We are a new family and it's been a difficult year financially with returning to work part time; I won't bore you with the other details. So we are now trying to build up our savings again which will be used for emergencies (eg someone looses job, cat needs surgery, etc) so I am wanting to know what is a good figure to get to for a family of 3 (with the cat it equals 4)? I need to start thinking as a family. Thanks
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I did up a budget. Worked out how much all of our bills cost each year (electricity, gas, water, cars, insurances, phones, pay tv etc etc), added $$ for clothes, gifts, medical, dental, holidays and incidentals. Then I added 10%. I divided that by 26 (fortnightly amount) and every fortnight that amount goes to savings WITHOUT FAIL.
It will take a while but eventually our savings will be built up enough to pay out bills in lump sums, pay insurances yearly instead of monthly and have $$ for emergency situations if they arise.
I don't know that there's a $$ figure I could put on it but I know (as a family of 3) that $5k in pure emergency funds would make me feel pretty good - we could handle most things with that.
I would also say look into Income Protection for the main wage earner.
We save around $600 a fortnight (at a minimum) but will access our savings as required to buy things like a new couch, or a trip overseas. We're a family of 4, renting with personal debt. It is possible to save even on low incomes. Pay your bills fortnightly so you don't get hit with a large amount at the end of the quarter, at least loosely budget for shopping
We are a family of 3 with $15,000 savings in bank, aiming for $25,000 by next Christmas. Hubby and I both work, together earning about $1700 a week. So we try to put away 300-400 into savings a week. It really makes life so much more stress free with savings put away. Even if you could put away $20 a week that's something!