My savings tip is simple. Pay Yourself First. Set up an automatic transfer from your checking to a savings account every payday. Then comes the hard part…don’t touch the savings account – no matter what. In time, you’ll become accustomed to living without the extra money and your savings will grow. Try increasing your deposit amount from time to time. If you don’t think you have the discipline to commit to monthly saving, check out Altana’s Wealth Builder accounts. They are designed to give you the discipline you need.
Another thing I have found useful is to work backwards. If I need to save $800 for a new patio set that I want in 6 months, I need to save $133 a month and that becomes the amount of my monthly transfers. When I’m tempted to dip into my savings…I think about the item the money represents and I usually choose to leave it alone. I set up multiple savings accounts, one for each item I’m saving for (under one account number). Altana lets me name the account anything I want, so it’s easy to keep track of each savings goal and the progress.
