7 Savings Goals Totally Worth All Your Time And Money - Playing Perfect (2024)

Who has time for savings when there’s debt to pay off or that big expense coming up? Well, hopefully, you find the time because your savings goals are absolutely worth your time and money!

Actually getting into the habit of regularly putting aside predetermined amounts of money can rescue you. You will be rescued from debt, enabled to make that big expense a cinch to pull off, and give you peace of mind to sleep easily at night.

Since savings are so awesome, what are the exact things we should be saving for?

Here are seven savings goals we all might want to be working on each month.

1. Savings Goals: Education

Just about every money-saving article has something in it about saving for college. Well, this is not that.

Some people don’t need to save for college.

There are those who graduated already and they don’t have kids or they don’t want their kids to go to college. Some people’s kids have grown up and finished college or they want their kids to pay for college themselves like they did. Or maybe they have other reasons for not having college savings goals too.

Having said that… not saving for college doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be saving for education.

If you want to save for college or not, education is still an area for savings because education should never stop and college is not the only form or way to be educated.

Saving for education is the goal and education can come in many forms. College is not the only form of education to save for, for education is always a worthyinvestment.

[bctt tweet=”College is not the only form of education to save for. #savings #moneygoals” username=”perfectplaying”]

Again, education is totally worth it, but it can happen in a myriad of ways so setting up a budget for those various ways can be helpful.

Education Savings Goal Example: Blogger Education Savings

For instance, let’s say you are a blogger. Well, well, well. You can totally do with an education fund, my blogging friend.

There are so many online courses available to take to turn your blog upside-down in terms of normal blogness to awesome blogness. The problem is a blogger can run into all kinds of debt if they go crazy with the courses and don’t have savings set aside.

If you have your eyes on a blogging course but don’t know how you’ll ever afford it, start saving pronto.

Even a dollar a day or a couple of dollars a week will eventually buy you something that will amp up your blogging skills and improve your online presence.

Education Savings Goal Example:DIY Education Savings

Let’s say you don’t care about blogging at all and your thing is photography or dance or quilting. Well, college might not be the thing you need for your quilting expertise and online courses might not be the thing a ceramics artist will benefit most from.

Still, whether you are a wanna be professional painter or a crafter hoping to make it big on Etsy, your education matters. You might need to brush up on some business skills, master the art of selling yourself, or just figure out how to open up shop on Etsy.

There are courses, conferences, tutors, and yes even cruises you can take that will teach you anything you want to learn! But you have to be able to pay for them.

Even buying a bunch of books will add up to a hefty price fast.

Please, do your mind, your business, your passion, and/or your spouse’s untapped talent, your cousin’s nearly forgotten idea, and your mom’s never really pursued project and save, save, save for educating yourself and/or your loved ones.

This is an investment you will be thankful for all the way to your deathbed.

Nobody ever goes to their grave saying, “Wow, I wish I learned less.”

If you do want to save for college for your kids or someone else’s (how awesome to be able to surprise your nephew or niece with a fully funded college education!) there’s a 529 plan that you should check out and look for the tax break advantages.

Learning is lifelong and can take endless forms. All forms of education are worth your time, attention, and money.

Decide how you want to educate yourself and/or your loved ones and start putting money aside for those very endeavors today!

2.Savings Goals:Home

Ah, home. Where you store your heart, right? Home is where the heart is?

Well home can also be where the financial stressors are found and where the biggest bills are and where sudden unexpected repairs crop up. Also, some people don’t even have a home to begin with and that’s the issue.

If you have a home it will need tending to and if you are hunting for a home it will need money for purchase. Either way, save away!

Home Savings Goal Example:You Got One Savings

If you have a home save for repairs, renovations, and things you just want to add such as security systems.

Don’t look for the money to suddenly appear when you need it, set aside money from each paycheck to make your home a place you adore and a place you can fully afford.

Maybe in fall start saving for that spring landscape you have been wanting to do. Perhaps you can start collecting Pinterest pins on amazing bathroom renovations and every time you set aside some extra funds for that new tub you can look at all your bathroom ideas and be urged on to add even more to your renovation savings fund.

Home Savings Goal Example: You Want One Savings

If you want a home and you don’t have that down payment secured, make it a point to save as much as you can with the most interest you can.

Setting up your accounts so that you have your home down payment savings account automatically withdrawing money from your checking account each month will help you put money away before you have the chance of spending it.

Your home might be the one place in the entire world where you will spend most of your days. Saving up for your home to be as wonderful as possible will be a long-lasting savings goal well worth your planning and dreaming.

3.Savings Goals:Celebrations

Christmas comes every year and so do your loved ones’ birthdays. There’s a good chance throughout any given year you might have holiday parties to attend, graduation ceremonies to watch, and baby showers to throw.

Instead of wanting super badly in your heart to give an amazing gift for that special occasion, but looking at your bank account numbers and feeling confused on how your money can match your motive, start setting aside funds marked for those celebratory moments.

Life is worth celebrating so start saving for those celebrations to be as magical as you hope them to be!

Celebrations Savings Goal Example:Holiday Savings

If you are into the holidays and don’t want to feel surprised at how much you end up spending each year or feel guilty for what you spent, make some savings goals and be ready for every holiday that comes.

Here are some quick Christmas Savings Goals Tips:

• List it! Write down everyone you want to buy for so you aren’t caught with last-minute pressure to get a gift on Christmas Eve.
• Shop online with Ebates! You can stay at home in your pajamas, don’t have to feel rushed with your decisions, and easily GET CASH BACK just for clicking on your Ebates button! Then you can use the savings to maybe purchase a gift for yourself.
• At the beginning of every year, with Christmas still fresh on your mind since it was just days prior, start a weekly Christmas savings plan so every week you are setting aside a few dollars that can quickly add up to a lux Christmas fund if you are intentional and disciplined.
• For just two months, maybe October and November (often busy months anyway), ditch cable and use the saved funds to fund your Christmas shopping. Maybe keep the cable for December though because, well you know, Christmas movies! Plus you might have kids at home for break who will want to veg out on the couch.

Celebrations Savings Goal Example: Non-Holiday Savings

Graduation, anyone? Birthdays? How about anniversaries and retirement parties and new neighbors moving in and goals reached and grades raised? Oh, and let’s not even get into the weddings and baby showers!

There are countless ways and reasons to celebrate throughout the year! Are you prepared? Do you have a certain amount of money set aside for that gift you want to buy, that party you want to throw, that cake you plan to bake?

Be real with your fiances and your life. Savings goals can turn celebrations into guiltless, totally prepared, best ever events that are nothing but fun and joy.

Here are some quick Non-Holiday Savings Goals Tips:

• Make a list of all birthdays you want to celebrate during the year. Next to each name write if you want to call the person, send a card, give a gift, or make something. If you want, add in various gift ideas (that you can use this year or another year!) and take note post-birthday to confirm if you got that gift/did that birthday task. The next year you’ll already have a record of what you gave so no time spent trying to recall, “Did I give Aunt Sally a toaster last year?!”

• If you’re in full-on planning mode and trying to get all your savings goals, as well as your celebrations goals, lined up and you happen to know that your loved one is graduating this year but you have no idea when, just go to the school’s website and check the academic calendar so you’ll know for sure.

• Batch. Batching your celebratory tasks makes it so that in the future all you really have to do is show up. If you are facing a bunch of similar celebrations, say more than five weddings in the next couple of years, or a bunch of people you know are going to be retiring, moving, or suddenly everyone you know seems to be popping out kids, make a list of a ton of gift ideas/celebration ideas so you can go to your list when the next celebration arises, tackle that celebration in record time, and feel totally on top of your celebration game. Examples: Make a list of all wedding gifts you’ll ever want to buy, purchase all your cards for people having babies at one time, go shopping for one outfit that will be suitable for all retirement parties.

Celebrations Savings Goals: Giving It All

If giving is your love language, you know the pull of wanting to give that special someone something that shows your affection in a tangible way.

Christmas can be stressful though and more than one birthday in a month can feel overwhelming if money hasn’t been set aside already.

Instead of feeling like you’re being forced into Scrooge type ways or settling for a card when you’d rather have an awesome birthday gift, start saving for gift giving today!

How to Determine Your Giving:

Decide a responsible amount for you to spend on celebrations this year.

If you keep a gift-giving log then you are really set with this first task – just find out how much you spent last year and decide if you want to increase, keep, or decrease that amount.

Be honest, look at your Amazon account over the last year and see how much you bought or check your credit card statements. Know for sure how much you have spent on gifts and know how much you now want to spend.

Now that you have your budgetdivide that number by 12 (months of the year) to get your monthly savings goal amount.

Once you have your number, let’s say it’s $20 a month, open up a savings account with the highest interest rate you can find in conjunction with the lowest, hopefully, none-at-all-fees, and open up your account immediately!

Online banks make it easy to open up a savings account within minutes while sitting in your own bed. And if your account is earning interest during the year you can use that interest to roll over into your gift giving next year.

Let the joyful, planned for, paid for, celebrations begin!

4.Savings Goals:Future

Your savings have a common thread no matter the goal: all savings imply looking at the future.

[bctt tweet=”Your savings have a common thread no matter the goal: all savings imply the future. #save” username=”perfectplaying”]

Some savings are in your immediate not-so-far-away future and some savings are about a future you hope you live to see, but may have a hard time imagining at the present moment.

Whether preparing for an ideal retirement or preparing for possible disaster, looking forward to your future is an important consideration for present-day money decisions.

Future Savings Goal Example:Dreaming

The big “r” word – retirement.

It can give you immediate feelings of hope or dread. Hopefully, we are standing on the hope side!If you land on the dread side of the feeling landscape, you just might want to decide today to get going on a plan.

Consider opening an IRA or starting a 401k plan at work. Some employers will match your 401k contribution – free money for you if you take advantage of all your available opportunities.

A little is more than none and can add up quickly and multiply magically. An encouraging book to read on this is Retired Inspired which is great for retirement savings at any age. The author is truly an advocate for intentionally pursuing a dreamy final stage of life.

Future Savings Goal Example: Dooming

The big “d” word – disability or death (take your pick).

The other important consideration about saving for the future is if you can’t retire and need to work but you become disabled, or/and you actually die.

You might want to look into disability insurance and you also might want to consider what you want done with your body and your belongings should you perish. It can be burdensome to leave your grieving family without the funds to pay for your casket or funeral so put a plan together so that your loved ones won’t experience additional financial grief.

Whatever your future will hold, and hopefully it will hold a bunch of great stuff, make sure you are putting savings goals in place so you, or your loved ones, are not caught by surprise. Live for today, but plan for the future.Your future self will thank you.

5.Savings Goals:Insurance

Without getting all health insurance this and life insurance that, just make a deal with yourself that this week you will get yourself feeling totally secured in the insurance arena.

If you are not currently covered by health insurance, you may want to make that your first priority. Then, try to set up life insurance for yourself and your spouse if you are married, especially if you have children. Then look into things like pet insurance, rental insurance, and making sure your car insurance is at the lowest rate possible.

Insurance itself can be a sort of savings plan so if you haven’t already, start researching what you need and persist to get those insurance needs met.

See how you can get the most insurance for the least amount of money (hence savings for you) and then see if you can use the insurance itself as a type of savings or tax advantage (HSA’s are the main thing I’m getting at here).

Insurance Savings Goals: Types Of Insurances

There are a lot of insurance types and options so please take your time to find out what is in the best interest of your personal situation. Here’s a list of various insurance options you want to consider researching and perhaps securing.

• Automobile Insurance
• Business Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Health Insurance
• Home Insurance
• Identity Theft Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Long-Term Care Insurance
• Motorcycle Insurance
• Motor Home Insurance
• Pet Insurance
• Recreational Vehicle Insurance
• Renter’s Insurance
• Travel Insurance

All insurance is not needed for all people, but if there is a type of insurance you determine to be appropriate for you, start saving for that insurance today.

6.Savings Goals:Emergencies

Yikes, the hard times suck. They just do.

When your husband is gone and your car breaks down and you lose your phone. Dang why does life have to be so hard sometimes? Or when you get sick and your sister needs a plane ticket to see your mom who is also sick and your mom also needs some money for a wheelchair.

Seriously, we never know what life will bring us.

Emergencies don’t have to be so tragic, so unsettling, and so monetarily devastating if we set aside some money while we are in the good times.

Do yourself a favor. Think of that person you love, that major stressor you know that if it ever happened you would feel like you would die, and decide today that instead of just hoping that bad things won’t happen, you will be financially prepared if they do.

Emergency funds can be the one thing that keeps you eating, keeps you sleeping at night, enables you to make that all of a sudden trip across the country, or send that much needed item to your in need friend.

Emergencies Savings Goals:Saving Yourself

Figure out what bothers you most, worries you endlessly, and keeps you up at night. Do all you can to set aside savings for emergencies you are silently freaking out about inside your head.

Are you afraid you might lose our job? Save.

Concerned your aging parent is going to need some help soon? Save.

Are you worried about your retirement? Save.

Thinking your house is literally going to collapse on you? Save.

Worried you won’t have enough money for you and baby? Save.

Fearful your husband will leave you? Save.

Scared to death about that medical thing you’re pretty sure is going to be a big deal? Save.

Emergencies Savings Goals:Saving Others

It might not just be your life on the line someday, but it could be the person you care about most.

You know how in planes they say to first put your own mask on before you go on to help others? The same applies to your finances as in if you’re first able to feed yourself first and then able to feed others who are in need.

First, you have to make sure you are able to help another person in need, that’s why you have to save for yourself first, as in have savings set aside for yourself first, like your medical situations, your career changes, your possibilities of being homeless. Then, after your life is not in the danger zone, start saving for others.

A realistic savings goal you can set for yourself is to save money for your parents you need to take care of soon or saving money for that family member you care a ton about who might lose their house but you want to help. If your heart is wanting to help, it sure helps a lot if your wallet can afford it.

[bctt tweet=” If your heart is wanting to help, it sure helps a lot if your wallet can afford it. #moneygoals” username=”perfectplaying”]

Save as soon as you can for the rescuing of others you want so desperately to be able to do. Rescuing animals totally applies here too. Just tossing that out (huge animal lover here, who kinda wants to save all dogs everywhere… yeah I need a big emergency savings account for dogs).

Whatever you consider to be an emergency, that makes a worthwhile savings goal to work toward. Please, please, please save yourself fromas much heartache and despair as you can. Save for your own emergencies, and then save for the emergencies of those you love.

Start saving something, anything, for emergencies. You’ll be so glad you did. Others might be so glad you did as well.

7.Savings Goals:Fun

All this time spent working so you can have money to save, now where is the fun?

That vacation, those purses, the boat you’ve been dreaming of. If you have a wish list turn it into a do list!

[bctt tweet=”If you have a wish list turn it into a do list! #savingsgoals #money” username=”perfectplaying”]

Instead of always waiting for someday or making a disastrous impulse buy that sets you back financially for decades to come, save for your wants.

If you are paying for needs such as food, shelter, and clothing (as well as the above savings areas already mentioned!) and you have money leftover, start marking that money for pleasure!

It will become so easy, but also so gratifying to deny yourself that daily coffee or that needless gadget knowing that you are putting away money for that big thing you really want.

Fun Savings Goals:All About Me

Make it a goal to earmark some money specifically for your own pleasure.

This could be big or small, for weekly massage appointments to yearly dinners that only consist of your favorite desserts. Whatever you find fun, see how much money you can realistically, responsibly, and guiltlessly, set aside for your own happiness.

Fun Savings Goals:All About Others

Do you have some BFFs you want to take a cruise with? Have you been hoping to go with your entire family to Disneyland? Perhaps you’ve been dreaming of the day you can take your dog camping.

Whatever it is you are dying to do with others, budget that baby. Set some goals, start putting away the funds, and enjoy life with those you hold most dear.

Determine what fun stuff you want to work for and save for and open up a savings account for the life you’ve been wishing for today!

Savings goals needn’t be boring or all about potentially bad stuff happening. Savings goals can be about living the life you dream of, making the most of your money and time, having fun while you’re able!

Go ahead, save for something exciting today!

Life doesn’t last forever, nor will your money, so choose to make the most of both.

[bctt tweet=”Life doesn’t last forever, nor will your money, so choose to make the most of both. #moneygoals” username=”perfectplaying”]

To keep our savings goals fresh, here’s a review of our list:

1. Education
2. Home
3. Celebrations
4. Future
5. Insurance
6. Emergencies
7. Fun

Make every single stinking dollar do something that leaves you feeling more secure, more purposeful, and more in love with your life.

Excited about these savings goals coming full force intoyour life? *Pin* this post on savings goals motivation for when you need it! If you’re into making the most of your money, come check out more pinnings onPlaying Perfect’s Pinterest Page!

Looking for more ways to be financially wise? Check out these tips from money masters of the past!

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