A new year is here, and that means new goals and standards for you to hold. While some may be working to build a healthier lifestyle, others focus on getting their finances squared away. The financial targets are among the most common resolutions and with nearly 50% of five Americans saving percent or less of their income in 2015, those looking to save more money in 2016 can be a bit lost on how to do it. Here are some of the best ways to start saving or increase or how much you save.
Budget
It goes without saying that if you want to increase your savings, you should know what you make and what you spend. While you may already have an idea of where you spend your money, you are doing yourself a disservice if you are budgeting up to $ 1 or less if you can, such as budgeting with specific amounts will help you see exactly how much you can save. You are not the best budgeting or not quite comfortable cut that close, you can still round off the amounts to the nearest $ 1 or $ 5 when you start until you feel you are ready to budget exact amounts. That said, if you are not the best planner in finance, you can round off your total because budgeting, of course, should be done frequently enough that you can tell when adjustments to your spending and rates savings need to be made. In addition, it can also be a good idea for you to pay all bills fluctuate as your electric bill or cable, with a credit card - but budget for them - so you can cover an increase unexpectedly without dipping into other budgeted funds. If you choose to take this route, you can simply pay the budgeted amount to your credit card to cover the bills so that you are not building a balance on the card. Note that you can get most of these purchases to the budget with a rewards credit card, you will earn rewards such as cash back or travel miles, on purchases you are already budgeting for that is a great advantage.
Use automation
If budgeting is your road map to the goal of a better economy, automation is what you will use to get halfway to your destination. Automation simply means configuring your cash flow so that the money is automatically deposited or charged to a financial account or the bill at specific intervals. For example, you can configure your account to instantly save 10% of your salary on the day you receive so you never forget to save. Using automation not only helps to ensure that you "pay yourself first" and do not put off saving by spending money that could be easily attributed to savings, but also help you to ensure that you stick to your budget plan, as you can set up automatic transfers to bills - something that works well with the strategy of fluctuating bills detailed above
.record bonuses, tax returns or other financial windfall
Have you received money as a gift, get an unexpected bonus or receive a nice tax return? Post it to your savings account. Although this is much easier said than done, save unplanned or added money will help in the long term to build not only your savings account, but also help you when you need to pay unexpected expense, like buying new tires for your car or covering medical bill. If you were hoping to use this bonus, return or gift to make a big purchase, make sure you budget for it and save the extra money as the preparation of these expenses will help you see that you might be able to save money instead of just spending aimlessly.
Use proper account
While you may think all savings accounts are the same, which is certainly not the case, as some accounts require a minimum balance and penalize you if you fall below this balance, and others may require you to pay a fee just to keep the account open. If you want to succeed in saving money, you'll want to make sure that you open and use good savings account for your needs. As such, those looking to avoid the accounts with monthly fees may want to look into online savings accounts because they not only have no monthly fee, but most also require low minimum balances - even anything - to open. To top it all, these online banks are safe to use and FDIC insured banks as brick and mortar. And if you want to earn some interest on a larger amount of money, as a return bonus or tax, online banks also offer Deposits Certificate.
Read our CD guide for more information and visit our online savings account reviews to see which bank can help you achieve your financial goals this year.