Actions

Local financial planner explains “bucketing” - saving money for specific purposes

Screen Shot 2021-01-23 at 9.21.04 PM.png
Posted at 6:42 AM, Jan 28, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-28 08:43:21-05

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN9) — Bucketing; a saving method that may help you make ends meet during this pandemic.

“We've always talked about short, medium and long term. And so I think that you can really look at your buckets however you want. Sometimes I even tell folks like you might have a vacation bucket. And you might have you know, a retirement bucket,” said Tiana Ronstadt, a financial planner with Power Women Investing.

Tiana Ronstadt with Power Women Investing says the first step to realistically starting your buckets is looking at your cash flow and figuring out how much you can put into each bucket.

“You first have to look at what are your fixed costs (BILLS)? Then we move to you want to separate your savings goals. So if I look at what my fixed costs are, and then I look at actually my cash flow, and what do I actually want to save,” said Ronstadt.

She suggests taking 15 minutes one day and examine where you are financially; seeing if you have certain opportunities that may help you build your savings.

“The opportunity that we have right now is pretty incredible. When you think about, I actually can take a little bit of time, because I'm home. And even if I'm working still, and I'm going to my job coming back, we still don't have as many social opportunities pulling us away,” said Ronstadt.

And Ronstadt says one of the greatest things within this concept, is the actual visualization of buckets. Having separate accounts for each of those saving goals.

“I encourage you those different buckets, kind of we always talk about that folks are able to mentally compartments, compartmentalize things. It's true to do that in your financial plan as well,” said Ronstadt.