Saving
A windfall is easier to lose than money that arrived slowly
A lump sum that was never planned for gets treated differently from earned income, and the way it is…
· 3 min read
Saving
Emergency funds, goals and the accounts that hold them.
Saving
Money in an account is a claim on an institution, not a box of notes
A savings balance is a debt the bank owes you, which is why the arrangements that protect deposits exist…
· 3 min read
Saving
Holding money in another currency adds a second thing that can move
A balance abroad has two variables rather than one, because what it earns and what it is worth in your own…
· 3 min read
Saving
Moving home concentrates a year of costs into a few weeks
The money involved in changing address arrives as a dense cluster of separate payments, most of them due…
· 4 min read
Saving
A new child changes the shape of a budget before it changes the total
The money a child requires arrives as a short burst of one-off costs, a permanent rise in ordinary running…
· 4 min read
Saving
Money sent to another household needs a limit, a form and a review date
Support given to a relative is one of the few household outgoings that begins without a figure, an end…
· 4 min read
Saving
Restoring a reserve after it has been used is the stage nobody plans
A cash buffer that has done its job is a buffer that no longer exists, and the second half of the…
· 4 min read
Saving
Money held for a child is being saved for somebody who will eventually decide
A long-horizon pot built for someone else carries two questions an ordinary savings goal does not: who owns…
· 4 min read