be even nicer)
• Enough storage space throughout and large closets in each bedroom, preferrably walk-in for the master bedroom
• Lots of windows, bright space

I look at the MLS and Property Guys listings online at least once a month, just to see what is out there and how much people are expecting for a house. I also love watching shows like Moving Up, Holmes on Homes, Trading Spaces, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, etc. I look forward to decorating. Hopefully this can one day happen! 3 year plan?? What does your dream house look like?

Let's Talk About Life

In my last post I briefly touched upon some of the goals I have for myself. I would like to one day, hopefully sooner than too much later buy a house, get married, buy a new (used) car, purchase furniture for the house, and still be able to pay my bills and have a bit of a life.

Let's break down the cost of those items:

House - or I should say downpayment. Now the downpayment can vary. But if you can pay 20% or more then you can avoid purchasing the high-ratio mortgage insurance (which can range from 1-3.5% of the principal amount of the house). Let's say I want to purchase a $250,000 home with a $50,000 (20%) downpayment, that would work out to be (at 6% interest) $1288 per month, or $595 bi-weekly after the downpayment and we are living there.

Wedding: I would like to have an average wedding. Nice but not too over the top. Still either way, weddings are expensive! Considering everything involved (minus honeymoon and engagement ring) I think $15,000 would be reasonable.

Furniture: Seeing as though I currently have almost nothing except what I had as a student, almost everything would need to be purchased except kitchen supplies. How do you estimate the cost of that? Let's say $5000 to begin with, I am sure if we needed things that family would be willing to give us some of their things.

Car: I would definitely buy used, not too old but not too new either. I think $12,000 would be reasonable for a good running vehicle. I bought mine for $2000 and it's working well but it has some issues and will need to be replaced eventually.

Let's say I want to get married, move into a house, have furniture and a car in three years...That would mean saving a total of $2278 each month starting now. Which is NOT going to happen. Let's say all of those in 5 years, well that is $1367 per month. Much more reasonable, but by then I will be 29 and wanting to have kids, which are another major expense....does it ever end? Compromise, and say 4 years, that is $1708 per month. Split between myself and my boyfriend that is $854 each per month but neither one of us will be able to start that for several months at least. However when he graduates this June he will also owe about $35,000. So that means that we either have to push back plans or decrease the downpayment, find a cheaper house, or make more money. How do you do it?

I do eventually want to move out and live in an apartment with my boyfriend which also costs rent, furniture expenses, and everyday household expenses. I do not like not knowing what will happen because I am a planner...Still, I look forward to the future!