Latest / Silver FM 100.6 / Savings strategies that actually work
Transcript
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- 0:22Speaker 2: It's always fun to get a little philosophical when you
- 0:24Speaker 2: talk about budgeting, because it is like at the heart
- 0:27Speaker 2: of all money questions.
- 0:28Speaker 3: I think, I agree.
- 0:30Speaker 4: I feel we concentrate too much onto dollars and we
- 0:34Speaker 4: forget there's a human being with feelings behind it.
- 0:38Speaker 3: You're listening to life Kit.
- 0:39Speaker 2: I'm Mary el Sagara and that was certified financial planner
- 0:42Speaker 2: Tanya P.
- 0:43Speaker 3: Brown.
- 0:44Speaker 2: When Tanya gives financial advice, she often comes back to
- 0:48Speaker 2: an acronym swan swan meaning sleep well at night, because
- 0:55Speaker 2: she says, the best money choice isn't necessarily the one
- 0:58Speaker 2: that optimizes your savings or your future earning potential. It's
- 1:02Speaker 2: the decision that makes you feel safe, and it's the
- 1:04Speaker 2: one that's aligned with your values. Keep that in mind
- 1:08Speaker 2: as we have this conversation about savings buckets, The idea
- 1:12Speaker 2: with savings buckets is that you separate your savings into
- 1:15Speaker 2: distinct categories, prioritize between them, and set up rules to
- 1:20Speaker 2: decide when you tap into each one. Doing this can
- 1:22Speaker 2: help you stay motivated and stay on track with your
- 1:25Speaker 2: money goals. By the way, Tanya is also a job
- 1:28Speaker 2: exit strategist.
- 1:30Speaker 4: I literally say my job is to help people quit theirs,
- 1:33Speaker 4: so helping people create a financial exit strategy to quit
- 1:38Speaker 4: corporate and go.
- 1:39Speaker 2: Solo, and savings buckets are a big part of that. Now,
- 1:43Speaker 2: when I talk about savings, I don't just mean the
- 1:45Speaker 2: money you put into a traditional bank account. Investment accounts
- 1:49Speaker 2: are a form of savings too, so are healthcare spending accounts,
- 1:52Speaker 2: and it can be hard to know how to prioritize
- 1:55Speaker 2: between those.
- 1:56Speaker 3: A quick tip on.
- 1:57Speaker 4: That, I would actually say, prioritize things that are likely
- 2:01Speaker 4: to happen. Those to me are the priority because those
- 2:04Speaker 4: are what busts everybody's budgets, and those are the things
- 2:07Speaker 4: that are going to happen.
- 2:08Speaker 2: That bucket is what a lot of financial experts call
- 2:10Speaker 2: a sinking fund. It's meant for upcoming expenses that you're expecting,
- 2:15Speaker 2: and it's different from your emergency savings fund because an
- 2:18Speaker 2: emergency you generally can't anticipate.
- 2:22Speaker 5: You have to fly out because of family is ill.
- 2:25Speaker 4: You have an over and above average incident that happens,
- 2:31Speaker 4: and that's where the emergency comes in. So I oftentimes
- 2:35Speaker 4: say emergencies are the things you pray never happen.
- 2:39Speaker 2: We'll have more on sinking funds, emergency funds, and other
- 2:42Speaker 2: types of savings after the break.
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- 4:18Speaker 2: Tanya, I wonder why have a sinking fund at all? Right, Like,
- 4:22Speaker 2: can't you just try to cover whatever short term expenses
- 4:24Speaker 2: come up with your paycheck.
- 4:26Speaker 4: With the short term savings of let's just say you
- 4:30Speaker 4: want to say for Christmas, Yes, you can just wait
- 4:32Speaker 4: till Christmas and spend the money, But then you always
- 4:35Speaker 4: are finding yourself in a panic spinning the whole thousand,
- 4:38Speaker 4: whereas if you just set aside one hundred every month,
- 4:41Speaker 4: it's smooth. So think of short term savings as smoothing
- 4:45Speaker 4: what feels like an emergency or a panic moment. So
- 4:50Speaker 4: if you know this comes up regularly, you can simply
- 4:53Speaker 4: have online an item in your budget. One hundred of
- 4:56Speaker 4: that thousand dollars may go towards a Christmas budget. One
- 4:59Speaker 4: hundred that line item may go towards a future repair
- 5:04Speaker 4: or future dental if you don't have that already covered
- 5:08Speaker 4: inside of a flexible spending account or a healthcare savings account.
- 5:14Speaker 4: So the goal of short term is to turn the
- 5:17Speaker 4: panic into something that is automated and something smooth.
- 5:22Speaker 2: Do you recommend that people put their sinking fund and
- 5:25Speaker 2: their emergency fund into separate bank accounts.
- 5:29Speaker 4: Some people like the separation because mentally they're like, okay,
- 5:34Speaker 4: for a known future car repair, it's in short term savings.
- 5:38Speaker 4: For if I lose my job, it's in emergencies, and
- 5:41Speaker 4: mentally they need the separation. For others, for their sanity,
- 5:45Speaker 4: they rather just drop everything in one bucket. But now
- 5:48Speaker 4: there are accounts where you can put money into one
- 5:52Speaker 4: bucket and then you can assign if you will job.
- 5:55Speaker 5: So I don't know.
- 5:56Speaker 4: If you have five thousand dollars in the account, you
- 5:58Speaker 4: know three thousand is your marked for your growing savings.
- 6:02Speaker 4: A thousand is earmarked for home repairs, A thousand is
- 6:05Speaker 4: earmarked for car repairs or whatever, those short term expenses
- 6:09Speaker 4: that are likely to happen. You just don't know when
- 6:13Speaker 4: and not always know the exact amount.
- 6:15Speaker 2: And I guess there's something psychologically about if you have
- 6:18Speaker 2: it earmarked for that thing, you're less likely to dip
- 6:21Speaker 2: into it for something else.
- 6:23Speaker 4: Absolutely, if you think in advance, what's the amount you
- 6:26Speaker 4: want to have in there, you know if you have
- 6:29Speaker 4: any mini windfalls, like a higher than expected tax return,
- 6:33Speaker 4: you get a bonus. You save for something and you
- 6:36Speaker 4: find out you got it for less than what's expected,
- 6:39Speaker 4: you know exactly where that excess money is going to go.
- 6:42Speaker 5: So it also trains you so you are.
- 6:44Speaker 4: Doing it without thinking, because if you give yourself a
- 6:47Speaker 4: chance to think, you may talk yourself into not putting
- 6:50Speaker 4: money anywhere.
- 6:51Speaker 2: And in both cases, this money should go in a
- 6:55Speaker 2: traditional savings account, right, not into an investment account.
- 6:58Speaker 4: Yes, and I tell people, well, think of savings as insurance,
- 7:02Speaker 4: not as an investment. This is money that you need now,
- 7:07Speaker 4: and if you put it into investments, either it's going
- 7:10Speaker 4: to work or it's going to be less than what
- 7:12Speaker 4: you need at the time. You needed, not a chance
- 7:15Speaker 4: you want to take if you need something, especially very
- 7:18Speaker 4: short term.
- 7:20Speaker 2: Take away one when it comes to savings accounts, Tanya
- 7:22Speaker 2: recommends that you prioritize your sinking fund. That's the pool
- 7:26Speaker 2: of money you can dip into for expenses you can anticipate.
- 7:29Speaker 2: For instance, if you know you need new tires this year,
- 7:32Speaker 2: or you have an expensive medical procedure coming up, or
- 7:34Speaker 2: you're planning a big anniversary celebration. She suggests that you
- 7:38Speaker 2: think of your sinking fund as separate from your emergency fund.
- 7:42Speaker 2: Your emergency fund is for the stuff you can't predict
- 7:45Speaker 2: but you know might happen in your lifetime job loss, illness,
- 7:49Speaker 2: a termite infestation, that kind of thing. How much money
- 7:54Speaker 2: do you recommend people keep in their sinking fund?
- 7:56Speaker 4: The short term is a lot more predictable because this
- 7:59Speaker 4: is typically money you've spent every year. So, for instance,
- 8:03Speaker 4: if you own a vehicle, it doesn't take a lot
- 8:05Speaker 4: to look at what's the life of the parts of
- 8:10Speaker 4: your vehicles to get an estimate as to how much
- 8:13Speaker 4: it would cost to repair. So if you know you
- 8:15Speaker 4: need a new radiator or a new transmission, you can
- 8:18Speaker 4: check and know exactly how much you need to save.
- 8:21Speaker 4: Also in the short term, it's vacations. If you look
- 8:24Speaker 4: at what you've spent last year on vacations. Nowadays, between apps,
- 8:29Speaker 4: between banks that have pretty sophisticated ways of tracking or spending,
- 8:34Speaker 4: you can come up with a really good guestimate and
- 8:37Speaker 4: use that to factor into how much you want to
- 8:40Speaker 4: save for vacations. So with the short terms, you actually
- 8:43Speaker 4: have numbers to work off of or to get estimates,
- 8:46Speaker 4: because remember these are expenses that are coming up throughout
- 8:49Speaker 4: the year. The typical things you spend money on outside
- 8:53Speaker 4: of auto.
- 8:54Speaker 3: Pay, okay, and what about the emergency fund.
- 8:57Speaker 4: If you have a spouse that can take care of
- 9:00Speaker 4: the expenses, If you're living with your parents and you
- 9:05Speaker 4: have someone that can cover your living expenses so you're
- 9:08Speaker 4: not homeless, we could be talking three months on that end.
- 9:12Speaker 4: If you are by yourself and your job is relatively steady,
- 9:18Speaker 4: I would say three months maybe on a light in
- 9:21Speaker 4: six months is more probable. If you have a job
- 9:24Speaker 4: where the market is very unsteady, we're talking six If
- 9:28Speaker 4: you are the breadwinner of your family and you lose
- 9:32Speaker 4: your job and there's no additional income, we're talking more
- 9:35Speaker 4: six months to one year. If you are self employed,
- 9:39Speaker 4: your income is going up and down like a roller coaster.
- 9:42Speaker 4: We're now in that six months to one year. That
- 9:45Speaker 4: gap is what I call swan and that is the
- 9:48Speaker 4: number that helps you sleep well at night. So the
- 9:50Speaker 4: first part of the buckets based on your situation. The
- 9:54Speaker 4: second part to me, that's when your personality comes in.
- 9:57Speaker 4: I will talk to some people and they tell me
- 9:59Speaker 4: I'm just not coming unless I have a year savings,
- 10:01Speaker 4: not like them have a year of savings. I Am
- 10:03Speaker 4: not going to argue what someone needs to comfortably sleep
- 10:06Speaker 4: well at night.
- 10:09Speaker 2: Take away too, figure out how much to put in
- 10:11Speaker 2: your sinking fund by estimating your upcoming costs. We can
- 10:14Speaker 2: start with the next few months. To get a quick
- 10:16Speaker 2: snapshot for your emergency fund. Consider your current living situation
- 10:21Speaker 2: and whether you're supporting a family. Also, what amount makes
- 10:24Speaker 2: you feel secure. You might end up with three months
- 10:27Speaker 2: of expenses in the bank or a year. Also, make
- 10:30Speaker 2: sure to put your sinking fund savings and your emergency
- 10:32Speaker 2: savings into an FDIC or NCUA insured bank account. Don't
- 10:37Speaker 2: invest that money in the markets. After the break, we'll
- 10:41Speaker 2: talk about how to prioritize between these funds. Your retirement
- 10:44Speaker 2: savings and a brokerage account.
- 10:49Speaker 9: On the streets of Denver, nineteen, disabled protesters black buses
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- 11:13Speaker 2: Another savings bucket that you need to consider is your
- 11:16Speaker 2: retirement fund. At Lifekit, we often give the advice to
- 11:19Speaker 2: prioritize this, especially if your company offers an employer match.
- 11:23Speaker 2: Otherwise you're leaving money on the table. Tanya says, if
- 11:26Speaker 2: you can do it all, contribute to your sinking fund,
- 11:29Speaker 2: put away money for emergencies, and contribute to the retirement fund,
- 11:33Speaker 2: that's great.
- 11:34Speaker 3: But if you're absolutely down to the.
- 11:36Speaker 2: Wire and you have to make a choice, she says,
- 11:38Speaker 2: prioritize your short term savings because.
- 11:41Speaker 4: This is money you're going to spend. Would have to
- 11:43Speaker 4: come as a priority, because this is not money that
- 11:46Speaker 4: you are thinking of spending. This is money you are
- 11:49Speaker 4: going to spend if you don't plan for it.
- 11:51Speaker 5: You're going to be in.
- 11:52Speaker 4: Debt, so I would say the things you know that
- 11:55Speaker 4: are upcoming.
- 11:56Speaker 5: That's got to be a priority.
- 11:59Speaker 4: Beyond that, I would say, at least making sure you
- 12:02Speaker 4: have the match as the bare minimum. I find for
- 12:06Speaker 4: most people, if you do it, you're surprised because it's
- 12:09Speaker 4: typically for a lot of people POINTAXT, so it doesn't
- 12:12Speaker 4: come out as much as what people think it.
- 12:14Speaker 5: Probably have money left over.
- 12:15Speaker 2: Let's say you've met your short term needs and your
- 12:19Speaker 2: emergency savings needs, and you're getting your base level employer
- 12:23Speaker 2: match from your retirement account. Now you have some options
- 12:27Speaker 2: and you could put more money into a retirement plan.
- 12:30Speaker 2: You could put money into a brokerage account. Some people
- 12:34Speaker 2: just put more money in a hild savings account. How
- 12:36Speaker 2: would you kind of order these?
- 12:38Speaker 4: The first way I will order it is personality. I've
- 12:41Speaker 4: actually been in this industry or for well over twenty years,
- 12:44Speaker 4: and what I've found is if putting it in the
- 12:48Speaker 4: retirement account creates the level of automation to make it consistent,
- 12:53Speaker 4: I would rather go above the match, because for some
- 12:56Speaker 4: people that extra friction of having to also do a
- 13:01Speaker 4: brokerage account may be enough for someone not to do it,
- 13:04Speaker 4: so I find one what will be the most consistent
- 13:08Speaker 4: automated way for a person to save, and that is
- 13:11Speaker 4: the route we go. I would prioritize it by what
- 13:15Speaker 4: are you the most likely to use. I would assess
- 13:19Speaker 4: how much money did you spend less year on healthcare
- 13:22Speaker 4: and if you've spent quite a bit of money, had
- 13:25Speaker 4: quite a bit of visits, and even if someone is
- 13:28Speaker 4: physically healthy, if you spend a lot of money on
- 13:30Speaker 4: eye care or have I problems or dental problems, then
- 13:34Speaker 4: it would definitely be putting money in the FSA and HSA,
- 13:38Speaker 4: because again, this is money you are going to use anyway,
- 13:42Speaker 4: so it's better that you just prioritize that.
- 13:46Speaker 2: Well, it's also tax advantaged. That's the benefit. Like with
- 13:50Speaker 2: hsas and FSS and retirement plans. You are saving on
- 13:54Speaker 2: taxes in one way or another through those, whereas you're
- 13:58Speaker 2: not with a brokerage account exactly. Take away three short
- 14:03Speaker 2: term savings is your top priority. Otherwise when an unexpected
- 14:06Speaker 2: expense pops up, you'll go into debt and that is
- 14:10Speaker 2: very expensive. But don't discount the long term. If you
- 14:14Speaker 2: can do it, contribute enough to your retirement plan to
- 14:16Speaker 2: collect any employer match you're offered. Beyond that, she says,
- 14:21Speaker 2: where you put your savings comes down partly to personality
- 14:24Speaker 2: and values. If you're more likely to invest money through
- 14:26Speaker 2: a retirement plan because it comes out of your paycheck
- 14:29Speaker 2: and it's automated, do that, although I will note here
- 14:32Speaker 2: there are ways to automate your brokerage account investments, but
- 14:35Speaker 2: it's often a little bit more complicated. Also, if you
- 14:38Speaker 2: have a lot of medical expenses, definitely take advantage of
- 14:41Speaker 2: a flexible spending account or a health savings account if
- 14:43Speaker 2: you can. You'll never have to pay taxes on the
- 14:46Speaker 2: money you put in there if you spend it on
- 14:47Speaker 2: medical expenses.
- 14:49Speaker 3: Tanya and I also.
- 14:50Speaker 2: Talked about what it means to save for a version
- 14:53Speaker 2: of yourself that doesn't exist yet.
- 14:55Speaker 4: I always say, you want to make sure you safeguard
- 14:57Speaker 4: future you.
- 14:59Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a that I think about a lot,
- 15:02Speaker 2: like how do you safeguard future you? But also understand
- 15:07Speaker 2: that nothing is promised and we need to live today
- 15:11Speaker 2: and enjoy our lives today, and that comes into play
- 15:14Speaker 2: when you're making decisions like how much of my money
- 15:19Speaker 2: am I going to put into a retirement plan that
- 15:22Speaker 2: I can't access until I'm in my fifties without penalty
- 15:27Speaker 2: versus how much would I put in a brokerage account
- 15:31Speaker 2: versus a savings account. It's sometimes a tough call because
- 15:36Speaker 2: sometimes we can't really picture ourselves at fifty something, you know,
- 15:40Speaker 2: when we're twenty, and it's like, well, I need this
- 15:42Speaker 2: money now, or I want I want this money now.
- 15:45Speaker 3: Also, if you've ever had a health.
- 15:47Speaker 2: Scare or lost someone who you know who's who's died
- 15:51Speaker 2: quite young, it's like I might not make it to fifty.
- 15:55Speaker 2: You know, it gets very philosophical.
- 15:58Speaker 4: Here is what I find comes a balancing act. I
- 16:02Speaker 4: do not think you should sacrifice your present for your future.
- 16:06Speaker 5: I think it should be both.
- 16:08Speaker 4: And when I look at my peers, I can tell
- 16:10Speaker 4: you I am so glad I started saving you because
- 16:14Speaker 4: I have choices and options that a lot of my
- 16:17Speaker 4: peers do not. So the first thing I think is
- 16:21Speaker 4: I want to safeguard future me. And I think what
- 16:25Speaker 4: helped me personally was when I took a look at
- 16:28Speaker 4: a lot of people that were forced to work, that
- 16:31Speaker 4: didn't really have a choice in the matter. I knew
- 16:34Speaker 4: I wanted freedom, and freedom met prioritizing choices, but I
- 16:38Speaker 4: still went on vacations, and it comes down to prioritizing
- 16:43Speaker 4: what's important and ruthlessly eliminating everything else.
- 16:47Speaker 2: I love the idea of creating freedom for yourself financial security,
- 16:51Speaker 2: but also freedom and options. It's like, you don't have
- 16:54Speaker 2: to retire, you know, and stop working completely, but you
- 16:58Speaker 2: also don't have to stay at a job that you hate.
- 17:01Speaker 2: And it is important I think for folks to remember
- 17:06Speaker 2: that the earlier you start investing, the larger your gains
- 17:11Speaker 2: are gonna be. Like time is the biggest factor here.
- 17:15Speaker 2: So when you start in your early twenties, you're gonna
- 17:19Speaker 2: have a lot more money than if you started at thirty.
- 17:22Speaker 2: But even if you start at thirty, you're gonna have
- 17:23Speaker 2: a lot more money than if you started at forty
- 17:25Speaker 2: because of the compounding gains.
- 17:28Speaker 4: Yes, after a while, you start to see how it
- 17:32Speaker 4: begins to compound, how it begins to grow. So the
- 17:36Speaker 4: earlier you start one hundred percent the better.
- 17:39Speaker 2: If I am investing for retirement, but I also have
- 17:45Speaker 2: some medium term goals. You know, I don't need the
- 17:49Speaker 2: money immediately. It's not for my emergency, it's not for
- 17:52Speaker 2: my short term needs, but it's not for retirement, Like
- 17:55Speaker 2: I want to be able to access it before retirement.
- 17:58Speaker 2: It feels like that's the good spot for a brokerage account.
- 18:02Speaker 5: Yes, it is great for a medium goal.
- 18:05Speaker 4: Back in the day when I first started, as my
- 18:07Speaker 4: children say, in the late nineteen hundreds, which is so painful,
- 18:12Speaker 4: the rule of thumb back then used to be money
- 18:15Speaker 4: that you needed in five years or more went to
- 18:18Speaker 4: a brokerage account, and money that you needed in five
- 18:21Speaker 4: years or less was recommended for savings.
- 18:24Speaker 5: So historically it used to.
- 18:27Speaker 4: Be we hit a recession every five to ten years,
- 18:30Speaker 4: so the thought process was you did if you threw
- 18:33Speaker 4: it into a brokerage account. You did not know which
- 18:38Speaker 4: end of the economy you were going to land on
- 18:41Speaker 4: by the time you needed the money. So that was
- 18:44Speaker 4: really conservative back then. I will still say you were
- 18:47Speaker 4: on a conservative side. It's a decent rule of thumb
- 18:50Speaker 4: to stick to. Some people have lowered that to if
- 18:53Speaker 4: you don't need the money for two to three years.
- 18:55Speaker 2: Yeah, sometimes you're saving money for the medium term, but
- 18:59Speaker 2: you don't know exactly what it's for yet, And I
- 19:02Speaker 2: think that can be a little bit of a confusing place.
- 19:04Speaker 2: You're like, well, where should I put this?
- 19:07Speaker 3: You know, I don't know Is this for a house?
- 19:08Speaker 2: Is this for like when I have a kid, I
- 19:10Speaker 2: just know I'm going to need money, But before I'm
- 19:13Speaker 2: in my fifties, you know, it still seems like a
- 19:16Speaker 2: if you don't know what it's for yet, that a
- 19:18Speaker 2: brokerage is a good place to put it.
- 19:21Speaker 4: Absolutely, I had account for I literally called it future Me,
- 19:26Speaker 4: that's literally the name, and I was putting money in there.
- 19:30Speaker 4: I had no idea what it was for and when
- 19:34Speaker 4: this is quite a while ago, and because I just
- 19:37Speaker 4: had that money, I was able to support myself until
- 19:42Speaker 4: I was able to make a decent living in financial services.
- 19:45Speaker 4: So I think it's totally okay not to know what
- 19:48Speaker 4: it's to use for, but you want to give future
- 19:52Speaker 4: you a future of options.
- 19:56Speaker 2: Take away for brokerage accounts are a great place to
- 19:59Speaker 2: park your medium and long term savings, above and beyond
- 20:03Speaker 2: your sinking fund and your emergency fund. Over time, you'll
- 20:06Speaker 2: earn much higher returns in a brokerage account than you
- 20:08Speaker 2: would in a federally insured bank account. One rule of
- 20:12Speaker 2: thumb don't put money in there that you know you'll
- 20:15Speaker 2: need in the next five years, because you want to
- 20:18Speaker 2: be able to sell your investments strategically at a time
- 20:21Speaker 2: when they'll earn you more of a return, and you
- 20:23Speaker 2: don't want to be forced to sell at an inopportune
- 20:25Speaker 2: time just because you need the money. Tanya says the
- 20:28Speaker 2: five year rule is a bit on the conservative side.
- 20:31Speaker 2: You could also say two or three years. When you
- 20:35Speaker 2: do have these different funds set up, how can you
- 20:38Speaker 2: decide when you're okay with dipping into a particular one.
- 20:43Speaker 5: That is a great question.
- 20:44Speaker 4: And when I work with clients, I would have them
- 20:47Speaker 4: set up rules of thumb. So for emergencies, we would
- 20:51Speaker 4: literally set up here are rules of thumb. For instance,
- 20:55Speaker 4: an emergency is not to be used for an expense
- 20:58Speaker 4: that's reoccurring every year. Again, a car repair is reoccurring
- 21:02Speaker 4: every year. Travel is reoccurring every year. Medical is reoccurring
- 21:06Speaker 4: every year. This is for over and beyond, like a
- 21:10Speaker 4: four thousand dollars repair, a major medical. So that way
- 21:14Speaker 4: you set the rules for the short term. For travel,
- 21:17Speaker 4: this is meant for travel and nothing other than travel,
- 21:21Speaker 4: or do you decide that something else became more important.
- 21:25Speaker 4: You can include flexibility in there. For car repairs, it
- 21:29Speaker 4: could be this is strictly for the repair of a
- 21:32Speaker 4: car up to a certain amount. I don't know, a thousand,
- 21:34Speaker 4: whatever you choose, and beyond that you can then include emergencies.
- 21:37Speaker 4: So giving yourself mental rules of THEMB is important, and
- 21:42Speaker 4: also giving yourself rules of them as to how much
- 21:47Speaker 4: what's the limit in there? Like do you want to
- 21:49Speaker 4: have ten thousand dollars a year for vacation, two thousand
- 21:52Speaker 4: dollars a year, five hundred dollars for an emergency medical Again,
- 21:57Speaker 4: if you don't have an FSA or HSA. So I
- 22:00Speaker 4: would say, in addition to setting rules for spending, maybe
- 22:03Speaker 4: set how much you want to have in there, and
- 22:05Speaker 4: then at what point do you stop and focus on replenishment.
- 22:10Speaker 3: Tanya, thank you so much for this pushure.
- 22:12Speaker 5: This isn't my pleasure. Oh you were great to talk
- 22:13Speaker 5: to all right.
- 22:15Speaker 3: Time for a recap take away one.
- 22:17Speaker 2: When it comes to savings accounts time you recommends that
- 22:19Speaker 2: you prioritize your sinking fund. For instance, if you know
- 22:22Speaker 2: you need new tires, or you have an expensive medical
- 22:24Speaker 2: procedure coming up, or you're planning a vacation. This is
- 22:27Speaker 2: separate from your emergency savings. Take Away two, figure out
- 22:32Speaker 2: how much to put in your sinking fund by estimating
- 22:34Speaker 2: your upcoming costs for your emergency fund, consider your current
- 22:38Speaker 2: living situation and whether you're supporting a family. Also, what
- 22:42Speaker 2: amount makes you feel secure. Put both funds into a
- 22:45Speaker 2: federally insured bank.
- 22:46Speaker 3: Take Away three.
- 22:48Speaker 2: Short term savings is your top priority. Otherwise, when an
- 22:51Speaker 2: unexpected expense pops up, you'll go into debt and that
- 22:55Speaker 2: is very expensive. But don't discount the long term if
- 22:58Speaker 2: you can do it. Contribute to your retirement plan, especially
- 23:01Speaker 2: when you're offered an employer match. Remember retirement plans or
- 23:05Speaker 2: tax advantaged. Beyond that, if you have a lot of
- 23:07Speaker 2: medical expenses, take advantage of a flexible spending account or
- 23:10Speaker 2: a health savings account.
- 23:12Speaker 3: Take Away four.
- 23:13Speaker 2: Brokerage accounts are a great place to put your medium
- 23:15Speaker 2: and long term savings. One rule of thumb, though, don't
- 23:19Speaker 2: put money in there that you know you'll need in the.
- 23:21Speaker 3: Next couple of years. Oh and once you have all
- 23:24Speaker 3: your different funds set.
- 23:25Speaker 2: Up, make rules for when you're allowed to tap into
- 23:28Speaker 2: each one. Those will help you stay on track.
- 23:31Speaker 3: That's our show.
- 23:33Speaker 5: Before we go, what.
- 23:34Speaker 2: Do you think? Would you rate and review Life Kit
- 23:36Speaker 2: in your podcast app? Here's one review from user OBPW
- 23:40Speaker 2: one two three. Such an informative and interesting podcast. Even
- 23:44Speaker 2: my twelve year old is listening. That's high praise actually,
- 23:48Speaker 2: and also, yeah, I wish I had access to all
- 23:50Speaker 2: the things I've learned on Lifekit when I was twelve.
- 23:53Speaker 2: Go ahead, let us know what you appreciate about Lifekit
- 23:56Speaker 2: with a review in your podcast app. This episode of
- 23:59Speaker 2: Life Kit was produce used by Claire Marie Schneider. Our
- 24:01Speaker 2: digital editor is Malica garib and our visuals editor is
- 24:04Speaker 2: c J.
- 24:05Speaker 3: Rieklon.
- 24:06Speaker 2: Megan Kane is our senior supervising editor, and Lauren Gonzalez
- 24:09Speaker 2: is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andy Tagle,
- 24:13Speaker 2: Margaret Serino, and Sylvie Douglas. Engineering support comes from Cina
- 24:17Speaker 2: Lfredo and Jimmy Keeley. I'm Mariel Sagara. Thanks for listening.
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