Savings target · GBP
Save £75,000 in 24 months
£3,125 a month, £1,442 a fortnight, £103 a day. Then the kakeibo part, which is deciding which of the four categories gives it up.
A cost this size per day is not found in the small lines. It is found by changing one large recurring commitment, and the sooner that is admitted the sooner the plan becomes real.
Long horizons hide their failures. Check the running total against the plan every month, because a slow drift stays invisible until the last quarter.
What this asks of your income
Read it as a sanity check rather than a rule. If your take home salary is around £15,625 a month, this target is a twenty percent savings rate, which is demanding but ordinary. Well below that and the horizon is doing the wrong job.
| If you save | Take home pay that implies | Left to live on |
|---|---|---|
| 10 percent of your pay | £31,250 a month | £28,125 a month |
| 15 percent of your pay | £20,833 a month | £17,708 a month |
| 20 percent of your pay | £15,625 a month | £12,500 a month |
| 25 percent of your pay | £12,500 a month | £9,375 a month |
| 30 percent of your pay | £10,417 a month | £7,292 a month |
Which envelope pays for it
Kakeibo sorts spending into four envelopes rather than dozens of line items, and that is what makes a question like this answerable. Survival is what keeps the lights on (rent or mortgage, the weekly shop, energy, council tax, travel). Optional is takeaways, subscriptions and the shopping you would not miss. Culture is a course, a museum membership, books. Extra is the irregular hit: car repairs, a wedding gift, the vet.
Splitting it across Optional, Culture, Extra and Survival is one way to arrange it, and the Survival line is the honest part: at £3,125 a month, no rearrangement of takeaways, subscriptions and the shopping you would not miss covers the whole figure. Survival means fixed costs, so that share is a housing, transport or insurance decision rather than a willpower one.
| Envelope | Share of the monthly figure | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Optional | 45 percent | £1,406 a month |
| Culture | 15 percent | £469 a month |
| Extra | 15 percent | £469 a month |
| Survival | 25 percent | £781 a month |
| Total moved to savings | £3,125 a month |
A target this large deserves a second opinion from someone qualified to give it. This page does arithmetic; it does not know your circumstances.
The four questions, against this target
The method is four questions asked once a month, in that order. Here they are with this page's numbers in them. The long version of each, with the reflection prompts, is in the four questions guide.
- 01How much money do you have?Everything that lands in the month, before anything is committed. The plan below only works from a real figure rather than a remembered one.
- 02How much would you like to save?£3,125 a month, or £3,125 if you would rather set a round standing transfer and finish early.
- 03How much are you spending?Recorded by hand, in four envelopes, as it happens. This is the part that makes the £75,000 possible, and the part every method skips at its peril.
- 04How can you improve?Answered once a month for 24 months, in writing, against the running total rather than against a feeling.
The same target on every other horizon:
- 3 months · £25,000 a month
- 6 months · £12,500 a month
- 9 months · £8,333 a month
- 12 months · £6,250 a month
- 18 months · £4,167 a month
- 36 months · £2,083 a month
The same target in another currency:
Or work from your own figures in the save an amount by a date calculator, and start from the method itself in what is kakeibo.
Common questions
- How much do I need to save each month to reach £75,000 in 24 months?
- £3,125 a month. Set it to £3,125 and you arrive early with a small cushion, which is usually worth more than the exact figure.
- What is that per week and per day?
- £721 a week, £1,442 a fortnight, and £103 a day across roughly 731 days.
- Which kakeibo category should the money come from?
- Start with Optional. On this target it carries about 45 percent of the monthly figure, which is £1,406. The ledger tells you the specific lines within a fortnight.
- What happens if I miss a month?
- The shortfall spreads across what is left. Missing one month here adds about £136 to each remaining month, so it is recoverable, and the monthly reflection is where you decide whether to absorb it or move the date.
£3,125 a month is arithmetic. Holding it is the ledger.
Kakeibo works because you write the spending down as it happens and read it back once a month. The app does the totals so the writing down is the only work left.
