Sort of goes along with Archies thread of how do you afford this hobby.
http://shift518.gom-host.com/showthread.php?t=6651&highlight=afford
How do you keep track of your finances and make sure you have money saved up for the future (if any).
If you don’t really have any ideas or your way of saving money is throwing change into a big jar I’ve got a good and easy solution for you which I have started using since the beginning of the this year.
I’ve never really saved money in the past but always had a good minimum I allowed myself to have and not dip down below, for a rainy day. All my checks and automatic payments and deposits always link to my checking account at the bank and my savings balance never really changes.
After talking to a bank teller and getting some ideas, I implement an extremely easy way to start saving up. Set up and automatic fund transfer from my checking account to my savings. I never touch my savings one way or another so the money that gets transferred will be there for good.
I’ve set it up to transfer 100$, every Monday for the next 50 weeks. For those of you that struggled with 2nd grade math, that adds up to $5000 at the end of the year. As far as I’m concerned every transfer is as good as a “bill” for me and I take it as one. Fortunately it’s a bill from me, to me so I don’t lose out.
The transfer can be canceled at any point in time as well.
Just food for thought.
I also extensively use Excel spread sheets with some complicated codes I made to keep track of all expenses for the entire year, cash, credit, car purchases, bills, school payments etc. I can narrow it down to categories such as eating out, clothing, entertainment and like as well.
Let’s hear from some finance gurus.
I also have something similar…
I have auto transfers set up for some accounts…
every week…
To Savings (for rainy day)
That reminds me… I have to finish my paperwork for my 401K plan