My husband wants me to do this, can you help?

amother

Salmon

Sun, Apr 25 2021, 6:55 pm

Some numbers you can work with:

Emergency Fund Level 1: $1000. This covers a lot of unexpected expenses like a broken appliance, dental emergency, etc.

Emergency Fund Level 2: Enough to get you by for 3 months without income (so add up your bare-bones monthly bills, meaning anything you wouldn't be able to cancel for 3 months - I.e. current tuition, mortgage, car payments, debt repayment minimums, insurances, the smallest amount you think you could spend for food, and multiply by 3)

House Fund: I've heard numbers like 1/2% to 1% of your home's value (obviously this is just a ballpark figure). So if you have a $250,000 home, you'll want to set aside about $2,500 annually to use for necessary home maintenance and repairs.

Bar Mitzvah: A reasonable minimum for a Bar Mitzvah would probably be about $2,000 (at-home simcha, Tefillin and bag, Bar Mitzvah lessons, hat, new suit). Obviously you could do for even less by using online self-learning, a suit on sale, cheaper Tefillin, and a simpler simcha; and the sky is the limit for how much one can spend on a party.

Other Simchas: For Chasunahs I'd try to get to $20,000 by that age. That is considered a pretty simple Chasunah, but also be'ezrat Hashem you will have more income by then also, so you won't be limited entirely to that.

For Bat Mitzvah I try to set aside a similar amount as for a Bar Mitzvah, and just have more leeway on how to spend it. (Chesed project, sefarim she might want, private tutoring in preparation.)

Other Savings:

Car: One method is to put aside a certain amount per mile driven (calculate at the end of the month). Wear and tear on the car is usually directly tied to distance, and putting aside 20-25 cents per mile should cover maintenance and repairs and eventually replacement. (Obviously run the numbers yourself to see if it makes sense for your car!)

Tuition: Put aside a hefty amount of time for saying Tehillim, and a firm resolution that you will consider your tuition payments one of your essential bills which are paid first. Be'ezrat Hashem you will be able to keep that resolution!

Health: If you do not have health insurance from work, consider setting aside $10,000 and switching to Refuah Health Share. There is a maximum out of pocket per family (I think $8,000 annually) and if you are in good health you will hopefully not spend anywhere near that! It can save significantly on health insurance.

If you're not already doing so, consider being disciplined and accurate with giving maaser, it's a well-known segulah for parnasah, and it's a wonderful feeling as well to know you are helping others. What we do is we have "adopted" certain families that we know are in need and give them our maaser directly (Paypal or Zelle into their bank account), but others prefer to give primarily to organizations that help a larger amount of people.

I hope this helps somewhat!