You will be able to build a spreadsheet that lists every goal with its target, date, balance and monthly figure.
Put every savings goal in one spreadsheet, let the sheet work out what each goal needs a month, and add those amounts up. Then compare the total with what you really save each month, so you know whether your budget can cover all your goals at once.
Most people keep goal figures scattered: one in a notes app, one in a banking app's savings tracker, one in their head. Each looks manageable on its own, but nobody adds them up, so nobody knows whether the budget covers all of them. This exercise takes about half an hour, and you'll add a column to this sheet in almost every module that follows.
Open a new sheet in Excel or Google Sheets, whichever you already use for your budget. Type eight headings across row 1, one per column from A to H: goal, target, date needed, saved so far, months left, monthly figure, where it is kept, type.
Give each goal one row. Keep the names short and plain, such as "Wedding" or "Home: cash part", so the sheet reads at a glance. Your goal list comes from Lesson 1.1, "A goal needs three numbers before you can plan it". For each goal, put the target in column B, the date needed in column C (entered as a real date), and the amount you've already set aside in column D.
For moving goals, whose price keeps changing, use the target you set in Lesson 1.2, "Set targets for goals whose price keeps moving", including its buffer. Put the source and the date you checked it in a cell note or in a column to the right, so the evidence stays with the number. If you're not sure what to put in column G, where it is kept, leave it blank for now, because Module 2 covers how to fill it in properly.
Months left is the number of whole months from today to the date the goal is needed. In E2, enter =DATEDIF(TODAY(), C2, "m") and copy it down the column. It gives the whole months from today to the date in C2, and it works in both Excel and Google Sheets.
The monthly figure is the target minus the amount saved, divided by months left. In F2, enter =(B2-D2)/E2 and copy it down the column. It's the same arithmetic as Lesson 1.1. For long goals you can use the PMT formula from Lesson 1.3 instead, which lets you include a cautious return, though a plain division is fine for anything under about three years.
Below your last goal, add a total row and sum column F. The total row shows what all your goals need from you every month, combined, and it's the main result of the exercise.
Mei and Daniel (an invented couple; all their figures are examples) list four goals. The wedding has a target of S$30,000, needed in 30 months, with S$6,000 saved, so it needs S$800 a month: (30,000 - 6,000) / 30 = 800.
Their home goal covers the cash part and renovation. Its target of S$32,000 is the S$30,000 renovation figure from Lesson 1.2 plus S$2,000 they expect to pay in cash when booking the flat, and Module 4 checks that split properly. It's needed in 60 months with S$2,000 saved, so it needs S$500 a month: (32,000 - 2,000) / 60 = 500.
The car downpayment is S$20,000 in 60 months with nothing saved, which is about S$333.33 a month (20,000 / 60). Daniel's part-time diploma is S$8,000 in 24 months with S$2,000 saved, so it needs S$250 a month: (8,000 - 2,000) / 24 = 250.
Their total row comes to about S$1,883.33 a month (800 + 500 + 333.33 + 250). Their budget saves S$1,500 a month for goals, so they are short by about S$383.33 every month (1,883.33 - 1,500). Without the sheet, they would have funded the wedding first because it is the closest goal, and found the home shortfall in four years.
Take the monthly budget from your spending plan and find what you can actually save each month after your emergency fund is in place. Use the real saving figure from the last few months rather than the figure you'd like it to be, and compare that figure with your total.
If the total fits within your savings, you have room, and later modules help you decide where the spare money goes. If it doesn't fit, note the gap and leave it for now. Its size shows how much work Module 8, "Choose which goal comes first when they compete", has to do.
The last step is column H. Label every goal with one of three types:
Fixed: the date can't move without real cost, such as a wedding with a booked venue, or payments due when collecting a flat's keys. Flexible: the goal matters but could move by a year or so, such as a diploma that runs several intakes a year. Optional: you'd like it but could drop it, such as a car for someone who lives near an MRT line.
Mei and Daniel label the wedding and the home as fixed, the diploma as flexible, and the car as optional. Module 8 uses these labels to decide what gets funded first.
Your sheet is finished when it has one row per goal, all eight columns filled except "where it is kept", a total row, and your budget's real monthly saving written beside the total. Yours will look different from Mei and Daniel's, and the activity below is where you build it.
Fill in the goals sheet with your own goals. Then write one sentence on how far the total is from what you can save.
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