Said It Here

How to split savings between multiple financial goals on one income

When people have multiple competing savings goals—like a car, a big holiday, and retirement—spreading leftover money too thin across all of them stalls progress on everything. This leaves them unsure whether to divide small monthly margins among all targets or throw everything at one goal at a time.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    reducing 401(k) contributions to the employer match level to free up cash flow
  2. 2
    prioritizing maxing out tax-advantaged accounts like the Roth IRA and HSA

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.

“if you hypothetically had multiple savings goals, for this example say it’s: wanting to go on a big holiday ($20k worth), want a new car ($30-$40k), other bits and things you want say ($8000-$10,000) - the point is you have multiple things you want that would require saving some money for.”source ↗

“If you had $500 of disposable margin remaining after all expenses covered, this is purely your money to do whatever you wish with. How do you proceed, do you split that amongst the multiple savings goals you have, or do you throw that whole remaining money at one goal at a time?”source ↗

N0scop35611 · r/personalfinance · 1 upvotes

“26M, software engineer making ~$127k base. I’m trying to get an outside perspective on whether I’m allocating my money appropriately and what I should prioritize over the next few years.”source ↗

“I reduced my 401(k) contribution to 6% temporarily because I have several things I want to save for:”source ↗

EnjoyPeak88 · r/personalfinance

Where this came up

r/personalfinancebudgetingpersonal financeretirement planningsavings

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