A Savings To-Do List

It's basically the end of January which means I am slowly creeping up on the day that my credit cards will be paid off (yay!). You would think I'd be ecstatic, instead I have been consumed with confusion. By [at the latest] March I will have an extra $500 per month heading into my bank account, that would have normally gone to my credit card payment. As a slightly impulsive person, ok very impulsive [on Sunday night I was reading a personal finance book that recommended converting a traditional IRA to a Roth, let's just say that's take care of] this terrifies me. I have never really made a saving plan, but I knew that I had too with all the things I have to save for (ie wedding, house projects, annual expenses like car insurance and county taxes, etc)

I couldn't decide where to start, so I'm just going to do all of them, simultaneously. The problem is, I'm terrible at saving. SSF is perfectly ok with dumping all of his money into one general savings account and using it for various things. I on the the other hand am more visual and need to compartmentalize savings. It's almost like a savings to-do list. I spent way too much time this weekend planning what I was going to save for and how much each year, just to turn around and dump it into one account. Which is why I love my ING savings account. ING let's me create sub accounts within my main account that allow me to compartmentalize away. Here is what my account looks like after this weekend:



As you can see, I have aligned my sub accounts after my savings goals. Not only can I see my progress, but I know once I hit the amount I wanted to save for a specific category. For example, my car insurance is $925 per year. Once I hit that, I can start contributing that money to other goals if I choose. It's kind of amazing.

That's how I save. How do you save?

If you are interested in opening an ING savings account and can make a one time deposit of $250 when you open an account, e-mail me and I will send you a referral link that will get you an extra $25 courtesy of ING. [Full disclosure: I get $10 for referral] A good deal all around.

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