Although some financial goals begin and end in one phase of life, many people also find that they may overlap and coexist. For example, you may be saving for a down payment on a home, while also saving for retirement and paying off student loans. Saving for multiple financial goals at once can be overwhelming, but with a little planning and focus – you can work toward all the goals that are important to you. Here are a few tips on how to save for multiple financial goals at the same time.

Take a Snapshot of Your Current Financial Situation

To be in control of your financial goals, you first need to be in control of your finances. Having a clear view of your finances will help you set realistic expectations given your current situation.

Make a planned budget and compare it to your actual budget, or what took place over the course of the month. Let’s face it – life happens and you won’t always follow your planned budget perfectly. Maybe you worked fewer hours, or your electric bill was higher than expected. It’s still important to have a general idea of your income and expenses so you can determine what you can comfortably put toward your financial goals each month.

Don’t have a budget yet? Check out our Fillable Budget Worksheet to quickly and easily create a snapshot of your monthly finances.

Make Your Financial Goals Specific and Realistic

Many goals fail because they are vague, making it difficult to monitor progress and leaving you uncertain in how to achieve them.

Clearly defining your goals is especially important when you are balancing multiple financial goals. A popular framework for making specific, realistic goals is making them SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-oriented. Take the goal save for vacation, as an example. It becomes a SMART goal when it looks like: Save $2,000 over the next year to go on an international vacation.

Check out our article for more tips on how to clearly define your goals.

Pro Tip: Research shows that you’re 2x more likely to achieve your goal if you write it down!

Prioritize Your Goals

Prioritizing your goals doesn’t mean abandoning all but one – it means deciding where your money will have the greatest impact now. If you’re saving for multiple goals, you might feel tempted to contribute to all of them equally – for example, $100 to each across the board. However, not every goal requires the same attention at the same time. Prioritizing can help you decide the goals that need immediate attention vs. those that can be funded over time.

An effective way to prioritize financial goals is by time horizon – or how long until you need the funds for a specific financial goal. Short-term financial goals are those you wish to achieve within one year, medium-term is more than one year but less than five years, and long-term means in five years or more. A short-term goal could be saving for a summer vacation or a down payment on a car, while a long-term goal could be fully funding your retirement. Once you achieve a goal, the monthly savings dedicated to it can be redirected to another goal.

Build an Emergency Fund into the Plan

Consider an emergency fund if you don’t have one. An emergency fund is money that’s set aside to cover unexpected expenses or a sudden loss of income. This is helpful because it can aid you in covering expenses that would otherwise take savings away from other goals.

Decide Where to Save

After you’ve planned your goals, it’s time to decide where to keep those savings. Do you want to keep all the money in one account? Do you want to have separate accounts for separate goals? There are many different savings options, such as Personal Savings Accounts, Money Market Accounts, and Savings Certificates. If you’re live, work, worship, volunteer, or attend school in Monmouth or Ocean Counties in NJ – see how First Financial can help you save for multiple financial goals simultaneously through our various savings account options.*

Make Saving Automatic – And Fun

Especially when juggling multiple goals – setting up automatic, recurring transfers to your savings can help you stay on track and never miss funding a goal, even on busy days.

Saving doesn’t have to feel like a chore, either! Consider printable savings worksheets that allow you to color in dollar amounts as you reach each milestone, keep a coin jar to save your spare change, or take on a side hustle. This can keep you motivated to save.

Revisit Your Goals

It’s important to remember that your goals might need to be adjusted from time to time. Your circumstances may change – maybe you got a raise, had a child, or decided you want to purchase a home sooner. Circle back when your circumstances change – to ensure your contributions to savings accurately reflect your current financial situation, priorities, and financial goals.

Making consistent progress toward multiple financial goals can seem overwhelming – but with a little planning and discipline, will bring you closer to achieving the financial life you dream of.

*A First Financial membership is available to anyone who lives, works, worships, volunteers or attends school in Monmouth or Ocean Counties. A $5 deposit in a base savings account is required for credit union membership prior to opening any other account. All personal memberships are part of the Rewards First program and a $5 per month non-participation fee is charged to the base savings account for memberships not meeting the minimum requirements of the program. View full Rewards First program details.