Want to Save More?: Habits to Boost Savings

Want to Save More?: Habits to Boost Savings

1. Resist Impulse Buying
Using credit cards to spend more than the cash you have can build up their balances faster than you can pay them. And paying late, penalty fees just add to the total.

Practice telling yourself "no" when tempted to spend by trying these tactics.

• Distract yourself by making a phone call or chewing gum until the "buy" urge passes.
• Make a rule to only charge expenses or rewards only when you have the cash to pay for it during the grace period before interest is charged.
• Have your credit card company lower your credit limit.

2.  Automate Payments
Make sure you automate payments so bills get paid on time; thus, avoiding late payment charges.

3.  Pay More than the Minimum
Pay more than the minimum amount with every payment.

• Set up automatic timely payments of a higher amount than the minimum.
• Take advantage of the automatic biweekly mortgage payment plan. For the one-time fee, the quicker pay-down is worth many thousands of dollars over extended loans.

4.  Save Even A Little Rather than None At All

Saving even a little amount in a month is better than not saving at all.  In the long run, that small amount will build up and suddenly, you’ll notice that you have “Money” in your savings account.

5.  Begin the Plan for Your Retirement

• Consult a financial planner who offers free initial services to discuss all of your retirement savings options.
• Set up automatic deposits to retirement and cash emergency savings accounts.

Posted by Melanie Mendoza on Thursday April 26 2012, 3:48 AM EST. Ref: Yahoo. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Shopping. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0