3 Easy Steps to Successfully Saving Money

Hands down I was the best payment maker ever back in the day.  If there was a payment plan I was your girl.  I made all payments in full and on time as agreed upon.  Car payments, credit cards, furniture payments you name it I would make them. However for some reason on the other hand I was a horrible saver. It was my Achilles heel.  It seemed I could never keep my account at a certain desired level, have a real emergency fund for real emergencies or save up for something in advance to avoid paying interest on it.

After wasting more money than I care to admit on unnecessary interest and opportunity cost I knew I needed to figure out a way to be a better saver.  After some trial and error I identified the 3 easy steps to successfully saving money.

Separate it – To keep down confusion give the money you are saving its own place. Savings should not be comingled with your regular spending money.  A good way to keep the money separate is not only a separate account but a separate bank or credit union from where you normally bank.

Automate it – Let’s be honest we are all gung ho when we make the decision to save whether it is for something in particular or savings in general.  We figure it all out on paper and say when I get paid I am going to put this much each month or each time I get paid but when the day comes we have a hundred reasons why we can’t save the money we planned on saving.   Take yourself out the process by setting up automatic transfers to the new savings account. This way you will not have any excuses for the money not making it to the savings account.

Name it – Personalize it!  Give it a fun or inspiring name like Denise’s Big Adventure or Dream House Down Payment. A lot of financial intuitions allow you to give your accounts nicknames.  Take advantage of that service.  This may seem like a silly step but giving a name to your account motivates you to continue saving towards your goal and will make you think twice before making any unnecessary withdrawals.

Hope you found this helpful

Happy Saving!

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