#FinanceFridays: Simple Scheduled Savings Plans

Have a trip planned? Hoping to go to a concert, game or show? Perhaps have a plan to purchase something special? A simple, scheduled savings plan could likely be the right fit to achieve your goal(s), financially and otherwise.

Have you ever created a scheduled savings plan for yourself? That's why I'm here - to show you how!

First it starts off with knowing how much you'll need to purchase said item or experience. Say for example's sake that the cost of going on a Bachelorette Trip with our girlfriends is going to cost $2000.00 Canadian Dollars...

Secondly, we count the number of months, weeks or days until going on this Bachelorette Trip. Say, we'll be going on this Bachelorette Trip in January 2024. This gives us from now (April) until January to plan and save for the trip which totals 10 months. Depending on the frequency we'd like to save, we can count either the number of months, weeks or days leading up to this trip. For simplicity's sake, we will keep it at a monthly measure, meaning we have 10 months to save $2000.00.

With that being said, we use the magic of some simple math to come up with how much we need to save each month by the time it's time to take the trip in January 2024. We do this by taking the $2000.00 price tag and dividing it by 10 months we have to save for the trip equalling $200.00 a month.

If your bank provides this service, you then go to your bank and set up an automated savings plan or program for $200.00 a month to go into a separate account designed only for this Bachelorette Trip or set up automatic e-transfers each month to transfer from one bank account at one institution to another bank account of yours at another financial institution.

Wa-la! A simple, scheduled savings plan. Do you have a simple way to save money for a big event, experience or purchase of an item? We'd love to know your tips in the comments below! Signed, Filipina Budget Girl.