Saving can be difficult especially when you are living paycheck to paycheck. It’s hard when life happens and there isn’t enough money to take care of things. For example, your cell phone cracks or the car breaks down and needs to be fixed. Something always comes up that requires money and requires money now! I suggest having $1,000 emergency fund for those moments of immediate need. Having a $1,000 tucked away can ease your fear of not being able to care for your children, household, car or family in a time of need.
There are several ways you can save $1,000 easily by automating your savings. The most important thing to remember to save first then spend what is left. I use several methods of savings and I will share them here with you.
1. I have a separate account and have a set amount that gets deposited into the account every time I get paid from my job. It’s easy to save when you never see the money. It is more difficult to get your entire paycheck into your checking account then transfer money to savings than to have to separate accounts and the amounts are automatically deposited for you. It saves you time and you are likely to save more if you don’t have to perform the act of transferring the money yourself. Action: Go to your Human Resources department and add a direct deposit of $50/paycheck into a separate account.
2. I use a savings app to pull money on a weekly basis from my checking account to a separate account. I also have other rules set-up in the app which allows me to save without worrying about large amounts being deducted from my checking account. For example, the round up rule. The Round Up rule is a rule that will round up the cost a purchase to the nearest $1 (up to $5). If you have the Round UP rule set to round up each purchase to the nearest dollar, when you go to the grocery store and spend $31.27, the app will automatically round the amount to $32 and deposit $0.73 into a separate account for you. How cool is that!?! I am currently using Qapital but there are other apps out there as well. Below you can learn how to open your very own Qapital account.
Qapital: Savings app that allows you to easily automate your savings by setting a goal, then a rule and forget it! Qapital’s app is simple, easy to use and easy to navigate. Qapital also allows you to do a 52-week or similar challenge. Qapital is also free to use! One negative about Qapital is that you must have a checking account. You can’t link a savings or other type of account to Qapital. Monies deposited in Qapital are FDIC insured up to $250,000. To learn more about Qapital, visit www.qapital.com. You can also sign up here https://get.qapital.com/bzAc/AjFoO82sZH.
3. I also have a separate account for vacations/travel and I have a monthly automatic deposit to that account. Again, automation is key! When my family and I decide to go on large trips, we typically decide on our destination one year in advance. This allows the units in our family to save for the trip without taking a huge hit to their monthly budgets. We set a budget for our trip to determine how much we need to save and by what dates. Our budget also includes important dates such as when we plan to purchase airline tickets, etc. Then we simply work the budget.
As you can see, you can set-up auto-transfers through your bank, you can set-up a direct deposit to your savings account or you can use a savings app to withdraw from your bank account. There are so many easy ways to save and they are painless!
Happy Saving!!!!
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