Life Lesson #3341 - Budgeting

Don't forget the irregular stuff. Set money back for these sort of things. Try to make a little interest on it when you can.

From  Try This Spending Plan to Regain Control of Your Money:

The question is how much to set aside for all of this replacement and maintenance. Here are some rules of thumb:

• Personal property — 2% to 4% of your net annual pay to replace and maintain items
• Car maintenance and tires — 5 to 10 cents per mile. For example, if you drive 10,000 miles annually, you should plan on $500 to $1,000 per year for car maintenance. Most of this would be set aside into short-term savings that you could draw on as expenses arise. But 20% should be set aside in a longer-term savings account to replace tires when needed.
• Home maintenance and replacement — 2% to 3% of your home’s value. Roughly one-third of this amount should be in a longer-term savings account to cover replacement of higher-ticket items like furnaces, driveways and roofs.
• Contingency fund — 2% of net annual pay to cover stuff that you just didn’t think of.

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