Do you have savings,or do you live paycheck to paycheck?
922946
In my younger years while raising a family, it was paycheck to paycheck.  Now I have savings and it's a good feeling to have.
144695
Budget\nSet your goals - What do you want to buy?\nWhat is your income?\nWhat do you have to spend - food, transport, clothing, tax.\nHow much can I save each week.\nCan I save enough to get what I want, when I want it.\nCan I allow for some extra spending and still reach my goal.
572312
Americans are a very diverse group of people.  Some live paycheck to paycheck.  Others save varying amounts.  Still others live off of debt from credit cards and home loans.  Their income levels don't really have a lot to do with it.  It has more to do with their values.  I know wealthy 2-income families that live paycheck to paycheck, and I know poor people making minimum wage that save something each week.\n\nOn average, it doesn't look like Americans save very much at all (I think the stats show we are one of the worst in the world), but there are two factors that confuse this measurement.  First, there are a large number of savers in this country, but there are also a large number of 'negative savers' (debtors) who balance them out.  Secondly, Americans have reaped the benefits of increasing asset values, both in stocks and real estate lately, so while their active savings may not have risen, their savings portfolios have grown during this period.  It's just that less is coming out of the paychecks.
62130
Yes. Saving is not about Big Numbers. It isn't even about Little Numbers Across A Long Time. It is about Consistent Numbers Across Any Time.\n\nSaving money certainly involves "not buying stuff." But this view is far too narrow. So long as saving is equated with sacrifice it will be an uphill battle to save. Having day-to-day life that is as stress-free as possible is very important. Continual sacrifice and stress-free living clash harshly for many people. Some people focus on changing lifestyle-related choices, sometimes called the "latte factor," as a method for realizing day-to-day savings. I agree that this is good advice for some people, but as a first step it isn't necessarily the most effective. There are other things that can be done, too.\n\n1. Reduce monthly fees. Stop paying banking fees for services you don't use or don't need. Many banks charge monthly "service fees" or "maintenance fees" for checking accounts. If your bank offers "free checking" or "free checking with Direct Deposit" (and you have Direct Deposit) switch your account, or find a bank that does offer "free checking." Even the smallest leak in any plumbing system will eventually collect enough water to fill a bathtub, so to will even the smallest recurring monthly service fee eventually steal one month's rent.\n\n2. Detemine a reasonable monthly budget. It is important to know "where it all goes." Rent, utilities, cell phone, car payment, insurance, groceries. There is no doubt these numbers exist, but most importantly nearly all of them can be known in advance. Some of them can't be known exactly, but they can be estimated. My advice is to estimate unknown amounts not for the sake of accuracy ("The cell phone bill is usually $40.00 per month."), but for the sake of certainty ("The cell phone bill has never been more than $80.00 in any month."). In the beginning of making and using budgets, budgets work best when costs are overestimated rather than underestimated. It is far less uncomfortable to have "too much" money left at the end of the month than it is to have "too little" left over--and bills still to be paid, at the end of the month.\n\n3. Begin saving automatically. If your employer offers Direct Deposit, and you can open a "free checking" account (with or without Direct Deposit), use this financial automation to the maximum. Open a second checking account. Then contact your HR department to request that your paychecks be split across your two checking accounts.\n\n4. Separate paying bills from saving and investing. Use your primary account for all monthly expenses: rent, utilities, food, car payments and pet food. This is your "Cash" account. The second checking account is dedicated for saving and investment purposes. You won't draw funds from this "Investment" account to pay bills. That isn't what saving is about. Saving is about having money available to fund medium-term and long-term goals. Things like retirement, paying college tuition or buying a home. The "Investment" account will drive all of your automatic saving and investment mechanisms. Similar to Direct Deposit, Automatic Withdrawals can be scheduled to transfer funds from your "Investment" account.\n\nHere is how to implement the above steps.\n\nLook at the ING Direct website. ING has savings accounts with excellent interest rates, without no minimum required balance. In addition look at the Vanguard website. If you don't have an IRA, 401k or any other kind of retirement account Vanguard has the lowest custodial costs ($10.00 per year) and lowest minimum required balances (usually $3,000.00) of any financial services company today. Accumulating enough money to open an account with Vanguard may take some time, but getting started saving with ING Direct is something that can occu
429289
Set up an automatic deposit for part of your paycheck to another account, other than the account you pay your bills from. For example, set up $100 of every paycheck to go to a savings account (one that you don't check on at all) automatically. If you don't see this $100, then you don't spend it. It's a nice and easy way to save money.
1177365
Wow everyone seems to do exact. I however round up to the nearest dollar. I've been able to put away a few hundred extra dollars a year by doing this.\n\nAlso, if you ever go over, you'll know you have a little extra in there to protect you. To me, doing exact is not good. It only takes a small mistake and your check book is off.
516181
I prefer paid less with low expenses.\n\nConsider, if you lose your job, for whatever reason, and you live in an area with high expenses, you will have a harder time keeping things together until you find a new job. Whereas, if you live in an area with low expenses, you can work a lower paying job at a gas station or something, while looking for a better job. The money wouldn't be great, but you probably won't lose your house. If you live in an area where the cost of living is high... a minimum wage temporary job won't do a thing for you.
882410
You can be financially sound if and only if you are earning more than you are spending. This of course would be applicable only until you are capable of working. Being able to put up a business, invest or save which can be your milking cow when you retire may probably a  metric to say you are in such a status.
559654
No, i think living beyond your means can actually be an illness.  Sticking to a budget makes me feel better, because then i don't have to sweat it out between paychecks.\n\nMy biggest downfall is buying electronics and gaming stuff, and downloading from Napster!  So i have a set amount i can spend on this stuff and then stick to it.  Otherwise i feel bad and "why did i spend it on THAT?"  :-)
1005898
Getting paid bi-weekly helps you to better manage your money because you know you have further to go between pay checks.  It will help you decide how to set up paying your bills on a monthly basis by breaking up the bills evenly in the month between the two paychecks.\n\nWeekly paychecks seem nice because you don't have that wait time between paychecks, but sometimes it can cost you when you file your taxes at the end of the year.  Since you get your paychecks weekly they are smaller amounts so there will not be as much taxes taken out because it takes out a certain percentage based on the deductions you selected on your W-2 when you are hired.  If you were to get a larger bi-weekly check more money would be taken out because of a larger paycheck.  At the end of the year when you file your taxes it looks at your entire income and decides your taxable income by roughly the same percentage.  So if you don't have enough taken out on each paycheck you could possibly end up owing at the end of the year.  If you are stuck with no option but a weekly paycheck you can always select a hire deduction or have additional taken out to keep yourself safe when tax time comes around.  A lot of times when you fill out the worksheet on a W-2 it will allow for a lot more deductions then necessary.  The lower the number the more taxes will be taken out, higher the number less taxes.
1076130
I would say live in a low cost area if it's accessible to your job, is safe for your family, etc. The less you pay for rent/mortgage, the more you can pay on your other bills... just my opinion. :)
751290
No. My husband and I both work and I respect him very much, as he does me. And in today's world, at least in the US, you need 2 incomes to keep a household running.
1180190
pay month to month\nthe finance charge is already figured into your monthly payments...it would be silly to pay it all off with savings
124636
I am also a 27 year old female, and I've learned some harsh lessons about financial realities.  I'll share with you what worked for me.\n\nI have a binder full of lined paper.  On the first page of the binder I have a budget.  You may ask yourself, how does one create a budget?  \n\nThe way I did it was to first list the things I have a fixed amount I need to spend per month: Rent, Car payments, Magazine subscriptions, Car insurance.  Then I figured out how much I would need PER PAYCHECK to save for this (don't say per month - if you do this, you're setting yourself up for failure).  I need $400 per paycheck for rent, $200 for car, $50 for insurance, $5 for registration, etc.  ANYTHING you spend money on goes down on paper.\n\nNext, I put down the things I need, but that aren't fixed.  For instance, groceries, gas, car repair, health (SO very important to have a large reserve, as I recently found out).  I guess how much I'm going to spend on this per month.  Don't forget, that a budget is ALWAYS evolving.  You get raises, bonuses, and (hopefully not) pay cuts all the time, so be prepared.\n\nFinally, you need to have some money to yourself.  I seperated these into clothes, gifts, massage, and books for myself, but you can always change that around.  Put a fixed amount per check into these funds.\n\nHere's the most important part: RECORD what you're spending on the other sheets of paper.  If you buy a pair of shoes, that goes in the clothes budget.  If you buy a gallon of milk, that goes in the groceries budget.  I guarantee you'll be shocked by some of the purchases you make. (I was spending $500 on groceries for two people in a month - that's absurd.  I now REALLY watch what a shop for, and I make sure I'm not throwing things away because they got old - I use everything!)\n\nOk, now we're ready to set aside some money to save!  Generally people say to save 10% of your gross income.  With the above method, the car repair and health funds are sort of "oh no" accounts that you're not going to be touching unless you have a situation, so I count that as part of the 10%.  Aside from this, calculate 10% of your net income ($800 = $80) and have it direct deposited into a different account.  This should not be accessable by check OR atm card!!!!  Once you have about $2,000, you should be able to move it into a money market (some people call money markets "High Yield Savings Accounts") without having to pay any fees.  You'll earn about 2%-4%, depending on the rates at the time.\n\nDon't forget that you'll want to fund some sort of retirement account out of this!  Make sure you try to set asside the maximum possible into retirement accounts so you don't regret your misspent youth.  I'll let you know that I've done calucualtions that say I need 2 million (caluculating for inflation) dollars to retire at age 65.  Yes, that is $2,000,000.  I urge you to look for a program called "Smart Women Finish Rich" in your area.  You'll learn TONS from it, and hopefully be inspired to start saving money.
94785
Kind of. My friend saves better than I do. She splits every Direct Deposit paycheck per week into two checking accounts: Cash and Investment. An exact amount is diverted to Investment and the remainder to Cash. All recurring monthly expenses (rent, car, food, student loans) are paid from the Cash account. None is paid from Investments. Multiple automatic withdrawals from Investments (some as small as $5.00) occur every week to high-yield savings accounts at ING Direct and Traditional and Roth IRAs at Vanguard. ING Direct allows the creation and use of many sub-accounts, each with their own label. For example, she has a cat which is possibly unhealthy and she expects that she will need to cover expenses for his care at some point in the next year or so, but she doesn't know when this situation will occur. She saves just $5.00 per paycheck for this uncertain need. Another example: she expects to make a long-distance move in about two years. She saves $15.00 each paycheck into a Moving account at ING Direct earmarked just for this situation. She has many other ING Direct sub-accounts. One is dedicated to accumulating funds (at $25.00 per paycheck) that are drawn from solely to cover occasional large credit card purchases--she never pays finance charges, because right after she uses the credit card she pays the full balance. The credit card has a miles reward program so she is effectively getting paid (via interest accumulating on the ING Direct Travel account) to get miles! Rather than viewing spending and saving as exact opposites it might be useful for more people to bugdet monthly expenses more effectively (determine required Cash account balance and transactions) and use automatic savings mechanisms starting right at the paycheck. Don't make it a monthly ritual to "decide to save." Most people don't make the right decision.
783094
Give us more information on your scenario. What other income do you have? How much do you owe? How much is it worth? Get into more detail and we may be able to help.
122866
Is this really 2 questions? And is the second one an imperative question? Do you you NEED saving?