✦Money · 11 recordsSet up sinking funds

Car repairs, gifts, annual subscriptions and insurance renewals are not emergencies; they are just irregular. This lists every one of them for the year, turns each into a monthly amount, and moves that amount on payday, so the bill arrives to money already waiting for it.

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Free on any plan. You will see this list again in the app, and nothing is created until you press install.

✦ Everything it creates

The whole plan, before you install it

Goal

Every predictable bill paid from money already saved Month 3

Irregular, not unexpected. Planned a year ahead.

List the costs Week 2

Found in last year's statements, not from memory.

  • Go through last year's statements for irregular costsDo firstDay 5
  • List each cost with its amount and the month it landsDo firstDay 9
  • Divide each by the months until it is dueDo firstDay 12

Set up the saving Week 4

Moved on payday, before it can be spent.

  • Create a pot or a tracker line for each fundDo firstWeek 2
  • Set up an automatic transfer for paydayDo firstWeek 3
  • Decide what happens when a fund comes up shortWeek 4

Routines

  • Check the fund balancesweekly
✦ It comes with a note

Irregular is not unexpected

Christmas is on the same date every year and the car needs a service every year, yet both regularly arrive as a shock. A sinking fund is just the bill divided by the months until it lands.

Common funds: car maintenance, insurance renewals, annual subscriptions, gifts, holidays, dental and medical costs, home repairs, and replacing a phone or laptop.

✦ Questions

Set up sinking funds, answered.

Money set aside a little at a time for a cost you know is coming, like a car service, a holiday or an insurance renewal. It differs from an emergency fund in that the expense is expected, so both the amount and the date can be planned.
Anything irregular that is not a true emergency: car maintenance, annual insurance and subscriptions, gifts and holidays, medical and dental costs, home repairs, and replacing things like a phone or laptop. The plan starts with last year's statements to find yours.
No. Some banks let you create named pots, which makes the balances easy to see, but one savings account and a simple record of how much belongs to each fund works just as well.
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