Posted: 3/29/2005 7:48:45 AM EDT
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What do you do every month to save money(although this bunch probably spends way too much on guns, I'm also guilty)? Do you try to clear with month by a certain dollar amount left? or do you spend your entire paycheck every month? Being a gun freak it's hard to save money..... |
| Best advice I ever received for putting away money is really very simple. As soon as you get your check, pay yourself what you want to put aside, 2%, 5%, 10%, WHATEVER. Then live on the rest. You WILL figure out how to make do on the balance, and you WILL save money. Works for any income level. Try it for a few months, you'll see for yourself. |
+1 Treat your savings account like a bill every pay period. I pay 10% into my savings. |
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It's not hard to save money. Take a certain amount "off the top" each month and dump it into a savings account. This should be a separate account with money going into it, but you should not make a habit of taking money back out of it. Then pay your bills. The rest is your funny money. Once the savings account got big enough we transferred it all into a Money Market. Once we had six months worth of expenses in there we started putting our monthly savings deposit into stocks. The key is to set a goal and stick with it. Take your savings money off the top so you don’t miss it. Also, if you can invest in a 401K through your employer, do it. Start out with a minimal contribution and each time you get a raise up your contribution level so you are basically dumping the raise into your 401K. |
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My wife and I both have our paychecks direct deposited into our bank. I have $100 a week sent from my check into the savings acct, and the balance, along with the wife's entire check put into checking. That leaves plenty of emergency money, and Christmas money at the end of the year for the kids. This way, I never "see" the money, and have to hit a Mac machine for cash. Sometimes this serves as a passive deterrent to spending on frivoulous junk. Unless that is, the gunshow vendor takes debit cards. 
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Blackrifle: Check the survival forum for recent information regarding Debt. It's somewhat related... Saving can be easy. The trick is, you MUST do it before anything else. If you try to save the leftovers at the end of the week, there is nothing left. If you work where direct deposit is an option, great. Most employers will permit you to allocate your check to different accounts. For example, 85% of your pay goes to your regular checking account, and 15% goes towards a savings account. Its automatic, so the money hits your savings account before you see it. Works well. If your savings account is a deductable IRA, a 401K, 414h, or 403b, the tax savings are pretty good too. 15% is going to the account, but it only costs you about 11% (the other 4% is tax savings). The 85% that is in your checking is yours. Pay the bills, take care of business and whatever is left over is toy money. The direct deposit is the only way to go. Save it before you even get your hands on it.... Set it up. Set aside 10 or 12 or 15%. Next time you get a raise automatically increase the amount going to the savings. Get a promotion? GREAT! Up the savings dramatically. I've been doing this for years. The savings are now running 21% of income. Retirement is looking good!!! |
| Seriously, the first thing I think anyone in our society has to do to save money is learn what you absolutely do not need. I even catch myself saying, all the time, "I need..." Then I stop and realize, no, I'd like to have it but I certainly don't NEED it. Then I walk away. I had to learn to do that with everything from an afternoon bottle of Pepsi on up to a new vehicle. Now I'm so damn tight with my money that I will spend 6 months convincing myself to buy a new pair of shoes. But I also don't owe a dime to any ongoing debt. I don't have a mortgage, I don't have a car note, and I don't owe a single credit card even a dime. That sure makes every pay check seem a lot bigger. |
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You will meet people who will say “Man it’s payday already and I’m broke!” “How can that be?” you ask them. They all reply, “Well my mortgage is due this week and after I pay it there’s nothing left from my check!” I learned long ago to split up my monthly expenses each payday. Make a list of your monthly expenses, the things you have to pay i.e. mortgage, electric, gas, phone ect. Now each payday set aside half of that monthly amount. When the bill comes due you simply pay it. It takes some planning to get it to work but once you get the system down you’ll see how easy it really is. Take for example my auto insurance. I pay every quarter. When the bill comes I divide the number of paydays coming up till the next bill is due, into the amount due. This gives me the amount I need to set aside each payday. When the next bill comes due I already have the money set aside! Depending on how much your auto insurance is, you might be talking $20 a pay check! That $20 each paycheck is a lot easier to set aside twice a month, than to blow that money. Then when the insurance is due you need to take hundreds out of your check to pay it! After setting aside the amount needed for half my monthly expenses I subtract this amount from my paycheck, the balance is what I have to live off of till next payday and put into the savings. This has worked out great for my wife and I and we have quite a nice savings nest egg. Also review your monthly expenses and cut out any unnecessary spending. I see so many people now a days who live above their means. |
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Every day I pretty eat the same thing - yogurt and granola for breakfast, sometimes a turkey sandwich for lunch (not every day), and either frozen dumplings (from Sam's club) or pasta for dinner. I NEVER eat out, unless I'm going to lunch or dinner at work, and then I'm not paying. I get the impression that many people burn a lot of money of fast food, sodas, etc during the day and barely even notice it - but that stuff will add up. I also pay 10% into my 403b (like a 401k) that my employer matches. However - then I also do monumentally stupid shit, like buy a mustang thinking that I"m going to restore it, jsut to watch it become a giant rusty black hole that money disappears into.
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