by Alysa Seeland
I have a confession to make...I don't have a savings account.
I just don’t see the need for a nebulous lump sum of money that slowly drains for each and every “J.Crew emergency,” or SciFi motion picture. Now, while you’re conjuring up names having to do with all things irresponsible, you need to know that by the end of the year the hubs and I will have saved over $8,000, without a savings account. Maybe that's not terribly impressive given your income, but it's amazing from our vantage point!
So how did we save money if we don’t have a savings account? We have ImpulseSave.
Now, I guess if you want to get “technical” a savings account serves as the gears under the hood for my ImpulseSave account but it’s almost like comparing horses to unicorns except ImpulseSave exists :) First of all, my ImpulseSave account has multiple goals, 5 to be exact, with visual motivation so I can look at that Tahitian sky every time I save towards my “Trip To Tahiti.”
It also has this fabulously social component where I can see what my friends are saving towards instead of dealing all by my lonesome with a personal finance tool (that will remain nameless) that takes two days to get up to speed. I don’t know about you but a lot happens in two days of my life!
From Blah Savings Account To Responsible Indulgence:
Now life wasn’t always this way, in fact Isaac and I had a normal blah savings account in 2011, but after budgeting, pinching and allocating, we were left with $500 at the end of the year! Contrast that with our oh-so-easy ImpulseSave account in which we were nursing $2,000+.
So we quickly made the decision to dissolve our lame savings account that was just complicating our lives. We set autosave amounts based upon our income and where we wanted to be at the end of the year for all of our goals. Now when we see the Avengers tomorrow night we don't have to worry if we'll regret it at the end of the month. Why? Because we're making headway in all the things that matter and we're indulging with the leftovers.
Here are the things we’re saving towards:
Retirement:
- 18% complete
- scheduled to achieve January 21st, 2013
New Car Deposit:
- 2% complete
- scheduled to achieve April 1st, 2013
Emergency Fund:
- 18% complete
- scheduled to achieve Feb 11th, 2013
Isaac’s Video Camera:
- 53% complete
- scheduled to achieve October 8th, 2012
Trip To Tahiti:
- 16% complete,
- scheduled to achieve Feb 4th, 2013
Remember, these amounts are just my autosaves, so the $100 on average that I ImpulseSave a month isn’t factored in. Also, Isaac and I just went down to 1 car and we’re putting the money from the sale towards a deposit for a new car (that’s why that goal is so young) One of the best things about ImpulseSave is even if I did NOTHING from this point on - I’d still reach my goals and I’m still getting interest on a lump-sum account even though we’re making progress towards specific goals individually.
What goals are you saving towards? Do you feel like you are good at saving money? Have you considered signing up for ImpulseSave?
