DAVE SAYS: Make Sure You Have the Important Things Covered Firs

Dear Dave,

My wife and I make about $180,000 a year combined. We’re also debt-free, and we have no kids. We’d like to start planning to buy a nice piece of land sometime in the near future. Do you have a rule of thumb when it comes to determining what percentage of our savings we should put toward a large purchase like this?

— Daniel

Dear Daniel,

Honestly, I’m not sure there’s necessarily a specific percentage for this kind of thing. Since you guys are already debt free—and congratulations on that, by the way—I’d advise first making sure you’ve got a fully loaded emergency fund of three to six months of expense in place. I’d also recommend you have some sort of retirement savings plan going before buying a piece of land.