making a personal budget<\/a>. Take a look at what you bring in each month. Next, write down your fixed expenses. These are things like rent, car payments, utilities, etc. Figure out how much you need each month for groceries and other essentials. This is your bare-bones budget. It\u2019s good to know what you need to get by each month.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nNext, it\u2019s time for a little bit of math. Start with what you bring in each month and subtract all your core expenses. What you\u2019re left with is your discretional income. This will pay for entertainment, clothes, getting your nails done, etc. And from here on out, part of that discretional income will go into a savings account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pick a number you\u2019re comfortable with. Maybe that\u2019s just $20 per month, maybe it\u2019s $500. Put it in your budget and treat it like any other bill. It won\u2019t take you long to get into the habit of setting aside that money for savings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To make it even more hands-off, talk to your bank about setting up a separate savings account. Then set up an auto-deposit to have the savings transferred to the new account as soon as your paycheck comes in each month. If you don\u2019t see it, you\u2019ll never miss it and your savings will run on autopilot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t forget to audit your savings from time to time. Take another look at your budget. Can you increase your savings a little more? Another great way to boost that savings account is to take any extra money \u2013 things like birthday cash, tax return, bonuses, etc. \u2013 and put them straight into the savings account. Again, you won\u2019t even miss the money, but it will help you build up your savings quickly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Make sure your savings are sitting in an interest-bearing account. Since you won\u2019t be touching this money unless it\u2019s a dire emergency, you should be able to earn at least a little interest. Talk to your banker about your best options and start putting your savings on autopilot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One last tip: Talk to your employer about matching 401K funds. You may be able to get a contribution from the company you work for towards your retirement savings account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Putting a little money away for a rainy day isn\u2019t always easy. You may have some good intentions, but at the end of the day, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1224,1214,1222,1223],"class_list":["post-5990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-boost-your-savings","tag-budget","tag-matching-401k","tag-personal-budget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5991,"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5990\/revisions\/5991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parentingzoo.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}