Whatever Comes Next
You don’t have to know exactly where you’re going. You just need to be ready when the next thing arrives.
There is a particular kind of freedom that comes from having a little money put away.
Not a fortune.
Not enough to make you feel invincible.
Just enough to keep the unexpected from becoming a catastrophe—and the possible from becoming impossible.
Because life has a funny way of presenting opportunities when you aren’t quite prepared for them.
A trip you’ve always talked about.
A job that requires you to make a move.
A beautiful piece you’ve wanted for years.
A chance to take a class.
A friend who says, “Come with me.”
A business idea.
A sudden expense.
A plane ticket.
A new beginning.
You don’t need to predict what comes next.
You need to build a little room for it.
That’s what this is about.
Start With a Number That Doesn’t Scare You
The easiest way to avoid saving is to make the number so ambitious that you don’t even begin.
Forget the $10,000 emergency fund for a moment.
Forget the three-to-six-month rule.
Forget what somebody on Instagram says you should have.
Let’s start smaller.
Pick a number you can repeat.
$25 a week.
$50 a week.
$100 a month.
Whatever doesn’t make you wince when you see it leave your checking account.
The amount matters.
But the habit matters more.
If you save $50 a month, that’s $600 in a year.
At $100 a month, it’s $1,200.
At $200 a month, it’s $2,400.
And suddenly the question changes from:
“How am I ever going to afford that?”
to:
“How much closer am I?”
That’s a much nicer question.
Give Your Money a Job
One of the easiest ways to lose interest in saving is to make your savings feel like a punishment.
Don’t simply call it Savings.
Give it a name.
The Paris Fund.
The Freedom Fund.
The Next Thing Fund.
The Don’t-Touch-This Fund.
The Life Gets Interesting Fund.
Money behaves differently in your mind when it has a purpose.
You aren’t depriving yourself of $100.
You’re buying a little more freedom for Future You.
And Future You deserves a little consideration.
Try Three Little Buckets
You don’t need twelve bank accounts and a color-coded spreadsheet that requires its own graduate degree.
Start with three purposes.
01 — The Cushion
This is the money that keeps an ordinary surprise from becoming a crisis.
Car repair.
Broken appliance.
Unexpected bill.
A week or two between jobs.
The boring stuff.
And boring is beautiful when it means you’re not panicking.
Your first goal might simply be $500.
Then $1,000.
Then keep going.
There’s no prize for reaching the finish line fastest.
Build it at a pace you can maintain.
02 — The Possibility Fund
This is different.
This money isn’t for emergencies.
It’s for opportunity.
The weekend in Paris.
The flight to Germany.
The little hotel in Luxembourg you’ve been saving on your wish list.
A course you’ve wanted to take.
A camera.
A piece of furniture.
A special dinner.
Something that makes life larger.
This is where saving becomes more than financial discipline.
It becomes anticipation.
And anticipation is one of life’s underrated luxuries.
03 — The Future You Fund
This is the money you don’t need today.
And that’s precisely why it matters.
Once your basic financial cushion is beginning to take shape, start thinking about longer-term goals.
Retirement.
Investing.
A future home.
A business.
Financial independence.
Whatever your version of later looks like.
The important thing is to begin.
Even if the beginning is embarrassingly small.
Especially then.
Because $25 invested consistently is not a declaration that you have arrived.
It’s a declaration that you intend to.
The $75 Question
Let’s say you have an extra $75 this month.
What should you do with it?
You could spend it.
You could save it.
You could invest it.
Or—and this is my favorite answer—you could give the money three different jobs.
For example:
$25 — Cushion
$25 — Possibility
$25 — Future
That’s it.
No drama.
No deprivation.
No pretending that you’re suddenly a financial genius.
Just three small decisions.
Do that again next month.
And again.
And again.
You may be surprised by how quickly something that looked insignificant begins to look like money.
Don’t Wait Until You Feel Rich
This may be the most important thing I can tell you.
You do not have to become wealthy before you begin behaving like someone who takes care of her money.
In fact, it’s usually the other way around.
You learn to save when the amount is small.
You learn to spend deliberately.
You learn to distinguish want from worth.
You learn to wait.
You learn to plan.
You learn to invest.
You learn that every dollar has somewhere it could go—and that you get to decide.
Then, if your income grows, you already know what to do with the extra.
That’s the trick.
Don’t wait for more money to become better with money.
Become better with the money you have.
Then let more money find you.
And Please Don’t Forget to Live
There is a peculiar kind of financial advice that makes you feel guilty for buying lunch.
That’s not what we’re doing here.
The point of saving isn’t to spend your entire life preparing for a life you never actually live.
Money is a tool.
Use it wisely.
Save some.
Invest some.
Spend some.
Give some.
Enjoy some.
And occasionally, for heaven’s sake, order the dessert.
The goal isn’t to become the woman with the biggest bank balance.
It’s to become the woman who can make a decision about her life without every decision beginning with:
“But can I afford it?”
That’s freedom.
And freedom looks different for everybody.
For one woman, it might mean six months of expenses sitting quietly in an account.
For another, it might mean finally buying the plane ticket.
For someone else, it might mean having enough saved to leave a job that has become unbearable.
For another, it might mean sleeping peacefully because a broken water heater isn’t going to destroy her month.
There is no single definition.
There is only yours.
Whatever Comes Next
Here’s the beautiful thing about saving:
You don’t actually have to know what you’re saving for.
Not yet.
You just have to believe that your future deserves options.
Maybe you’ll go to Paris.
Maybe you’ll go to Germany.
Maybe Luxembourg.
Maybe nowhere.
Maybe you’ll start a business.
Maybe you’ll buy the house.
Maybe you’ll change careers.
Maybe you’ll fall in love with something you haven’t even discovered yet.
Life has a habit of making plans for us.
So let’s give ourselves a little room to answer.
Put something aside.
Not because you are afraid of what might happen.
Because you are curious about what might.
That’s the difference.
And that, my darling, is a very different way to think about money.
Your TBB assignment
Before you leave, do one thing:
Open your banking app.
Look at the number in your checking account.
Then decide what small amount you can move toward Whatever Comes Next.
$10.
$25.
$50.
$100.
It doesn’t have to impress anyone.
It just has to be yours.
Give it a name.
Set it aside.
And then go live your life.
Because we’re not saving for a rainy day.
We’re saving for whatever comes next.