I hope I haven’t mentioned it too much, but I started working for the Census Bureau in April. The job is definitely temporary – I could be out of work in as little as 3 weeks. Or I might still be working until the end of August. There’s really no way to know for sure and it’s very much a week-to-week type thing.
That leaves the question of how should I mange this temporary and irregular income?
I get paid every week, which is great. But there’s no telling when those checks are going to come to a stop. Plus, I work hourly so my checks aren’t always the same amount. Example: Some weeks I get paid $300.67 while others are $277.49, depending on if I needed to leave a few hours early or something.
Right now, I have 3 primary savings goals: The problem is that the amounts I save are all completely arbitrary. I didn’t decide one day to save 50% of my paycheck for emergencies. I never even realized that $30 a week for Christmas gifts is 10% of my pay. I have no idea if $50 per paycheck for my future laptop is too little, too much, or just right. I just picked numbers out of my head that I thought sounded good and were reasonable based on the goal and time line. Example: $150 for the emergency fund to get it to $1000 really quick. $30 for Christmas because it’s so far away and I only have a few people to buy for. (Special perk of being so young!)
To complicate matters even further, I’ve made some random money from this blog. So far, I’ve received a lump sum of around $500. I’m planning to use about half, maybe more, to pay someone to redesign this website. But once that’s done, what do I do with the leftover money?
Put it in the e-fund for an extra boost? Buy myself something shiny with it? Take an underwater basket weaving class?
Then there’s the whole issue of college. Since college, along with dorm life, is a pretty drastic lifestyle change, I’m positive that I’ll be spending more than usual for the first month or two. So far, I’ve thought about just letting more of my paycheck pile up in my checking account. But I don’t really like my money just sitting somewhere without a purpose. I’m OCD like that…
So what do I do? Do I need to come up with a concrete percentage of my income that I’m going to save (for each specific goal)? Should I just choose overall amounts that I’m comfortable with (until my job is over)?
I’m counting on you, Internets!
