do you save for 1 thing at a time?

[mumof2]

I'm just wondering if people save for 1 thing at a time or multiple things at a time? Say you want to pay off your CC, buy a car and save for a house do you do them all at the same time or 1 at a time? I am someone who does 1 at a time unless it is something that is planned like a big holiday...so we paid off our CC...then we updated our car...now we are saving a house deposit...hopefully in a year we can save enough...but some people have said to me I should be doing all 3 but to me that would take longer and cost more...we paid off the CC so we saved interest...we paid cash for our car...which we had been saving for already...and now that money can go into the house but the other 2 I don't need to worry about anymore...so what do you guys think?

[Jluke]

CC first but I’ve always been able to pay in full each month.

car. I get a loan at a low rate 0.9 or 1.9 (if available)

house. Save

[mumof2]

Its kinda weird here, getting a loan for us is hard as I am unable to work now due to a chronic illness and my hubby is retired...most of his income comes from the US and our aussie money is based on that income..but many banks won't include it as income as it is from a different country and comes from their government....so its a catch 22...but they said if we owned propety over there they wouldn't hesitate to give us a loan..I'm like why you would have no claim on a property in a different country...I tell you it can be hard and frustrating at times

[rennigade]

Wife and myself do not break things down item by item. In general, we just save. Probably not great advice for most, but it works for us.

[kork13]

In general, we mostly just save into a big pot to use as required. Sometimes I'll create new little sub-accounts for specific goals (Ally made this pretty easy recently), but even when we do have multiple goals running at the same time (as recently, needing to buy DW a car, and prepping to buy our next home), the money is fairly fluid between those goals. House fund was at $X, Car fund at $Y, but turns out we needed $Z to get what DW really wanted. So we shuffled a couple thousand over to the car fund, and all's well.

In the end, I guess I'd say I run multiple goals at once. Retirement & kids' college is always going, then I'm always saving for various future priorities as well. I see it as a matter of balance, and occasionally have adjusted that balance when something is weighted too heavily (ex: at one point I was loading 25% of gross into retirement, at the expense of taxable/accessible savings).

[disneysteve]

We are also in the "one big pot" group. The exceptions were college savings which went into a 529 account and some retirement savings in my 401k and our Roth accounts. Everything else - car, vacation, home renovations, etc. - all comes out of the same general account.

[cypher1]

I'm similar to DS for saving in one main lump account, referencing my EF account, and then sub categorize further. So the EF contains additional funds for home upgrades later, hobby purchases later (mainly for tools), future car purchase, tuition savings. In other words I'm sitting on more cash than I probably should which could be put into the market. But I foresee using them in under 4 years for various circumstances. Roths and Taxables are still separate areas for saving/investing.

[mumof2]

Sounds like you all do things pretty similar...I guess I track a little more since we are on a lower income...and don't have a lot of reserves yet but ask me again in 10 years and hopefully we will its been a rough 8 years for us healthwise but I think things are starting to improve...but we do have an ice account which is just for emergencies, our POM account which is for quarterly and yearly bills like insurances/car rego etc...and then our savings...but thanks for the input

[cypher1]

Sounds like you all do things pretty similar...I guess I track a little more since we are on a lower income...and don't have a lot of reserves yet but ask me again in 10 years and hopefully we will its been a rough 8 years for us healthwise but I think things are starting to improve...but we do have an ice account which is just for emergencies, our POM account which is for quarterly and yearly bills like insurances/car rego etc...and then our savings...but thanks for the input

Going back to your initial post, there really is no right or wrong way; whichever you're more comfortable with. All of us have different financial circumstances, so the path may vary to fit your goal(s). If it's easier for you to focus on saving for one goal at a time versus many at once, stay that course.