adonwhite[at]hotmail.com (Will Adonwhite) wrote in message news:<d7a2317e.0407101156.3f57d23e[at]posting.google.com> ...
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Congratulations on your current savings and ability to save for the
future. As Crocodile Dundee would say "No worries, mate!". I did a
simple spreadsheet with the following columns:
Year, Balance, Interest, Additional Savings, Expense
Your over $15,000 a year savings will easily get you through the
occasional $20,000 a year expenses starting with $90,000. I even
assumed you bought a new $20,000 car in 2008 and 2015. Since columns
usually don't format well, I'll only do the first two. With only 5%
interest it looks like:

2004 $90,000
2005 $110,100
2006 $131,205
2007 $153,365
2008 $156,634
2009 $160,065
2010 $168,068
2011 $192,072
2012 $217,275
2013 $243,739
2014 $271,526
2015 $300,703
2016 $311,338
2017 $306,905
2018 $302,250
2019 $297,362
2020 $327,830

Money is fungible so you don't need save each category separately.
You didn't even go broke with 0% interest. You can, of course, make
this much more complicated with tax rates and inflation, but the "new
balance = old balance + savings - expenses" method should work pretty
well.
Good Luck,
Speednxs

You are doing better than 90% of the rest of the civilized world. Good
job.

Bank accounts suck! You are loaning your money to them for basically
nothing (as little as 0.15%?). They in turn invest your money in the
Global Economy and earn 11% percent or more.

The bank is the "middle man". Go around the middle man and invest
where the bank is investing YOUR money now. 10% and better returns are
not uncommon.

Leaving your money in a bank account reduces it's buying power over
time. Inflation is about 4% a year right now so you have to at least
match that to keep your money at the same level it is today. (not
including the Fed's tax share of the earned interest). To make any
real advancment you need to put your money in where returns are
averaging 8% or more. Get your money working for you.

I have money invest in a fund that has done better than 10% return a
year for the last few years. Each $1000 I invested is worth $1460
after 4 years.

You 70,000 would have been worth about $102,000 in the same timeframe.

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Hi all,

I'm a recent graduate from college, and I've realized that I need to
write down my goals and make some plans if I ever want them to happen.
I have the following situation:

Assets
------
- $70,000 in a bank accounts
- $20,000 in mutual funds
- No house (renting at $400/month)
- $1300/month that I can use for savings

Ideal life plan
---------------
2004-2007: Work while my fiance finishes school
2007-2009: My fiance goes for her masters in art, I'll get a new job
there
2009-2010: Take 6 months to a year traveling (a dream of ours)
2010-2013: Return to our hometown, my fiance stars a ceramics business
2013-2016: Arrange a permanent assignment from work to a foreign
country (another dream)
2016-2018: Return to US to get another degree (perhaps a MBA)
2019 on: Return to hometown, start my own business and work for
financial freedom

Life plan translated to financial goals
------- - Fiance's school: $20K by 2007
- Traveling: $20K by 2009
- My school (MBA): $60K by 2016
- Saving for a house: ???
- Saving for a car when my current one dies: $150/month
- Saving for a business: $50/month
- Saving for financial freedom

I got sort of stuck at this step. I'm not sure how to decide how much
money to initially put in each of these accounts, and how much I
should save per month for each goal. And I was hoping to get some
ideas as to whether I should change anything in this plan or not. Is
the MBA worth the expense? At what point in this plan should I buy a
house? What is the best path to take for financial freedom?

Any tips or ideas would be much appreciated!!

--Will