The Secret to Saving Should Not Be Kept Secret!

     Here it is, as promised, from last night's post.  THE secret we have discovered this past year about how to save significant quantities of cash is contained in this post in an easy to follow step-by-step process.

1.  Open a secondary savings account, one that you cannot access online for easy transfers.  At our credit union, our primary savings account is connected online but the money makeover account we began with just $5 required a visit to the building to withdraw funds.  This sounds like the opposite of what everybody wants with banking by smartphone, texting transfers between accounts, techno-banking boom. But trust me, this trick is hugely helpful!  We socked away dollar after dollar and withdrew only when truly needed.  The extra step of showing up at a physical location to pull money out of savings slowed down spending from that account big time.

2. Set up an automatic withdrawal from your checking account into savings each payday.  The beauty of the automatic transfer is it can never be skipped. Scary to you? If you truly need the money just transfer it right back out. But for us, we kept the amount small ($40) and knew if we had extra we could toss it in along with it with a visit to the bank.  This is the way my retirement accounts get pulled from my paychecks as well so I can never skip tucking away money for retirement.

3.  When the money surprises come up-the good ones- try to put part (if not more---I follow the rule of thirds save/spend/debt) away in your savings. Just like cutting calories can slow and steadily shed weight, every effort to save results in a higher balance and in time even $5 bills can add up to large amounts.

4. Try to forget you have a hard-to-get savings account. When your checking account balance starts to wane, live like you are broke; slow down or stop the spending.  Do not pull the money unless it is necessary (i.e. a large, unexpected bill, a miscalculation in a budget leaving you short, a fabulous deal on something you were in the market to buy when the timing was right.)

      These steps took our savings account from $5 to $5400 in six months, along with another $600 tucked away in retirement.  That amount has since been drained some (we were pushing hard trying to win a contest) but I am confident we could get our balance back by following the above steps.  

      Any other savings tips you have to build savings accounts are wanted and welcomed!!!