Saving for College: Sometimes, Life Gets in the Way

“Unfortunately, we live in an ideal world, and then the real world,” Drawbaugh said. “I feel that we allow our busy lives to be too easy of an excuse to not do good enough planning. That’s hard to overcome. I have my own kids and I know how busy life is. I’m trying to bring some reality to the conversation.”

For example, do you lease a car or own it? If you’re looking into a lease and the car dealer says, spend ‘just’ $25 more a month to get into a fancier model, would you rationalize it and make the move, or step back and put that extra cash into a savings fund? Drawbaugh is willing to bet that in our world of instant gratification, many families would rationalize the nicer car.

If you own your car, don’t be tempted to trade it in for a new model too soon, especially if you just finished making payments. Keep it well beyond the length of a loan, advises Jeanne Gibson Sullivan, CFP of Wakefield, Massachusetts.

The same principle applies for the big vacations. Sure, you want to enjoy special family time and don’t want to penny pinch for the chance to have some special memories. But “it’s a balancing act,” Sullivan says. “Really think what the priorities are,” as you make your decisions.

So how can we break the “busy” habit and make time for our finances? Change doesn’t happen overnight, so start with a few basic steps:

1. Establish a routine: Set aside an hour every week to sit down and take a look at your spending. If you examine your expenditures in smaller chunks, it’s easier to track and think about where you can start making changes.

2. Make use of automatic withdrawals: Allocate an amount each month that is automatically withdrawn from your regular household budget account and deposited into a separate savings account. Keeping the funds separate makes it easier to avoid spending all of your money – and you’ll feel good watching that second account grow!

3. Give yourself an allowance, and stick to it: We teach our kids to save their allowance if they want something special. We can follow the same rule.

4. Consider cash: Some people find that when they pay cash they are more conscious of, and conscientious about, spending. Try leaving the plastic home for a week and see if it works for you.