Is Saving Your First Expense?

I’m not (yet) a wealthy woman, so don’t take my words as having come from a financial guru. I wonder, though, when I see people well-past retirement age working because they need the money. It baffles me to see working-class people from credit card to paycheck to credit card. This post was prompted by two others I read today, two worthwhile reads. Alvin Soon talks about the saving before spending rather than spending and spending the rest because it’s too little to save, Life Coaches Blog. When you file your taxes, does the amount you’ve saved compare favorably with what you’ve earned? We all know that that favorable figure is at least ten percent. And that’s ten percent off the top. It’s really not that tough to stash away that little bit every week. Direct deposit works well. Ok, so maybe you already spend that 10%. Alvin’s suggestion is,

“If you can’t make 10%, start with a smaller amount first, but the sooner you start, the more you’ll begin to have“.

If you have to start by hiding five or ten bucks from yourself for a couple of weeks, do that. It works, I started that way. A link from Alvin took me to freemoneyfinance. The first order of business was what I considered to be a devil’s advocate statement about perspective.

“There are plenty of things worth more than money (like your health, time, your mind, and your kids). So while this is an important list, there are things in life much more important“.

This list, synopsized here, is nothing we haven’t heard before, but it’s something we need to hear over and over until we learn it. Visit freemoneyfinance for the full report 1. Spend less than you earn. 2. Increase your income. 3. Contribute to your 401k to get the full employer match 4. Get out of credit card debt. 5. Buy a house. 6. Invest your savings regularly in good, solid investments 7. Pay off all debt. 8. Save for retirement 9. Protect what you have. 10. Give . . . “giving people become wealthy”.