There's lots of anxiety today about saiving; the fact that the price of food (an essential ingredient to our existance on this planet,) is increasing doesn't help the situation. Here are three things you can do, and you'll never miss the money.
Pay Yourself First
I know you've heard this one before. You can force yourself to do this by having an amount taken out of your paycheck and deposited directly into your savings account. Start with a small amount, such as $10 a paycheck; you won't miss it. Once you've adjusted to lesser take-home pay, which won't be difficult because you're going to start with a small amount, and you haven't incresed your debt load, which should be easy, then increse your deduction. You may want to double it, or simply increase it to $15. Before long, you're saving $200 a month, which creates a nice emergeny fund.
Save Your Raise
Want to really shatter your savings record? It's easy if you save your raise. You weren't living on that amount before you received the raise, so see about continuing to live as if you didn't receive it at all. That creates a solid foundation for savings which will give you the incentive to save even more. As a matter of fact, Uncle Sam gave you a raise this year by collecting 2% less for Social Security. Save that 2%; you wouldn't have had it otherwise.
Keep Making The Car Payment
All my clients that do this thank me for it later. No, you aren't continuing to make the car payment to your lender; you make the payment to yourslef after the car is paid off. That way when it's time to buy a new car, you've got the money for it. How cool would it be to walk in and pay cash for a car?
What are some of the easy ways you've discovered to save money? Please let me hear from you.