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Savings Plan Help and Savings Spreadsheet from Bank of America Money saving plans can help you reach your financial goals. Let Bank of America help you create a savings spreadsheet to help meet your savings targets. Create a savings plan to help control your financial future Bank of America

Clear goals and a savings spreadsheet are all you need to start

You don’t need a large income to save for the things you want in life. A good savings plan can help you prioritize and pay for the things you want without taking on too much debt (which is never a good idea). Here’s how to create your own savings plan.

1.Identify your savings goals. Make a list of all the things you want to save for, whether it’s a new house, a vacation, new car or a college fund. Start off as broadly as possible, and then narrow it down to the items you want to save for currently or that are most important. Remember, the more savings goals you have, the more a comprehensive savings plan will help you stay on track to pursue them. 2.Determine the costs. Next, figure out the costs of each of your goals. For items you might pay for all at once, like a vacation, include the whole price. For things you might take a loan for, like a house or car, factor in the down payment. Many real estate or car-buying websites have calculators to help you figure out what the down payment might be. 3.Set a target date. Now determine the amount of time you have to save for each goal. For goals that are a year or two away, consider keeping your savings in a low-risk savings account that protects your money. Low-risk savings vehicles include regular savings accounts, money market savings accounts and CDs, to name a few. For longer-term goals, you may consider investments such as stocks or mutual funds, since a longer window can give you time to recover from stock market fluctuations. As you get closer to reaching a goal, it’s generally a good idea to transfer more of your investments to lower-risk savings products. 4.Let us do the math. Now you need to divide the total cost of each of your goals (from step 2) by the number of months you want to wait (from step 3), and add them up to see how much you need to save every month.Try using our Savings Plan Worksheet to help figure out your monthly savings target. 5.Adjust as needed. Compare the monthly target from your savings spreadsheet to your current rate of savings. If you’re not saving enough you can either: Increase how much you save by cutting monthly expenses. A budget planner can help you find ways to trim your spending so that you have more money for savings each month. Adjust your goals, either by removing less important ones or by pushing back the target date for goals you can postpone. Our savings spreadsheet makes it easy to revise your savings targets until you find an amount that fits your budget, so take the time to tinker with your timelines.

Moving forward: Be sure update the Savings Plan Worksheet whenever your savings goals or budget change, and review it regularly to make sure you stay on target. As an added incentive to save, review your target dates from time to time to help you stay focused on your goal.

You can also use the Merrill Edge retirement calculator to help you plan for your retirement

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Savings Plan Help and Savings Spreadsheet from Bank of America Money saving plans can help you reach your financial goals. Let Bank of America help you create a savings spreadsheet to help meet your savings targets. savings plan, money saving plan, savings spreadsheet