Saving money
The Stock Market For Beginners: How To Save Money For Your Future When The Present Is Already Tough Enough
Sydney Tremayne
How to save money for your future was something I promised last time (before some heavy equipment smashed through all local phone and Internet lines) even if you might think it out of the question.
Now you will also find out what that little black book, the one I handed to the coffee-addicted woman, was all about. If you believe it’d take some kind of magic to help you save, here’s pure magic!
Your first step: get a small notebook that easily fits in a pocket or purse and another for your spouse (if you have one). It can be any color; black was my strange sense of humor!
For one month make a note of every single expense, usually as soon as you pay it so you don’t forget – particularly the small things like the quarter in the parking meter. Ask your spouse to do the same. But promise you will not criticize or laugh at his or her expenses; this must be a willing collaborative effort. No divorces, please!
Not easy to remember
It isn’t easy when we are distracted to remember all the small expenses, particularly if we are with someone else who has our attention, so recap your day with your spouse when you get home. Most of your savings will come from among these insignificant expenses.
It does not matter if you both write down the mortgage or other expenses. Duplicates will be taken care of later.
At the end of the month cross off your lists every essential expense: the roof over your head would be one.
Be careful to write down each item of food and its cost separately. This is essential. Just: “Food, $150,” will not be helpful. Cross off from your list only food you see as essential.
Don’t be too enthusiastic of you will fail
Your original list is now shorter. But don’t try to save the equivalent of the remaining expenses. This is not how to save money. Giving up those things you see as necessary to your lifestyle will soon result in distress and doom a savings plan to complete failure.
Get the pencil working once more and, with full agreement from your partner, decide which of the remaining expenses are significant to your lifestyle. Maybe some food items get added back in, a hobby or sport, movies. You decide: it is your life. Cross off what you want to keep.
This done, you will likely find there is a small list of expenses left. It might include pop, snacks, the “what” is not important. The exercise has shown you have some purchases you have agreed are a waste of money. This is something you have agreed to; it has not been imposed upon you.
Get you bank to help but avoid their investment suggestions
When you are in agreement, cut out those remaining purchases in the following months. At the beginning of the next month save the amount those items were costing. Do it right from your pay check before you even have that money in your hands. Ask your bank to automatically set that amount aside every month. This is how to save money without pain!
It’s easy to go through $6.67 a day. It doesn’t sound important at the time but it’s $200 a month, sufficient for a 25-year-old to retire with more than $1.1 million on a 10% return.
How do you gain 10% or more? Now you have discovered how to save money, keep reading!