How to save money for future expenses
First, talk to your husband about this. You really need to persuade him that you need to be saving, and get him to agree on how and how much. Second, if you husband is not good at saving, work on getting something set aside automatically - ideally deducted from a paycheck or transferred to a savings account automatically. If he is the kind of person who might dip into that account, try to make it a place he can't withdraw from Third, get some advice, possibly training, on budgeting. Buy a book, take a video course: even start by watching some TV shows on getting out of debt. how can I save money for the future The fact that you are worrying is good. This is the first step. Follow this up with a plan. One way is first get hold of your income [its fixed you know the salary]. Maintain expenses, then see which costs can be cut down. Create individual goals and start investing for these. The best way for first timer is to invest into a Recurring Deposits or SIP in mutual fund, i.e. kind of forced saving so that you don't spend what is available in bank Account. You can't force a horse to eat carrots. You have to make him hungry...  It's good that you're ready to start saving. The hardest part about building wealth is that most people live in denial. They think a bigger hat is wealth. That said, you need to get your husband excited about the idea of saving. If you're capable of sparking a little passion in him for saving then you'll see your wealth grow almost over night.  So, how do you make someone excited about something as boring as saving? Great question. If you find a way, write a book. Honestly, I think it's different for everyone. For me it was like someone turned on a light. I was blind but then I saw. If he is a reader then I would suggest the following books in this order. If he makes it through those and has any argument at all against saving then write a book about him haha.  Now I want to be clear, the other two answers above mine were also spot on. If you can't get him passionate about it then you need to take the initiative and start doing it yourself. I can't stress enough though that you both need to be engaged in order to do it quickly and efficiently.  Good luck! "My answer will suck but it comes from someone who has been married: You can't control another person or convince them to do something.  What you can do is identify what they value and show how saving money increases their opportunities in what they value, but understand that the person could see what you're saying as invalid too.  If you're single and reading this, this is why you verify that the person has similar values to you. Think of it like someone who wants good gas mileage: you show them a car that gets 60MPG, and immediately they say, ""Well, but that's not a cool car.""  So their value isn't the miles per gallon, and you may find the same is true with your spouse.  India is paying more interest than the US and Europe in their savings accounts (I believe the benchmark interest rate is 7.5%), so - assuming your spouse values more money - showing him how to use money in savings to passively earn money might be a technique that works.  But it may mean nothing to him because it's (1) not his actual value or (2) isn't enough to matter in his mind. In other words, this is all sales and whatever you do (and this is regardless of gender), don't manipulate, as in the long run that tends to build resentment.  If there is a specific problem that you know he sees as a major issue and saving money can help, I'd recommend showing how savings would help with that problem.  People generally like solutions to problems; just remember, what you think he sees as a problem may not be what he sees as a problem.  This is why I chuckle when I see single people give married people advice; you can't just ""convince the person enough"" because you are not that person; we have to speak their language and we should be careful to avoid creating resentment. The part that sucks (or doesn't depending on who you ask) is that if we can't convince others to do it, we should do it ourselves.  Either (1) earn money independently yourself when applicable (realizing that you are about to have a child and may be limited), or (2) save the money that you and your spouse have agreed that you're allotted, if this applies to your situation (a few spouses divide income even when one is an earner)."
"Don't mind the percentages. They are highly misleading. First, ""saving"" is making available for future use. It might be ""hoarding"", ""investing"" or a combination thereof. It might be for a specific use (a car, a college education, retirement, etc.), or for a non-specific use (for an emergency, for when you decide to spend some of those savings, or just for lack of a compelling use as of the moment). In first case, whatever you save should be available by the date you intend to use it. In second case, it might be prudent to have savings (and investments, see below) of various liquidity (cash you have at hand, bank account you can draw next day, mutual fund account you can draw in a month, maybe something you can only cash in a year etc.). You will see that the actual percentages you ""save"" fluctuate enormously throughout your life, varying with the progress of your career, changes of marital status and family cmposition, etc., etc. What you should really do is to come up with a rough plan of how you expect, from right now and to the end of your life at whatever age, have enough money for whatever level of comfort you plan for each period of your life, allowing for some specified level of perturbations. Then you just execute that plan or change it as you go." "First, you must prioritize what a ""need"" and what a ""want"" is.  This is different for everyone but generally, I think most people will agree that impulse items are ""want"" items.  Look at the item, hold it, put it back and wait 30 days.  Put the money that the item costs $x into your savings account (transfer from checking, straight deposit, etc) Come back to the store and hold the item again and as ""did I miss the fact that I didnt get it 30 days ago?"".  95% of the time, the answer is no.  You saved $x for 30-days, and received what is a tiny bit of interest for it. This is cause for celebration!  If you repeat this for every item you THINK you ""need"" or ""want"" then you'll be amazed at what you saved.  Dont waste this money on a vacation to the islands either!  Keep saving.   There will be plenty of rainy days when you'll have wanted to trade that island vacation (or the impulse items you bought that you used once or twice and are lost in your garage somewhere) to pay for some unexpected emergency.  Trust me on this!" "According to your numbers, you just stated that you spend approximately $1500 in discretionary expenditures per month, yet are unable to save. I fully realize that living in a big city is usually expensive, but on your (presumably after-tax) salary, I think you can easily save a substantial portion of your income. As others have already noted, enforcing saving of a significant portion of your discretionary income is the most obvious step.  It's easy to say, but I suspect that if you are like most people who have difficulty saving, the psychological impact of quitting your previous spending habits ""cold turkey"" is likely to be very harsh, all the more so if you have an active social life.  You may find yourself becoming depressed or resentful at ""having"" to save.  You may lose motivation to work as hard because you might think that you're putting away all this money for the distant future, whereas you are young now and want to enjoy life while you can. It is in this context, then, that I looked at your other financial obligations.  Paying $1300/month to your parents is a lot.  It's over 20% of your after-tax salary.  You do not specify the reasons for doing this other than a vague sense of familial duty, but my recommendation is to see if this could be reduced somewhat.  If you can bring it down to $1000/month, that $300 would go into your savings, and you would psychologically feel a lot better about putting, say, $600 of your own discretionary income into savings as well.  Now you have, all told, about $1000/month of savings without severely curtailing your extra expenditures. But I would start with that $1500/month of luxury spending first.  And yes, you do need to view it as luxury spending.  The proper frame of mind is to compare your financial situation to someone who is truly unable to save because their entire income is spent on actual necessities:  food and shelter; their effective tax rate is 0% because they earn too little; and they usually find themselves in debt because they cannot make ends meet.  Now look back at that $1500/month.  Can you honestly say that you cannot afford to cut that spending?" Talk freely about what you can now do because of saving. If you plan to retire sooner than most, or more comfortably than most, and can tie that to something you want them to do, show them that. If you buy a very nice car, or install a pool, and they wish they could afford that, tell them it took 5 or 10 or 20 years to save up for it, at x a week, and now you have it with no loan. Or be a cautionary tale: wish you had something, and regret not having saved for it. Young adults are generally well served by knowing more of parental finances than they did while they were dependents. Ask them if they will want or need to fund parental leaves, make a down payment for a house, own vacation property, put a child through post secondary education (share the cost of theirs including living expenses if you paid them), or go on amazing vacations fairly regularly. Tell them what those things cost in round figures. Explain how such a huge sum of money can accumulate over 2, 5, 10 years of saving X a month. for example $10 a week is $500 a year and so on. While they may not want to save 20 years for their downpayment, doing this simple math should let them map their savings amounts to concrete wishes and timeframes. Finally, if this is your own child and they live with you, charge them rent. This will save them from developing the habit of spending everything they earn, along with the expensive tastes and selfish speaking habits that come with it. Some parents set the rent aside and give it back as a wedding or graduation present, or to help with a downpayment later, but even if you don't, making them live within their true means, not the inflated means you have when you're living rent-free, is truly a gift. "I posted a comment in another answer and it seems to be approved by others, so I have converted this into an answer. If you're talking about young adults who just graduated college and worked through it. I would recommend you tell them to keep the same budget as what they were living on before they got a full-time job. This way, as far as their spending habits go, nothing changes since they only have a $500 budget (random figure) and everything else goes into savings and investments. If as a student you made $500/month and you suddenly get $2000/month, that's a lot of money you get to blow on drinks. Now, if you put $500 in savings (until 6-12 month of living expenses), $500 in investments for the long run and $500 in vacation funds or ""big expenses"" funds (Ideally with a cap and dump the extra in investments). That's $18,000/yr you are saving. At this stage in your life, you have not gotten used to spending that extra $18,000/yr. Don't touch the side money except for the vacation fund when you want to treat yourself. Your friends will call you cheap, but that's not your problem. Take that head start and build that down payment on your dream house. The way I set it up, is (in this case) I have automatics every day after my paychecks come in for the set amounts. I never see it, but I need to make sure I have the money in there. Note: Numbers are there for the sake of simplicity. Adjust accordingly. PS: This is anecdotal evidence that has worked for me. Parents taught me this philosophy and it has worked wonders for me. This is the extent of my financial wisdom." Firstly assumption is that  Now if expense is from your savings You need to know loans are not free; and they are not a way to solve budget issues. If you are having problems with making your income last over your expenses, you do not need to add another expense (in the form of a loan) What you really need to do is create a budget, track and understand your expenses, and then decide if you should focus on raising  your net income level or cutting down expenses. Keep up with your budget.  You can reduce the frequency, but you need to track your spending really for the rest of you life.  It is just a good habit, like personal hygiene. Once you understand your money (via your budget), you can start to save money into an emergency fund that will cover you during the times of zig zags. I say it very plainly as if it is super easy; but it requires will power and the foresight to understand that if you don't manage your money, nobody else will.  Being sane with your money is one of the most important things you can do now to improve your future. IMPROVEMENT NathanL has an excellent first step with budgeting:  Allocate money to be spent for the next month from money made during   the previous month. This will build a cushion into your budget and   alleviate the fear that the OP mentioned "Some things are nearly universal, and have been mentioned already.  My ""favorite"" forseeable expenses in this category are: However, I also advocate saving for expenses that are specific to you.  Look back on your expenses for the last 12 months, minimum (18 or 24 may be better).  Ask yourself these questions: I ask about large expenditures because you may make enough that you can ""eat"" these lapses in budgeting, as I did for many years.  It is not an emergency now, but it turned into an emergency down the road as my spending went out of control.  Look at all expenditures over a certain level, say $100 or $200.   Some personal examples of expenses that aren't quite so universal, but turned into small emergencies: This last one was rather unexpected.  It is the reason why I ask the question ""why didn't I budget for it?""  These fees and dues are for my professional-level certifications.  In my industry, they are ""always"" paid for by the company.  A year ago, they weren't paid by my former employer because they planned to lay me off.  This year, they weren't paid by my present employer because I am technically a temporary worker (4 years is temporary?).  So, from now on, I plan to save for this expense.  If my employer pays my dues, then I stop saving for the expense, but keep the money I've saved." "The principle to follow is called ""pay yourself first"". Have your savings deducted from your paycheck before it hits your checking account. You spending will change to accommodate the reduction. If you have a 401(k) available from your employer, start saving some money via that. If not, figure out a way to have something moved out of your checking account to a separate savings account when your paycheck hits. Then as you get raises, up the amount of automatic savings by half of the raise. You will find this hurts less than you think and it will let you build an emergency fund, which is the first thing you need. When the emergency fund is 6 months of normal spending, then you can start to invest." "There are many tactics you can use.  If your biggest problem is regretting your larger purchases, I'd suggest giving yourself rules before making any purchases over a certain minimum dollar amount that you set for yourself.  For example, if that amount is $50 for an item, then any item starting at an average price of $51 would be subject to these rules. One of your long-term goals ought to be to become the kind of person who finds joy in saving money rather than spending it.  Make friends with frugal people - look for those who prefer games nights and potlucks to nights out at the club buying expensive drinks and dinners at the newest steak joint in town.  Learn the thrill of a deal, but even more learn the thrill of your savings growing.  You don't want to enjoy money in the bank for the purposes of becoming a miser.  Instead you want to realize that money in the bank helps you achieve your goals — buying the house you want, donating a significant amount of money to a cause you ardently support, allowing you to take a dream vacation, letting you buy with cash the car you always wanted, the possibilities are endless.  As Dave Ramsey says, ""Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else.""" What you put that money into is quite relevant. It depends on how soon you will need some, or all, of that money.  It has been very useful to me to divide my savings into three areas...  1) very short term 'oops' funds. This is for when you forget to put something in your budget or when a monthly bill is very high this month. Put this money into passbook savings.  2) Emergency funds that are needed quite infrequently. Used for such things as when you go to the hospital or an appliance breaks down. Put this money in higher yeald savings, but where it can be accessed.  3) Retirement savings. Put this money into a 401-K. Never draw on it till you retire. Make no loans against it. When you change jobs roll over into a self-directed IRA and invest in an ETF that pays dividends. Reinvest the dividend each month.  So, like I said, where you put that money depends on how soon you will need it. I think you might benefit from adopting a zero-sum budget, in which you plan where each dollar will be spent ahead of time, rather than simply track spending or worry about the next expense. Here's a pretty good article on the subject: How and Why to Use a Zero-Sum Budget. This is the philosophy behind a popular budgeting tool You Need a Budget, I am not advocating the tool, but I am a fan of the idea that a budget is less about tracking spending and more about planning spending. That said, to answer your specific question, one method for tracking your min-needed for upcoming expenses would be to record the date, expense, amount due, and amount paid as shown here:  Then the formula to calculate the min-needed (entered in E1 and copied down) would be: As you populate amounts paid, the MinNeeded is adjusted for all subsequent rows. You could get fancier and only populate the MinNeeded field on dates where an expense is due using IF(). "Another way to look at budgeting: give yourself an explicit ""allowance"" -- possibly in a separate account -- and if something isn't a clear necessity it must be paid for out of your allowance, saving up first if necessary. You can get those concert tickets, but only if you cut down on expensive meals and toys and other entertainment for a while. You can have anything you want, but not everything and not immediately unless you learn to maintain an adequate balance in this account." someone is paid a certain sum each month, and wants to spend only a certain amount each month, can he spend more and then take it out of next month's payment? Using the example 100 month 1, 60 first month. Save 40 Second Month, 100 salary, spend 70. Save 30. Overall Savings 70 Third month, 100 salary, spend 50. Save 50. Overall Savings 120 So in short term or once a while doing this is fine. However if [and this depends on individuals] it goes beyond control, i.e. you keep spending say 90 every month, you would have to save for quite a few months to get back to normal. A better way would be to reverse this. Using the example 100 month 1, 60 first month. Save 40 Second Month, 100 salary, spend 50. Save 50. Overall Savings 90 Third month, 100 salary, spend 70. Save 30. Overall Savings 120 i.e. save more first and then spend, rather than spending now and saying you will save in future. Generally this is the trap quite a few fall into specially when saving for retirement, they keep putting it to future and very soon realize that they can't get back to the goal. "This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-08/yellen-bet-on-pulling-workers-back-to-labor-force-is-paying-off) reduced by 88%. (I'm a bot) ***** &gt; Even as U.S. unemployment crept lower in recent years, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen stuck with a glacial pace of policy tightening that she justified with a powerful message: there were still millions of potential workers to pull in from the labor market&amp;#039;s sidelines.  &gt; If workers hadn&amp;#039;t come back, the strategy could have spurred an overly-tight labor market that sent wages and inflation up too quickly.  &gt; The surge of job holders coming from outside the labor force &amp;quot;Speaks to the reduction in slack in the labor force,&amp;quot; said Tom Simons, a senior economist at Jefferies LLC in New York.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6m5f49/yellen_bet_on_pulling_workers_back_to_labor_force/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~162709 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **labor**^#1 **works**^#2 **rate**^#3 **market**^#4 **force**^#5"