Saving: What should I save money for?

Be honest: how much of your money do you save regularly? A certain amount? What is left? Nothing at all? Perhaps you have already asked yourself: Why actually save? What should I save money for anyway?

The answer: there is three main areasthat you'd better save money for on a regular basis:

  1. an emergency reserve
  2. small and big dreams
  3. for later"

Let's take a look at what's in the details!

Save money for the emergency reserve

Life is not always fair and the devil always makes a mess. That's why it can always happen that our car has to be inspected and the washing machine gives up the next week. And now? Such situations can be really stressful – but only if we are not prepared.

An emergency reserve is there to protect you just in case. Unforeseen expenses can't blow you away if you've made provisions. For this reason, experts recommend putting at least two to three net salaries as a reserve. Depending on how much security you need, you can of course also get a larger buffer, for example six salaries.

Tip: It is best to create your emergency reserve in a separate call money account, to which you transfer a monthly amount by standing order until the reserve is "full", i.e. the amount has been reached.

Saving money for small and big dreams

This saving goal is of course the most fun: If we are planning a big vacation or want to finally buy the beloved new wardrobe, saving is comparatively easy for us (we know what it is for!).

But dreams and goals also have another advantage: We usually know when we want to treat ourselves to the object of desire and what it costs. So you can easily calculate how long you have to travel which amount in the month to finally collect the coal. Again, it is advisable to work with a separate account and a standing order.

Save money for "later"

Especially when we are young (or at least feel young), we don't really want to think about later. We would much rather enjoy life now than worry about our retirement. And we also pay into the pension – isn't that enough?

The sad but honest answer: If we don't start saving money for "later" today, one day we will be pretty annoyed with ourselves. There are two reasons for this: Because of the imbalance of the pension system, we can hardly count on the fact that we have a lot out in old age if we do not make private provision (greetings from poor old age!). It is also smart to start saving and investing as early as possible because of the growing compound interest reserves and the time factor is very important.

By the way, experts recommend saving at least 10 percent, better still 20 percent of net income and investing (when the emergency reserve is full), for example on the stock exchange.

If you are interested in money and retirement planning and you are looking for an easy-to-understand introduction to finance, we can also offer you our podcast "What the Finance?" recommend, in which our colleague Anissa meets strong women from the finance scene and answers her questions on the subject in an entertaining and beginner-friendly way!