Money Walks

Raise your hand if you think saving is a good idea? Now out of everyone who raised their hand, keep your hand up if you actually save. Here is where almost everyones hands go down.

When you ask anyone to save a certain amount of their pay check, they will most likely agree that it is a great idea but they claim they can’t because they’re already pushing their limit within their budget. To save money from your current income will mean reducing your standard of living and that may be moving into a smaller place, not driving a fancy car, eating cheaper foods, or not able to enjoy your daily morning Starbucks. But because peoples lifestyles are all built on habits, even if they can agree that saving may be a great idea, the actual thought of reducing ones lifestyle is so unacceptable that they are not able to discipline themselves to take the first step.

Believe it or not, saving has always been a part of your life. When we were all growing up, we were given allowances and also were encouraged to save our money. Back then, we looked upon money as a tool to buy happiness whether it be in forms of toys, candy, ice cream, or cookies. Therefore as a result, we also naturally begin to look upon saving a way of punishment, which means depriving ourselves from the toys, candy, etc. At an early age, people begin to associate savings with pain, sacrifice, loss of pleasure, satisfaction and happiness. Now as adults, this habit is manifested in our desire to want to spend money as soon as we receive our checks.

Well instead of telling you how you can overcome this habit or cutting back on your current lifestyle, heres a different route. From this day forward, you need to save 75% of every increase in pay you receive from work.

How does this work?

This is something that you can do because it does not require you to lower your current standard of living, in other words, you don’t yet have the money built into your daily lifestyle. It is easier for people to commit to saving money that they don’t have than for people to agree on saving by cutting down on their current lifestyle. In order to become wealthy, you need to develop these habits.

So starting today, commit to save at least 75% of future raises in income. The earlier you start, and the rate at which your income grows, saving 75% of your future increases in years to come will allow you to acquire an enormous amount of money. Developing this habit will eventually make you financially independent.

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Personal Finance is such a big fuss in our blogosphere, there are so many articles on how we can save more for our retirement, how to reduce debt, how we can live more frugally, how to not spend your money, and the list goes on and on. I love to read about all the different aspects of finance, because the truth is the more you think about finance the better you’re gonna do financially.

But after applying all the neat hacks and tricks on how to be more financially independent, what’s next? How do you determine financial success? How do you gauge your performance? It’s simple. It’s not how much credit card debt you were able to pay off this month, its not how much you were able to save up, it’s not how much you were able to put away for retirement.

What it comes down to is, your net worth.

You can put away $500.00 for retirement one month but in that same month treat yourself to a nice Iphone (which is somewhere around that price range) and not improve your overall net worth. You can pay off $200.00 off your credit card this month but you keep using the same credit card for all your purchases, again, you’re not improving your situation.

The way you can gauge your financial performance and know that you’re doing good is this, ask yourself, “Did my net worth improve from last month”? If you can say yes, then you’re doing wonderful, if not you might want to rethink your strategy.

What you don’t want is for you to have the same net worth month after month. As long as you can say that your net worth has increased by ‘x’ then you’re in good standings because you know that your making progress. As opposed to someone whose net worth is the same each month and not making any improvements, which is the most case. If you spend just as much as you save, then you’re really not making anything. Wouldn’t it be great if you can see that your net worth is getting better and better each month, each year? Instead of being in the same financial scenario for 5 years? This is why keeping track of your net worth is very important because it also allows you to keep track of your financial progress.

The big picture is aside from all the frugal living, putting away for retirement, investments, and all the financial goals one might have, what it comes down to is are you improving your net worth.

The key points is, you should concentrate on improving your net worth month after month. This is the only way to rate your performance. If your net worth is improving, then you know your financial situation is improving.

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Here are some tips to help you get a nice jump start on your next project and avoiding those last minute deadlines.

• Create a to-do-list. It doesn’t matter if its on a notebook or on your computer. You want to record everything you need to do. This way, taking the time to log your entries makes you want to carry them out a little more.
• When creating your list, you want to give your task a priority. You can do this by listing the more important tasks at the top or you can
• You want to refer to your list as much as possible. The more you see it, the more you’re gonna be thinking about.
• This is important, reward yourself. After you have accomplished a task, take the time to reward yourself. The reward doesn’t have to be super expensive, a trip to Starbucks if fine.
• Don’t beat yourself up. You are not the only one who has a hard time trying to get started on various projects and tasks.
• Let others know about your goals and plans. This way, you are somewhat committed to your goals and you will not only have to face yourself, but to others as well.
• Promise yourself ten minutes a day. When you think ten minutes, its not much but you’ll be surprised how much work you can get done in that time. In most cases, you will end up passing 30 minutes and you will have made some progress.

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For the majority of the population, most people have bad habits when it comes to money. These people, instead of thinking in terms of saving, investing, and financial freedom, they think only of spending, borrowing, and financial dependence. Statistic shows that in 2002, nearly 2 million Americans declared personal bankruptcy due to constant spending and borrowing more than what they could afford.

There are two directions that a person naturally goes through with regards to finance.

One road leads in the direction of earning, saving, investing while the other leads in the direction of earning, spending, borrowing and then getting into debt. Each person is responsible for their own actions and they have to make the decision on which road they are going to take.

For those who are in debt, the great news is, regardless of what road you have taken in the past, you have the ability to decide what road you want to take starting from this day forward. Accept complete responsibility for your financial life and take the first step into the right path.

The fact is, financial success is long-term success.

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Today I just opened up a Money Market Savings account with GMAC Bank. It’s great because it’s just like a checkings account with a super high interest rate. I mean why not make some interest while my money sits in my checkings account right? So my plan is to make this new account my primary checkings account and also as well as my savings account.

Here are some Benefits of the account:

• The interest rate for this money market account is currently going for 5.30 %, which is fairly high.
• The minimum opening deposit is only $50.00
• FDIC-insured up to $100,000
• I get my atm fees reimbursed up to $6.00.
• Just like a checkings account, I get a check card and a check book.
• No monthly fee as long as the monthly average balance is over $500.00.
• Interests are compounded daily.

Some of the negatives:

• It’s an online banking firm so that means I can’t go into a physical branch for assistance.
• I’m limited to only 6 electronic transactions per statement cycle (ATM withdraws and electronic transfers.
• Along with many other money market accounts, the interest rates are not fixed.

Those are the main negatives I can think of at the top of my head. If you know of any other, please feel free to comment.

So I’m really excited about this account. It’s neat to think that I can move all my money from my checkings account and savings account and now make interest on it. My old savings account was going for something like %1 - %2 percent so its an upgrade from it. For my first deposit amount, I tranfered $1,000 from my savings account to this account and eventually I will move all my money from checkings and savings to here. I’m hoping to have $5,000 - $6,000 in this account by the end of the summer.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial weekend. With school finally over for the semester, I’m definitely ready for summer to kick off. I know I have been quite dormant with my posts but since I’m finally out of school I can spend a lot more time on the site.

Happy Memorial day.