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#1 Good2bme

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 07:46 AM

There seems to be a lot of smart guys here. What do you do to save money?

#2 Dave Burrell

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 07:56 AM

QUOTE(Flow @ Oct 25 2007, 08:46 AM) View Post
There seems to be a lot of smart guys here. What do you do to save money?



direct deposit from paycheck into savings - that way you don't see it, it goes right in and starts earning interest

I highly recommend checking out ING Direct - they pay the best interest rates on savings.


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#3 Deb aka Resume Lady

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 07:56 AM

If you want suggestions from the gals, too, let us know.
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#4 cw68

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 07:56 AM

Do smart girls count, too? smile.gif

Here are the things that work for us. One, we have money taken out of the paycheck and deposited directly into different accounts. We max out our 401k (tax free money!), some into our savings, a bit into college funds for each of our children and a bit into a savings account for my mother-in-law (she will need help with retirement). With each raise, we increase the percentages, still leaving some raise in our pocketbooks so we don't feel "cheated."

We collect the change into a jar and when it's full, we put it into our kid's "fun" savings (separate from school accounts). Whenever we get cash as a gift, we try to spend only a portion of it and make sure we put some of it into savings. When our kids get $80 from Aunt Sarah at Xmas, they spend $20 and $60 goes into fun savings. My daughter actually says, "I'm going to spend my money at the bank." Hee hee!

Don't keep a lot of money in a low-interest savings account. Find ways to invest that money at a higher interest rate but still have it fairly liquid should you need it. We have a higher interest rate savings account at etrade and keep very little in our Wells Fargo account. We also have laddered some CDs so that portions of our money come "due" every month or so should we need it, but there's always some earning a higher interest rate than just a plain savings account and at the same time there's very little risk. The only risk is not being about to get your money should your earth shatter. We try to keep enough in the savings to avoid that scenario.

Lastly, pay cash for things and/or pay from your debit account. If you can't buy it straight out, don't buy it. The first step in saving money is to make sure that you don't spend more than you have. The second step is learning how to live beneath your means so that you can save the difference.

#5 Good2bme

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 07:58 AM

QUOTE(Resume Lady @ Oct 25 2007, 08:56 AM) View Post
If you want suggestions from the gals, too, let us know.



Of course I would love advise from the ladies! Didn't mean to be sexist!!

#6 cw68

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 07:58 AM

QUOTE(davburr @ Oct 25 2007, 08:56 AM) View Post
direct deposit from paycheck into savings - that way you don't see it, it goes right in and starts earning interest

I highly recommend checking out ING Direct - they pay the best interest rates on savings.

E*trade also has high rate savings.

#7 Good2bme

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 08:00 AM

Thank you so much for your time cw! I have been thinking we need to make our savings work harder for us...

#8 mylo

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 08:04 AM

1) Having a good budget and sticking to it. Analyse where/why we missed it.

2) Direct Deposit from paycheck, including topping out 401k contributions. Make saving money painless.

3) No credit cards - Make it difficult to spend. Don't carry too much cash. Don't signup for credit accounts of any sort, if you can't pay now, don't buy it (house being our exception). Cars bought with cash, etc.

4) Dedicated "play" money. A small amount is set aside to blow, that leaves the rest to be saved. Part of budgetting, but it's a different mindset when everything is saved, and only a little is play vs. trying to save from your general fund.

5) Strict plans to pay-off debt. Set aggressive goals to payoff HELOC, etc.

6) Live frugally - We don't do big vacations, boats, etc. Drive used cars that get good mileage. We have our frivolties to keep life sane, but use coupons at dinner, go to affordable local events, etc.

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#9 cw68

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 08:05 AM

QUOTE(Flow @ Oct 25 2007, 09:00 AM) View Post
Thank you so much for your time cw! I have been thinking we need to make our savings work harder for us...

On caveat, if you do open up multiple savings accounts (good for us to keep track) make sure that you figure out how to avoid maintenance fees, otherwise they add up. For instance, with our Wells Fargo savings account for the kids and MIL, if we have $25 auto deposited into the accounts each month, the maintenance fees are waived. If we could only afford to deposit $10 each month (which is still better than nothing!) the maintenance fees would be prohibitive and it would be better to combine the accounts and keep track of it yourself. Read the fine print.

I'm interested in hearing Bish's and Mylo's advice. I admire these guys in how they work their money. That's about all I admire, though. wink.gif

#10 ChipShot

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 08:14 AM

Don't eat out too often...especially at over-rated and trendy Sushi joints.. wink.gif
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#11 mylo

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 08:16 AM

QUOTE(ChipShot @ Oct 25 2007, 09:14 AM) View Post
Don't eat out too often...especially at over-rated and trendy Sushi joints.. wink.gif

Sushi is one of our budgetted frivolties. I actually have a line in Quicken for "Aloha!"

I'm still able to save a substantial portion of my income wink.gif

Oh, yeah, that reminds me.. get Quicken! Don't do your budget on sticky notes, do it formally and consistently!
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#12 Sonny

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 08:22 AM

QUOTE(mylo @ Oct 25 2007, 09:04 AM) View Post
1) Having a good budget and sticking to it. Analyse where/why we missed it.

2) Direct Deposit from paycheck, including topping out 401k contributions. Make saving money painless.

3) No credit cards - Make it difficult to spend. Don't carry too much cash. Don't signup for credit accounts of any sort, if you can't pay now, don't buy it (house being our exception). Cars bought with cash, etc.

4) Dedicated "play" money. A small amount is set aside to blow, that leaves the rest to be saved. Part of budgetting, but it's a different mindset when everything is saved, and only a little is play vs. trying to save from your general fund.

5) Strict plans to pay-off debt. Set aggressive goals to payoff HELOC, etc.

6) Live frugally - We don't do big vacations, boats, etc. Drive used cars that get good mileage. We have our frivolties to keep life sane, but use coupons at dinner, go to affordable local events, etc.

Excellent List!

We do the same and #4 makes it easy & fun to stick with. We put any tax refunds or windfall cash into the play money account which we also call our vacation account. Then when we are on vacation it's free and painless. To me vacations have some of the best memories, so that is our one spot of non frugality. But a frugal life makes vacations easy to handle.

#13 sat

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 08:24 AM

I also agree with the direct deposit from your paycheck straight to savings. If I don't see it, I don't miss it. We deposit a certain amount each week and don't touch it except if we need it for property taxes.

Another big way we have saved is by driving our cars longer. We used to trade our cars in every three years or so, meaning we always had two car payments. This is the first time in over 12 years of marriage, that our cars are five years old and we have no car payments. I try to put aside what we used to spend on the payments, and deposit it in an account for the kids. We figured that we spent $8500 a year in car payments!

Also, when I was working, my husband and I both ate out for lunch everyday, plus I would stop almost daily for a Starbucks. We sat down and figured out that between the two of us, we were blowing another $4000 a year. That's a big chunk of change! We decided to limit lunches out and coffee to once a week, and doing the sack lunches the rest of the time. Pretty boring, but saving money in the long run.



#14 mylo

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 08:38 AM

QUOTE(sat @ Oct 25 2007, 09:24 AM) View Post
Another big way we have saved is by driving our cars longer. We used to trade our cars in every three years or so, meaning we always had two car payments. This is the first time in over 12 years of marriage, that our cars are five years old and we have no car payments. I try to put aside what we used to spend on the payments, and deposit it in an account for the kids. We figured that we spent $8500 a year in car payments!

That's insane! We spent less than that on buying a used car. At that rate we could have a new (used) car every year!

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#15 Dave Burrell

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Posted 25 October 2007 - 08:50 AM

QUOTE(mylo @ Oct 25 2007, 09:16 AM) View Post
Sushi is one of our budgetted frivolties. I actually have a line in Quicken for "Aloha!"

I'm still able to save a substantial portion of my income wink.gif

Oh, yeah, that reminds me.. get Quicken! Don't do your budget on sticky notes, do it formally and consistently!



Great advice in the previous post dude and like you - I too budget for going out and taking my wife and family to nice places for dinners.

I also agree about Quicken - its my #1 financial tool and I highly recommend it to everyone.

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