Setting Financial Goals And Calculating How Much Money Is Needed
Common Goals And Ideas To Help You Achieve Them
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Set up an Emergency+Fund
An Emergency+Fund is a fund of ready "cash" for emergencies. For example, if you lose your job or unexpectedly find yourself disabled, an Emergency+Fund can help you maintain your standard of living while looking for a new job or waiting for long-term disability benefits to start. Since insurance often doesn't pay for new treatments, the fund might also include money to pay for new treatments for your condition.
For help in deciding how much your fund should be, see Emergency+Fund.
To find out how much you need to save each week or month, and find out what investments might be appropriate, see Saving To Meet Your Goals.
You don't have to fund an Emergency+Fund overnight, but now is the time to start. Even if you only put away a few dollars a day -- start now. When you're tempted to spend that extra unnecessary buck, think instead of what would happen if you needed to tap into the Emergency+Fund and there's nothing there or it's not enough to get you through.
Protect against the loss of income and assets
Adequate insurance will help protect against unnecessary and unsustainable economic losses. The following articles will help you evaluate your current coverage, determine how much coverage you need, and even show you how to get insurance that you might think is not obtainable.
To protect your income in the event of disability, see:
To guard against crushing medical bills, there is:
To protect your assets, see: Property/Casualty Insurance
Get out of debt
A lot of people want to get out of debt, but few ever do. If you are in debt, achieving all of your other financial goals will be much more difficult. See Managing Your Debt for advice on paying down your debt.
Since credit can be a friend (to have, not necessarily to use), consider maximizing your credit or getting it if you don't have any Credit.
Plan for the possibility of death or incapacitation
Even people who just completed the Boston marathon need to be prepared for the possibility of death or incapacitation. To find out what you may need to do to protect your assets and your family should something happen to you see Estate Planning.
Save for education
Saving for your children's education or even to return to school yourself is an understandable priority. If you would like to start planning now to fund your children's education, try the following sites:
College Board's Online College Savings Adviser: www.collegesavings.com/
Buy a home
Does the goal of buying a home still make sense? If your condition is serious, owning a home might not be worth the stress and time that can be involved. If you do want to purchase a home, you'll usually need two things: a down payment and good credit. Sources of a down payment can include a life insurance policy, retirement plan, or saving from your current income. See Getting Money out of Your Retirement Plan, New Uses of Assets -- Life Insurance, IRAs, and Credit.
Home improvements
If you already own a home, you might want to make improvements to it to make it more livable or worth more or to accommodate changes in your physical condition. One way to pay for improvements is with a home equity loan.
Start your own business
Starting your own business can be exciting, gratifying, and expensive.
- Is running your own business right for you? To learn what to consider, see: Starting Your Own Business.
- To learn ways to finance it, check out the Small Business Administration's website at www.sba.gov/financing/.
- New Uses of Assets can be a source of start-up money.
Buy something
Before you make a major purchase, such as a new car or state-of-the-art-surround-sound- flat screen t.v., consider if spending the money is worth sacrificing other goals. If you decide to go ahead, think about whether to pay for the purchase with cash or credit. If you decide to use cash, will you have enough cash or credit if you have to pay for future health care? Also see Saving To Meet Your Goals.
If you use credit, consider whether or not you should get credit insurance on the purchase.
Save for retirement
Because of the many tax-advantaged retirement plans and the difficulty of determining how much you need, we have a section on Retirement Planning that includes advice on allocating your retirement saving dollars and a calculator to help make some estimates according to your situation.
Save for disability
If you do not have adequate disability income insurance and your condition could disable you, save as much as you can so that you're prepared "just in case." To figure out how much you'll need, see Financial Planning for Disability.
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