Growing My Savings

As part of my journey towards financial freedom, I have been tracking my income and expenses via spreadsheets.

One of the spreadsheets created is something like a budget sheet which I created years ago and updated periodically due to changes in my income and expenses.

The table helps me to visualise my expenses and savings better (men are visual creatures indeed) so I decided to share it here in the hope that it can help others as well.

There are generally two ways for me to grow my savings - increase my income or reduce my expenses. Better yet, do both concurrently!

Since increasing my fixed income is not always in my control, I can try to reduce my expenses.

Description	Amount (SGD)
Bills (Wifi, SP Services, Town Council)	$150
Carpark	$110
Credit Card / Groceries	$600
Road Tax / Insurance	$150
Insurances	$300
Savings (OCBC)	$2,250
Petrol	$300
Transport (Bus / Train)	$50
Income Tax / Property Tax	$250
Investment	$400
Holiday	$200
Car Repair / Tyres	$100
Savings (UOB)	$100
Donations / Insurance	$50
Cashcard	$50
Savings (POSB)	$100
Transport (Cab)	$50
Food / Entertainment	$400
Parents	$900

Description	Amount (SGD)	% of Net Income
Fixed Monthly Expenditure	$4,060	62.37%
Total Monthly Savings	$2,450	37.63%

As seen on the table, I am saving portions of my monthly fixed income in three savings accounts. Total percentage of my savings against income is 37.63%.

I am trying to push this to 40% as the immediate target.

As a side note, I have another spreadsheet which shows that I need 23 years based on some prudent conditions* before I achieve my first million in cash!

* 3% increment every 2 years, 1 month bonus per year, 40% savings of net income and 3% annual returns with yearly compounding.

In order to achieve the 40% I can try to reduce the expenses in the table. Easier said than done! After looking through several times I still haven't done anything yet.

Will continue to see what adjustments I can do to my lifestyle to achieve the said target. Perhaps in three years time when my COE runs out, I can free up (S$360 - transportation) and add to my savings.

 Disclaimer: Some figures in the table have been adjusted to protect privacy.