
2019: The Official Savings Challenge
Happy new year, everyone, and welcome to the 2019 YNAB savings challenge!
All are very welcome to join in, no matter the size of your goals or savings purpose. Claim your line on the spreadsheet and then post your goal to this thread, then check in every month to update your progress on the spreadsheet and the thread. If you have a journal, you can also link this on the spreadsheet.
2019 Savings Challenge Spreadsheet
A special thanks to @Budget_Ninja for creating the spreadsheet and to speaking_of_art who is taking a second year as steward of the spreadsheet.
The 2018 savings challenge total is not yet completed, and there will be people still posting their final updates in early January, but I can see that as a group YNABers from both forums saved in excess of $760,000 (US $). That is outstanding!
Let the 2019 saving begin.
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I'm formally declaring my 2019 savings goal of $28,000.
The first $10,000 of that is a final gift from my Dad, a cash inheritance from his estate which I received in December. I categorized it as income for January, so I added $10,000 to the amount I am planning to save this year.
The remainder, $18,000, is what I expect to save from my income. I think I'll be doing very well if I can maintain last year's saving rate of $1,500-ish/month. I'm going to give it an enthusiastic and determined try. My salary remains frozen at the 2016 rate, and new carbon taxes are increasing the cost of everything. -
Yay it's here! Nice work and thank you to everyone involved in making these challenges. I had great fun with last year's challenge and met my goals.
This year my goal is 9,000,000 KRW. I actually plan to save more than this, but for consistency I will only be tracking my long-term goals this year, as last year I kept changing the way I tracked my savings and it really messed up my tracking for the challenge. My long-term savings goals are reaching 15,000,000 KRW for an apartment deposit by September 2019 (over half-way funded), and then 5,000,000 KRW for a trip to Sweden, England and Scotland to see my family by April 2020 (already have 500,000 KRW saved for this goal). If I can save 750,000 KRW per month next year, I will be exactly on track to reach my goals on time.
I also have some goals I will not be tracking. In last year's challenge, I saved about 3,500,000 KRW for vacations to Hanoi and Tokyo. Tokyo is probably going to be pretty (cripplingly) expensive, so I'll be looking to throw an extra 500,000 KRW into my travel fund before I go. I am also hoping to keep my EF topped up in the event that I need to use it at all. Any extra money that exceeds my savings goals will firstly be going to a printer, and then to getting ahead with my long-term tracked goals.
Good luck to everyone taking part, and Happy New Year!
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First time doing this, let's see if it works. My saving goals for 2019 are:
1) 600€ for tution fees
2) a 1.000€ backup (I don't like the word emergency fund)
3) 1.300€ for my dream trip to Tokyo in November. Since Santa (aka my mom) gave me 600€ for Christmas there is only 700€ left.
Total: 2.900€
4) Stretch goal: 3.500€, for a new/2nd hand laptop.
The overall goal is to throw 250-300€ each month at savings, which is quite a chunk since I'm running on a students budget.
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I've added my 2019 Savings Goal on line #39. My goal will be $30k:
- $16,500 for 1 full year of daycare (starting in summer 2019, so this would give me a buffer into 2020),
- $1505.36 for maternity and baby photos for first year,
- $3,900 for emergency fund,
- $6,858.48 for rainy day funds, and
- $1,236.16 for various expenses, including baby stuff and supports (only such a precise # to get to the round # of $30k).
And as a stretch goal I would ideally like to save $35k or more, which would allow for travel or other nice to haves. We'll see how taxes and my bonus are, though. My saving for 2018 was successful thanks to this challenge, so I'm hopeful for another successful year in 2019. Best of luck to everyone!
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Hi all, and happy new year! I have goals for savings for 2019! $5,000 to EF and sinking funds, 10,000 in replacement for my salary over the summer, when I work less than half time (unless I get a grant funded, which would be amazing!), fully funded xmas budget, family vacation and a writing retreat, and $700 monthly contribution to my daughters 529 college savings plan. Our retirement comes out automatically, and we are 15-20 years out, so I'm not tracking that here. I'd actually like to up the 529 amount to $800/month, but not yet sure if that is feasible. If I can cut our eating out and grocery budget, I can do it. I'm looking forward to being with everyone else on the 2019 journey!
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When you guys set up your savings goals, how do you all differentiate between goals that will be saved *and* emptied during the year (for example, a vacation savings goal) versus longer-term savings goals (such as saving for a down payment)? Just wondering about everyone's strategies for mentally framing things and tracking purposes!
I have a 2019 savings goal of $9,700 USD (rounded up to $10,000) for "financial security". This includes:
-funding my Roth IRA at $4500 for the year ($375/mo). I am self-employed, in my mid-20s, and hope to increase this contribution over time, but this is what I am fairly confident that I can afford for now.
-finishing up buffer and EF goals (eg, 3 months' rent; 3 months' cost of living expenses; $5,000 in emergency medical savings)
I would also like to save a substantial (but undetermined) amount of money for a down payment on a house. That fund was wiped out due to unexpectedly high 2017 taxes (but 2018 taxes were budgeted for by paying quarterly taxes plus saving extra!). I only managed to save an additional $2600 in 2018 for a down payment after the fund was zeroed out.
I will be starting a new job in January (yay!) which technically represents a reduction in take-home pay, but will save me a fair amount of money per month when benefits are considered (insurance covered 100%; memberships to professional organizations; continuing education credits; etc). I am sort of waiting to see how those small costs add up to savings in my monthly budgets, and then I feel I can more confidently set realistic and stretch savings goals for myself. -
Will happily join this challenge. 🇨🇦
I have the wedding of my brother and his fab fiancee to get to, along with my husband and two kids. It's in Australia and tentatively dated between Dec 9/19 and Jan 20/20, so about a year out. We've just started pricing out plane tickets from Ontario and accommodations in Sydney. That savings category will also include pet and house sitting, events and outings, spending money, wedding attire and a gift! I'm ball-parking $25,000+ as we'd rather be over than under.
We are aggressive savers, but this will involve some strategy without sacrificing the savings we already are making strides with (retirement, new car, travel, home improvements, animals, giving). -
I need to buy some time into my retirement pension and it's currently estimated to cost $24,000 or so. Until I get the exact amount (in a few months), I want to pay off all debt except my mortgage and save several thousand toward this. A family member will loan me the balance.
So my savings goal (ID # 60) is $9,000
But once I have the actual figures and loan set up, this goal will go to zero, and a realistic portion of the loan will be added to my 2019 Debt Smackdown goal assuming someone sets it up.