Saving for your future by budgeting from today

This is a collaborative post with Pigly talking about saving for your dreams.

I was chatting to a friend the other day about saving and it got me thinking. Other than my tax bill, I am not saving for anything really at the moment. I have not even thought about saving for old age, let’s face it, we all like to think that is years away don’t we?

Have you tried a 52-week saving challenge yet? It looks like a great way to save! Are you struggling for money or do you have some to put aside?

How much should I be saving for old age?

How do you even decide how much to save for your old age if, like me, you are self-employed? I have been asking other bloggers what they do and was surprised to find that I am not the only one with no plans.

I can not even imagine old age and needing house adaptions, carers etc. Not to mention pensions and how you know what is a reasonable amount. Maybe a good starting point is to find out what employed people are saving.

The advice from the Money Saving Expert is that you should save as much as you can. I do like the way he explains things as when I was reading the government advice I did not even understand half of the terms they used!

How to decide what to put aside weekly

Without getting a calculator out I found it so much easier to use a savings calculator to work out what I need to save weekly etc. Imagining saving for 10 years and wanting 25k at the end of that time, for example, can be so easily plugged into the calculator and discover if that actually is a feasible possibility.

So, it turns out I need to save £43.44 a week, maybe that is a little out of reach. Time to get budgeting and work out what that looks like in my weekly/monthly budget I think. I still need to treat myself after all.

What do you pay for when you are retired? I guess everyone is so different but all I know is that I hope to live the sort of life my Grandma did before she recently passed away. She was my inspiration and I truly hope to be like her. I imagine living at home and only having care when needed and not worrying about money for simple things but having to plan for bigger things.

Does this all sound reasonable to you? Would you imagine a similar retirement?

What are you aiming to save for?

Are you saving for the latest Playstation, like my son Ben? Or perhaps you are saving for a car or your dream wedding? After all the disruption of recent months perhaps you have had to put plans on hold and need to work out a new saving plan. Remember to use your credit card for purchases to use Section 75 protection.

I guess it is so hard isn’t it to know what to do for the best! Maybe I need to come in lots of money or something! Have you ever considered reverse budgeting? I have seen a lot about it lately and think I may give it a go! Do you teach your kids about money too? If not then you should, they need to grow up and be good with money too.