In 2009 we decided to put the mortgage overpayments on hold and save a year’s basic living expenses emergency fund. We took this decision after facing reduncancy scares, and even now we’re not convinced that our jobs are safe.
Our goal was £18, ooo based on £1,500 x 12. So far we have £13, 182. To achieve our target we need to save another £5k before the end of the year, which will be difficult. I think that we can save another £3k with a little budget jiggling, but finding another £2k will be tough. I’m determind to try though. I’m redoing our budget this weekend to see if there are any tweaks I can make that will enable us to reach our goal.
I’m wondering if having lots of financial goals is the way to go, or, is it easier to focus on one at a time?
What do you think?
{photo credit: tony newell}
{ 1 trackback }
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice going – you’ve been doing well.
With regards financial goals I like to keep it simple. I tend to pay down on the mortgage, rather than create a large emergency fund, because it saves interest, whereas your emergency fund won’t be making a lot of interest at current rates. If you paid down your 18K on the mortgage that would save a lot of interest. With the type of mortgage I have if I do run into an emergency (been made redundant twice) I can take a lump sum based on my overpayments, or take a payment holiday for a year (or two). Having said that I do have around 10k in ISAs and a couple of K floating around in cash. I may be taking a trip to Bangkok later this year, so it’s always handy to have that extra cash on hand.
At the end of the day I don’t think it makes a huge difference, as long as you are saving towards your goal – which you are!
Holy cow!!! You did a great job with your emergency fund!! I tend to disagree a little bit with Tony. I do agree that paying the mortgage down saves you on interest but that emergency fund is a God-send. My hours were slashed in half in June and hubs hours were cut down by 8 hours a week. This has been TOUGH on us. We thank God we had the emergency fund (it wasn’t anywhere near what your’s is). It has really helped us out during the tough times. We had insurance payments due during this time and without the emergency fund we would have been sunk. When you get your emergency fund to the level you want, then you can start paying down the mortgage again. I just found another part time job so that has helped. Good luck!! I think as long as you’re working on reaching the ultimate goal, it doesn’t matter how many little ways you are using to reach it. Good luck!!
I actually think about this myself a lot.
Like for instance I want to pay down my car as fast as possible, save for a trip, keep saving my emergency fund (3 months expenses) and also start a car fund for any unexpected repairs etc. But when I think of all these things and the income I have, it seems like I will only be able to make a little bit of progress on each item at a time..which is somewhat discouraging.
munchkin´s last blog ..No Spending Days
I really feel fortunate that my hub and I have paid off our mortgage. Then it gets easy to keep a great emergency fund. One thing to keep in mind is that as you pay down your house loan, the portion of your payment that actually goes to paying off the loan starts to increase considerably. 1 extra payment per year cuts a 30 year loan down to 20 years. Just tack on 1/12th extra house payment each month. The equity also can be used to get a loan for short term problems if you must.
I never really know – I think you just have to keep assessing it. Sometimes I have my eye on one big financial goal and other times I have several saving / buying projects on the go. It just depends what is going on at the time!
Shoestring´s last blog ..The great clothes debate
Hmmm… I think I’m better at focusing on one thing at a time. If I focus on too many things I just get side-tracked and then nothing gets accomplished. I mean, I have three goals for all of 2009, and I’ll probably only reach 2 of the 3. I have a feeling if I had focused myself on one, then the next, and then the next – that I probably would have gotten them all done because the progress on each would have been more rapid.
Hmmmm (again)… now you really have me thinking! I wonder if this is true at all!
SS4BC´s last blog ..Money: A Goal or Tool?