As much as we’d like to maximize our income, and get a raise each year from our employer, we generally don’t have complete control over our income. Instead, the best way to reach our financial goals is through savings, because we have a much greater level control over how much we spend and how much we save each month.
Saving isn’t just something you do over the course of one or two months. Rather, the best way to save and meet financial goals is to save money each and every month. Don’t worry, saving more doesn’t necessarily mean buying less, it just means spending smarter.
Here is some banking advice to help you save more each month.
Know What You Buy. While it seems like a simple task, it’s important to know what you spend your money on each month, and how much you spend. Armed with this knowledge, you can identify categories that are good candidates for change. The best way to know what you buy is to keep a record of all of your spending. There are many ways to do this – ranging from a Smartphone app to a simple notebook and pencil – so experiment a bit to find what works best for you.
Track Spending Over Time. In addition, when you compare what you’re currently spending your money on with your spending habits from six or twelve months ago, you may be able to identify expense categories that have crept higher without you realizing it.
Identify Your Priorities. Once you have a better understanding of how you spend your money you should be able to identify some expense categories that you could potentially cut. But the best ways to cut are going to be different for each of us. In large part, what we should be spending our money on depends on our priorities. For example, you might find that your grocery bill represents a significant percentage of your monthly budget. If this is because you buy a lot of soda and other “junk food” simply out of habit, then this could be a good place to save. But if your spending is high because you place a high priority on being able to buy organic produce and meat without antibiotics, then saving money by buying lower quality food might not be compatible with your lifestyle.
Be Willing to Change. For some people, the best tip on saving money is the simplest but can also be one of the most challenging to actually implement – being willing to change. Implementing superficial change might not be so difficult, of course. Giving up a trip or two to the coffee shop each week should be fairly easy to do. But being willing to change your mindset or your lifestyle opens up a host of additional opportunities to save.
Ultimately, you may have to try different approaches to find what works best for you. As long as you’re open to all reasonable possibilities, you should be able to save more money each and every month.
Tags: Banking Advice, direct deposit, emergency savings, saving money
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on Monday, October 28th, 2013 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Savings.
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As much as we’d like to maximize our income, and get a raise each year from our employer, we generally don’t have complete control over our income. Instead, the best way to reach our financial goals is through savings, because we have a much greater level control over how much we spend and how much we save each month.
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