Structuring the way you handle your money is the first step to financial freedom. But where do you start? Money coach Maja Donker invented a simple but effective method: The Three Ds.
When Maja stopped giving her children pocket money and started transferring it to their own bank account every month, it seemed like a good time to teach them about the difference between spending and saving in the short and long term.
“My son used to run to the store to buy toys with his pocket money, but my daughter was more of a saver," says Maja. So we talked about the fact that they can only spend every penny once. And that if they want to buy something bigger, they have to save up for it a little longer.
That was the time when she introduced her children the Three D method.
The Three D's stand for: Do, Destination and Dream.
Money in your Do jar and it is meant to be spent immediately. In the case of Maja's children - on something sweet or on small toys. Your Goal jar is for concrete savings with a goal to save up for it in the short term, like something from playmobil. With your Dream jar, you save for a bigger long-term goal, like a computer for gaming.
And still money grows...
Maja: "I showed my son that my Dream Fund had grown to a couple of thousands euros in recent years. Even though I only put a small part of my money in there every month. He found that interesting. He said, "So you haven't noticed much of it and yet money is growing in your jar. That's how he became interested in saving."
By talking about it openly, Maja and her children came up with the following distribution: every month, five percent of their pocket money goes to their Dream jar. Form what is left over, half goes to their Do jar and the other half to their Destination jar.
For herself, Maja has far more than three jars, which can be roughly divided into Destination, Do and Dream. These jars include a fixed expense account, a grocery account, a jar for chores, one for clothes and a Dream jar.
Something big and special.
What she wants to do with the money in her Dream jar, she does not yet know exactly. "Maybe we'll use it to go on a tour to America, buy a motor home, or maybe I'll use it to buy a new house. What is certain is that I will use the money for something big and special."
Tip from Flow: *look at your spending over the past three months to find out how much of your money goes to Do, Destination and Dream for you. Do you think that's a good distribution, or do you want to save more than you're currently spending? With Flow app, it's super easy to set that up. So you can use the Three D's to make your money system work better. So that you can occupy yourself with other things.
