|
Three Big Steps To Better Money Handling
With prices increasing all the time,
saving money can be harder and harder to do. Here are
some solutions for saving a little so that you can still
meet your needs and still find ways to trim off a little
for the future.
1. BUDGET – Get one and
stick with it! And set aside at least a small portion
for savings while you’re at it; savings for your
future, your retirement, your education, your vacation,
whatever. Head to your local office supply store for
planning workbooks or budget sheets to use. Or head
to your favorite search engine and type in, “budget
planning” for hundreds of sites with articles,
free downloads, tips, ebooks and other resources to
help with your budget setup and follow up.
2. PLAN AHEAD – Make sure
to plan for emergencies and the unexpected, like an
appliance break down or garage door malfunction. Even
if you can only set aside $50 or so each monthly, place
it in an account and earmark it for this “Miscellaneous”
fund. Then when things go wrong, and they will –
nothing’s perfect – you’ll be better
prepared.
3. NON-MONTHLY ITEMS – Work
out a monthly payment for items that you don’t
pay monthly and set this up in your regular monthly
budget. For example, for items like annual home owner
or renter insurance, quarterly water bills and automobile
insurance payments and annual trash bills, take the
amounts and determine what they would be monthly. Then
list the items on your budget log and pull these amounts
aside, saving them in your account for those purposes.
This way, when the bills hit, you won’t be caught
off guard and have to scrounge for the payments.
What works well, instead of handling
multiple savings accounts for each company owed, is
to use index cards and one savings account. Create one
index card for each bill. Then simply log the amount
you’re setting aside on the card and deposit it
into your savings account. Keep the index cards with
your savings passbook to remind you what the balance
covers. The total of all your index cards should equal
the balance in your savings account. (Make sure to create
an index card for your regular funds that you are saving
each month in step one above and a card for your Miscellaneous
fund in step two above).
So next time you get paid, take three
giant steps forward. Grab your index cards, follow your
budget and invest in yourself and your future. Get a
grip on your money handling.
1howto.com
--------------------------------------------------
Please
Share Your Tips with Us
|
