Dear Dave,

I was wondering if you recommend including major, future purchases into your monthly budget. If so, how far in advance should you do this?

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

I’d start putting money aside and including it in the budget as soon as I knew I was going to have a need for the item. When you wait until things go wrong or something breaks down, then you’re liable to find yourself in a mess and the victim of your own poor planning.

Let’s say you’re pretty sure you’ll need another vehicle in a couple of years. Go ahead and start putting the money aside now! Decide on a price, and then do the math to see how much you’ll need to save every month to make it happen.

If you can do it faster than two years, that’s great. And that’s one of the reasons I want to help get people out of debt. It’s a whole lot easier to save money when you don’t have things like car loans and credit card payments hanging around your neck!

- Dave