28
Jan
Boomers Saving Money
When was the last time you made a determined effort to save money?
I have decided that saving for my retirement is now an inevitable high priority. I have always maintained a philosophy to save money, but when I come out of denial and realize that I may be half way through my life, I feel the need to save even more diligently for retirement.
Hmmmm…….how do I do that? Parts of the process are a no-brainer. I look through all the charges on my credit card, and drop out of many regularly billed memberships or clubs that I no longer use! That is also a good lesson in letting go. I have come up with three items that I can consider dropping. That will save me ninety-seven dollars per month.
It is no wonder I feel as though I don’t have any cash; I am spending all my money paying off the credit card! My personal philosophy is to pay the credit card off in full each month. If I spend more than I can afford by basking in the false sense of financial security that the use of my credit card brings to me, then I can never catch up.
I may look further and see if there are any other “ongoing” charges that I can eliminate. Where am I leaking money in other ways? Am I being the big spender by grabbing the check when I haven’t planned to do that? Am I buying gifts for others with money I don’t really have?
Some of the ways I saved money in the past was to approach those who owed money to me and actually ask for a repay schedule. I don’t have any outstanding money owed now, so that is not an option. In the past I have also played the credit card game, where I transfer my charges from one card to another card, which has a zero percent rate. I am not recommending that any do this, but it can be done.
It is important to be sure there is not a transfer fee that will apply. If you transfer the balances and are lucky enough to not have a transfer fee, then you can make payments with much less sense of urgency, because you won’t be paying outrageous finance charges. Of course, rest assured, you must make the payments, the minimum amount due and on time, or the whole process is useless, because the company can change the rate and charge late fees, finance charges as well. This is only for those truly organized and diligent about paying on time.
On occasion, if you are very savvy about your expenses, it may behoove you to pay the minimum, place what you would have paid into a savings and just bite the bullet and pay a little finance charge. That is useful if your charges are not huge. I found this little trick useful thirty years ago when I needed to have a bit of cash for our settlement on the house. It was the only way I could get the money together.
The very best way I have found to save money is to find a way to moonlight. By moonlighting or consulting, you save money two ways; one way is by making more money, and the second way is because you do not have the time to spend any money because you are too busy making it!
Technorati Tags: financial security, credit card, saving money, zero percent rate, transfer fee, moonlighting, consulting, money leaks
