Want to know what those who work in the financial services space save for, and how? On team Milli, we’ve always got money on our minds. To kick off the year, we want to share our general savings priorities, our top savings priorities, and how we plan to reach our savings goals. Then, we can see how these savings goals align with the general American population.
We surveyed members of the Milli team to see what expenses, milestones, and financial goals they are saving toward in 2024. Take a look!
General Savings Goals
What kinds of things are those of us on team Milli saving for? Whether practical or fun, or a little bit of both, the Milli team is saving for a variety of things that represent our different interests and life stages. Here’s a look at what percentage of Team Milli is saving for different kinds of goals:
What Team Milli is saving for in 2024:
| Housing | 71.43% |
| Retirement | 50% |
| New Vehicle | 50% |
| Hobbies/Recreation | 50% |
| Vacation | 42.86% |
| Emergency Fund | 42.86% |
| Taxes | 14.28% |
| Education | 14.28% |
How does that compare to the wider country? USA Today surveyed Americans about their financial goals for 2024. The top most common financial goal is to save for an emergency fund, among 56% of respondents. Their survey found this was especially important for Millennials. Tied in second place were saving for retirement and saving for children’s education, for nearly 53% of respondents. These are all fantastic and meaningful savings goals and provide some insight into what matters most to people across the country.
Savings Priorities
While it’s great to have multiple savings goals and put money toward multiple things, most of us have a top savings goal in mind. For our crew, we found it was condensed around housing. Some are saving up for a first-time purchase, a trade-up home purchase, and others are saving to take on home upgrades and renovations.
Top saving priorities:
| Housing | 62.49% |
| Emergency Fund | 21.43% |
| Hobbies/Recreation | 14.29% |
For those whose top priority is not housing, building an emergency fund is a common theme. It’s always good to have some money set aside for those unexpected costs that come up! UX researcher Laura Miller says, “An emergency fund feels like the most responsible thing to save for prior to anything else,” and is making it happen by saving money twice a month. Head of Product Adrian Oropeza is saving for his emergency fund as a, “buffer for cash related items not funded from retirement, credit or out of [his] monthly budget.”
Lastly, about 14% of us are prioritizing hobbies and recreation. This may seem high for a non-essential purchase, but is in line with recent consumer spending trends, as reported in the Wall Street Journal.
How is Team Milli Reaching Their Savings Goals?
Beyond knowing what we’re saving for, we also asked our team about how they are reaching their goals. There are many different strategies, and our team is using many of them.
A clear and common theme in our survey results was cutting back on spending to allocate more money toward their goals. Laban Stoke, who handles quality assurance for the Milli app, is saving for his home repairs with, “less eating out, buying fewer books (book nerd), and looking for free materials for renovations instead of buying new materials.” Nina Hale on our operations team is embarking on a No Spend January to kick off the year with more money going to her savings goals. After the spending associated with the holidays, this could be a helpful reset!
Budgeting is another recurring theme. Social media manager Aly Kuehl is, “sticking to an actual budget” as a way to manage her cashflow and spending (we feel that!). Chase Brisby, who manages design for the Milli app, has a dedicated amount every month in his budget going toward his priority of squashing his student loans. Dedicating savings as a line item up in a budget is a fantastic way to be more intentional with money, which builds the savings habit over time.
Lead developer Joshua McNeal uses a savings strategy inspired by the corporate accounting strategy called the sinking fund method, where a person or business depreciates something while saving and investing enough to replace it when needed. For individuals, this looks like saving up little by little on a timeline calculated based on the replacement cost of the item and when it will need to be replaced. This can help ensure the cash is there to cover high-cost and irregular expenses, like replacing a roof or vehicle.
If you’re looking to save more in the new year, try out some of these different strategies to see what works for you!
Save with Milli
It should be no surprise that the majority of us on Team Milli are using Milli to help us reach our savings goals. Between our competitive Annual Percentage Yield, savings automation, and customizable Jars for specific purchases, Milli makes it easy to save for both upcoming purchases and long-term goals. Sign up today and let us help you save more for the things that matter most!
Download Milli on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
Keep reading on the Milli blog:
All About Annual Percentage Yield and how Milli Pays Interest
Fine Tune Your Finances: Intermediate Budgeting
How a Savings Account Can Help You Reach Your Financial Goals
