What You Need to Be Saving For

Everyone wants to save money, but not very many people actually act on that desire. The simple truth is that saving is necessary. It’s important to save for retirement and it’s important to save for other things. If you don’t a lot of disposable income, saving can be a little tricky, but it can be done. Try using one of these easy saving tricks to help pad your bank account for the future; or for whatever you want to do with it.

Build Your Emergency Fund

You absolutely must have an account with one to two months emergency money in it. This should include enough money to cover your monthly expenses for at least this amount of time if something were to happen to you. It’s not easy to save that much, so what you need to do is ask your employer to dedicate five percent of your income to it. Have your employer take five percent of what you make and deposit it into a separate account each time you get paid. You can’t miss something you never had.

Start Saving for Retirement

It’s okay to start small. At first you can save only three percent of your income. If you have a 401(k) through your employer, make sure your savings are going there because your employer likely contributes to your retirement in some way.

Fill Up Your Emergency Fund

You really need at least three to six months worth of expenses saved in your emergency fund account. This means that you have to start putting more money here. Now that you’ve got a little saved and your retirement fund is being taken care of, start saving more toward this. Put your income tax refund, your Christmas bonus, or whatever extra cash you have lying around into this account to keep you going when times get tough.