Plan To Save

• Budgeting
• Insurance
• Debt Reduction
• Savings
  • Compounding Growth
  • Successful Savings
  • Leverage
  • Plan To Save
• Before You Invest
• Investments
• Retirement Planning
• Estate Planning

Calculators

• KiwiSaver Account Calculator for Employees
• Residential Property Investment Calculator

Useful Resources

• KiwiSaver Tools and Information
• Follow the Secrets to Wealth
• Get the newsletter direct to your inbox each month
• Independent life insurance information

• Introduction
• Identify your savings goals
• How much do you need to save?
• The required actions
• Conclusion

How much do you need to save?

Now build on your plan and look at what's needed to quantify your goals.

You may already have some idea of how much money you'll need to achieve your goals. If not, now is the time to answer that question. This requires a degree of financial precision. It's important to commit a little time to this exercise. Quantifying your goals will help you set some saving targets as well as help you measure your successes and achievements. A little time on the phone, or some leg-work, may be required.

Quick answers to some common financial goals:
Dreaming about a new car? - take a walk around the local car yards.
Aiming for a house deposit? - talk to a mortgage broker about how much you'll realistically need.
Eager to repay credit car debt - get the latest balance from the credit card statements.
Planning for retirement? - use our retirement planning calculator.

Now you have a value set against each goal, work out how much you'll need to save each year. To do this, simply divide the amount you'll need to achieve your goal, by the number of years of that goal's timeframe.

For example, if you want to save $15,000 for a house deposit, and you've decided on a time frame of three years, your annual saving target for that goal will be $5,000.

Check out the Shape of Money's savings goal calculator to quickly and accurately work out how much you'll need to save on a monthly basis.