Saving 101 - What My Mom Taught Me

My parents were never extravagant people and I didn't always have the latest gadgets or namebrand clothing while growing up (much to my chagrin at the time), but I knew if I ever truly needed something my mom would pull through. She'd hide an extra $20 bill in her purse "just in case" or she'd keep $100 cash in the house should something unexpected come up. Of course these were the days before ATM's and banks weren't always open at the times you may need them, but this habit of hers stayed with me. She was committed to placing a portion of my dad and hers earnings in their savings account each week, regardless of what bills were due and she always replaced what she may have had to use. We were taught the importance of holding something back and planning for the future.

What I learned from my mom is saving is a habit. You have to make a conscious decision that it's important to you and develop a plan to incorporate it into your daily life. With today's technology, it can almost be effortless by setting up direct deposits or automatic transfers directly into your savings account so you don't have to think about it. Of course, technology also makes it that much easier to dip into those accounts through online transfers and ATM's, and this is where your commitment to savings comes in. Especially in today's economy it's important to save what you can in case something unexpected happens. It's also important to let it build by choosing an account with a decent interest rate and easy accessibility. Online savings accounts, such as cnbbankdirect.com's lets you do this. Commit to save and you'll be that much further ahead in 2009. Your Mom will be proud!

Saving by categories

I ran across this tip the other day while I was doing some research for an article for our bank and thought it was worth passing along. When saving for something specific, open a separate savings account for it and title it accordingly in your online banking; for example, "new garage fund". That way you can set a specific goal for how much you need and how long you think it will take and limit yourself to only taking that amount out when you're ready. Otherwise, if all your savings is in one big pot, it might be tempting to dip into it a little more as your costs pile up for the garage and you don't keep track of how much you actually spent on it. Also, it limits how much you take away from your general emergency savings, which should be $1000 at a minimum and ideally equal to 3 months worth of expenses.