Take time to plan your money goals and your sinking funds so you can be prepared for the year. You don’t want any bills sneaking up on you. Planning your bills and gifts will take away some stress especially if you know about it. Christmas is the same date every year so prepare for it in the beginning of the year so you don’t have to use your credit cards or take out a holiday loan.
- Write down all your quarterly and yearly bills, such as house insurance, car taxes, memberships to amazon or warehouse clubs, water, sewer, and taxes.
- Think of bills that don’t happen often like car registration, emissions, or license renewals.
- Also, write down birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, baby showers, or any other event that you want to give a gift.
After you write down all your bills. Calculate how much you have to save for each category. Divide the amount by how many months you have until that bill is due. For gifts and Christmas you will determine how much you want to spend in that category.
The sinking funds I will be putting in place for 2021 is car taxes, condo insurance, Christmas and birthday gifts. I will be saving $80 a month for Christmas so I can have $800 by October.
I reviewed my car taxes and house insurance that I paid this year. I paid about $467 for my car taxes, It usually goes down every year. The bill is due in July. So I subtracted about $25.00 then divided it by 7 which equals about $63 a month I need to save so I can have enough to pay the bill. My condo insurance was about $458 and I hope it doesn’t go up, If it does I will shop around for that too. I will be saving $65 a month for my condo insurance.
My money goal is to increase my retirement savings at least by 1%, continue saving and hopefully pay off my car. I will pay off my car if I feel secure in the economy and my job.
What sinking funds will you have for 2021?