Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The push and the pull

I am struggling right now with conflicting drives. On one hand I feel the need to be saving ever more money. And the other hand- well that hand is saying "gimme gimme" to every little thing that tickles my fancy. I want to stave off impending doom (of any variety), but I also want to finish decorating the house, start my garden, fix up the shed, get my tattoo, a new flash and lens for my camera, etc. (Don't think I'm a crazy greedo, or ignorant of the world around me. We made our donation to the Red Cross for Haiti relief. Have you?) Beside the everyday stuff and projects that make me want to spend is the current idea we've been tossing around for our 5 year wedding anniversary in 2011 of possibly going to Europe, most likely Paris. Looking at the cost of flights makes me queasy. So, how bad do we want this? Bad enough to forgo any trips until then? Work an extra day each month to put extra savings towards it? I realize this is a mega-crazy ramble, sorry. Just trying to clear my brain a little bit. We have 5 targeted savings funds, then our retirement funds. But how do I know we're saving enough? How do you go about planning your savings goals? Please share any advice or tips you got. Ramble over.

3 comments:

Nicci said...

It's called a financial advisor.

Jessica said...

Really? I'd rather not pay someone else to do stuff when they couldn't possibly really care about it like I do.

Jennifer M. said...

Jessica IS my financial advisor.