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With finances being stretched further, it may seem like one of the most difficult things in the world to set aside any amount of money for emergencies. If you don’t know how to do it and you are already on a tight budget, how can you make sure that you do put money aside for a rainy day, regardless of your income?
Make Saving a Priority
Many people wait to see how much they have leftover at the end of the month before they start saving. Instead, you need to get into the mindset of putting money towards your emergency savings before doing anything else. Once the money is in a savings account, you don’t have the temptation to spend it on anything else.
Don’t Spend Any Windfalls
If you have any extra money that comes in, you would be tempted to spend it on something nice. Instead, put it in an emergency savings fund. Because this money wasn’t factored in as part of your monthly budget, you won’t miss it. As nice as it is to buy something nice for yourself, if you’re trying to get towards your savings goal, you’ve got to make the most of every little windfall.
Automate Your Savings
This is one of the best ways to make life easier for yourself. Because if you tell yourself you are going to start saving but unforeseen circumstances crop up, it will stop you from putting it into savings. Instead, setting up an automatic transfer from your checking account to your savings accounts will start to build up that fund. Regardless of how much you decide to contribute, this way you won’t forget about it or use it for something else.
Letting the Money Grow
If you are not able to put much aside, you might wonder if there’s any point, but the fact is that any little fund is going to make a big difference when it adds up over time. Because there are plenty of ways for you to do this, such as a money market account or a high-yield savings account, you can get a big return on your investment.
Do Top-Ups
Getting started can be one of the biggest challenges, and if you are already limiting your spending in many other aspects of your life, you may find it there’s a little something saved over that you would be tempted to spend on yourself, but similarly to the windfall approach, you can put any little top up into the savings account. You could use an automated savings app like Plum that does a top-up of putting any money aside which can be as little as a few cents. And because the amount is so low you won’t miss it, but you’re still increasing your savings ever so slightly.
Making Changes to Your Budget
If you are trying to save for retirement, it might be time to start slashing your budget and trimming as much as humanly possible. Because if you’re used to a certain lifestyle just trimming it by 10% or so can make a big difference.
With finances being stretched further, it may seem like one of the most difficult things in the world to set aside any amount of money for emergencies. If you don’t know how to do it and you are already on a tight budget, how can you make sure that you do put money aside for a rainy day, regardless of your income?
Make Saving a Priority
Many people wait to see how much they have leftover at the end of the month before they start saving. Instead, you need to get into the mindset of putting money towards your emergency savings before doing anything else. Once the money is in a savings account, you don’t have the temptation to spend it on anything else.
Don’t Spend Any Windfalls
If you have any extra money that comes in, you would be tempted to spend it on something nice. Instead, put it in an emergency savings fund. Because this money wasn’t factored in as part of your monthly budget, you won’t miss it. As nice as it is to buy something nice for yourself, if you’re trying to get towards your savings goal, you’ve got to make the most of every little windfall.
Automate Your Savings
This is one of the best ways to make life easier for yourself. Because if you tell yourself you are going to start saving but unforeseen circumstances crop up, it will stop you from putting it into savings. Instead, setting up an automatic transfer from your checking account to your savings accounts will start to build up that fund. Regardless of how much you decide to contribute, this way you won’t forget about it or use it for something else.
Letting the Money Grow
If you are not able to put much aside, you might wonder if there’s any point, but the fact is that any little fund is going to make a big difference when it adds up over time. Because there are plenty of ways for you to do this, such as a money market account or a high-yield savings account, you can get a big return on your investment.
Do Top-Ups
Getting started can be one of the biggest challenges, and if you are already limiting your spending in many other aspects of your life, you may find it there’s a little something saved over that you would be tempted to spend on yourself, but similarly to the windfall approach, you can put any little top up into the savings account. You could use an automated savings app like Plum that does a top-up of putting any money aside which can be as little as a few cents. And because the amount is so low you won’t miss it, but you’re still increasing your savings ever so slightly.
Making Changes to Your Budget
If you are trying to save for retirement, it might be time to start slashing your budget and trimming as much as humanly possible. Because if you’re used to a certain lifestyle just trimming it by 10% or so can make a big difference.
