7 tips to savings bliss

By Jennifer Waters, MoneyWatch

The most successful savings plans are those with a goal. Stashing a couple tens or hundred-dollar bills away for a vacation, an unplanned emergency or a kid’s college education are better drivers than the catch-all “save for the future” plan.

No matter what your income level is, saving money is a necessity. Here are a number of ways to go about it, starting with the America Saves Week platform of set a goal, make a plan, save automatically.

• Set a goal. Studies show that goals, both short-term and long-term, are far easier to stick to than a generic savings plan. Save for a down payment on a home or a college education as well as that emergency fund for when the furnace goes out or the car breaks down. Don’t forget vacations and other goods you may covet.

• Make a plan. Take a look at your finances and figure out how to pay off debt and sock away money. You will want to pay off all high-cost debt first — think credit cards with double-digit interest rates — and work your way down. You can’t save and accumulate debt at the same time.

• Save automatically. If you have a savings plan with your company, make sure you’re a part of it. Many will match your savings dollar-for-dollar, which is a better interest rate than you’d find at any bank these days. Also, get into that 401(k) or other work-related retirement program. Outside of work, have a piece of your paycheck automatically deposited into a savings account, a mutual fund or a U.S. Savings Bond. What you don’t see you won’t miss, at least not as much.

• Keep track of your spending and saving. Use your credit card or other records to see where those dollars and cents go and ask yourself whether everything you bought was necessary. Then take a look at the total of your savings and imagine what it would look like if you hadn’t bought that extra sweater or paid too much for that bottle of wine.

• Don’t purchase expensive items on impulse. That certainly prevents buyer’s remorse but also, by imposing a 24-hour wait period, you save yourself from deeper financial woes.

• Consider this little trick for breaking yourself of reckless spending on indulgences: For every pricey cup of coffee, slice of cake, glass of wine or pack of cigarettes you buy, put an amount matching that cost into a cookie jar or under your mattress. If you can’t afford to save the matching amount, maybe you can’t afford that indulgence.

• Save your loose change. Really, it’s a good idea. Fifty cents a day will net you $182.50 at the end of the year, and $1 a day gives you $365 you would not have otherwise.