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By now it's a cliché to suggest giving up your daily designer coffee
as a means to start saving, but those small changes can make all
the difference. ink about your spending carefully, stick to a
budget, and keep your goals at the front of your mind. ere's
also a host of great apps out there that can help you: Qapital,
Acorns, and Digit are all savings and investment apps that help
you take small amounts of money and putting it to better use
(like rounding up your $1.67 purchase at the convenience store to
$2.00 and putting the $0.33 in your savings account).
Savings and the Big Picture
ere is a standard rule of thumb that you should put 20
percent of your monthly income in savings. at can feel like an
impossible goal, especially when you're starting your first career
or embarking on a new path. But it's most important to start with
whatever you can and try to inch your way up as you go. Many
retirement accounts with automated deposits, for instance, allow
you to automatically increase your contributions by 1 percent
every year. Look for opportunities to find spending you won't
miss and put that money toward your long-term goals, whether
that's building up your emergency fund or planning for your
retirement. It can be easy to think of putting away some savings
as a problem for the future, but doing a little extra homework and
a little extra legwork in the beginning can help make reaching
financial stability so much easier later.
Always talk with a financial advisor or investment specialist
before making big decisions about your money and how it's being
used to meet your short- and long-term goals. In the meantime,
start saving what you can now!
Follow our blog for other helpful tips and information about
maintaining your financial health. And don't forget to look for
the next edition of Career College Central: we'll wrap up our
financial literacy series with information about identity the!
Mallory Herrmann is a writer and editor whose work has also
been featured in Unity Magazine and the Lee's Summit Tribune.
She can be reached at mallory@malloryherrmann.com.
MALLORY HERRMANN
EDITOR
