Different Methods & Savings Strategies

Saving money can be hard. And even beyond it being difficult, we aren't all the same - some people get a steady pay check while others who might work on commission get paid on a variable time frame. There just isn't a one size fits all approach to saving money. Today I talk about several different methods of saving money - lets talk about different ideas and strategies so you can find one that works for you.

Transcript

Hello, my name is Tiffany, and welcome to the podcast Working on Amazing. This is a podcast where we talk about the work that it takes to rebuild an amazing life.

On today's episode, we're gonna be talking about several different methods and strategies to move money from your checking account to your savings account.

And the reason why I wanna talk about several different ideas is because savings isn't one size fits all. I do know that. We all need to save, but we might employ a different strategy to do that.

You might have a variable income that's commission based. You might have a steady income, or just the way you view money could be different, and you need a different technique. And you gotta choose the one that works for you, right?

All right, so if you're new here, I just wanna say, this is a podcast designed for women who feel like they're starting over in the middle of their life.

Now, that could mean a lot of different things, but for me, that meant divorce after a 20-year marriage. And for my sister, it meant the very unexpected death of her spouse.

And while those are two totally different events, and I'm not trying to compare them, what I am saying is, when all your hopes, when all your dreams, when all your plans for the future go up in smoke, when your day-to-day life is totally different

than what it was, it does. It feels like you're starting over. If that's you, first of all, I just want to say, from the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry. I know how overwhelming and just horrible that feels.

But I'm here to offer hope. I'm here to offer encouragement. I'm here to tell you that it gets better.

I'm here to remind you that countless women have gone through this process and come out on the other side better for it. You can too. You are not alone.

You're actually in the right place. So welcome. I'm so glad you're here.

Now, if you'll remember in the very beginning, I said I focused on five areas when I rebuilt my life. I focused on my spiritual health. I focused on my mental health, my physical health, my financial health, and growth and goals.

And I said every podcast would fall under at least one of those categories. And today's episode falls under financial health. And we're going to be talking about different ways to save.

Saving is so important. If you haven't started this journey yet, I hope today's episode can encourage you to do that. You don't understand if you're not on the journey, the peace of mind that it gives you to have a safety net.

When you have saved money and you have money in your savings account, the peace of mind you have from knowing that if the car breaks down, if the AC goes out, if something happens, I'm going to be okay.

It might be a bad day, I might not love it, but it's not going to wreck me financially. I think I had been so used to living paycheck to paycheck, that once I built a savings, I was so surprised at just how much better it felt.

And I know you can win with money.

I know this is a juggernaut for so many people, just getting on top of spending and understanding how to save and winning with money can be hard because we don't talk about it, because it's just this thing we all strive for.

We want more money, but we don't talk about the best way to use it, the best way to save it, and the best way to spend it. But that's what we're going to do today.

We're going to talk about some different strategies to save, because you can do this, you can with money, and it starts with savings. Okay? You gotta spend less than you make.

Okay? You gotta live beneath your means, and put the extra into savings. That's a big piece.

It's a first step to winning with money. Just learning to set aside some for savings, not spending everything you make. All right?

So, let's talk about some different strategies for moving money from your checking account to your savings account, because that is the tough part. How do you do that? What's the right method?

And like I said, there are several different methods, and you've got to pick what's right for you, what feels good for you. And when I was on this journey as a single mom, I employed a couple of the things I'm going to talk about today.

I didn't just use one, but we're going to talk about several. Pick one and try it, okay? Just see what it feels like to start putting money in your savings account.

So, the first couple strategies I'm going to talk about are for people with a fixed income. That means even if you have an hourly wage, maybe work roughly the same hours every week, so your paycheck is really roughly the same every time you get paid.

I mean, there could be a slight variation, but you get paid every two weeks, a pretty basic amount that you know. That is a more steady set income. Okay?

Now, after I talk about these couple strategies, I am going to move to people with variable income. So, your income fluctuates based on commission. Maybe you're in sales.

I worked a lot with real estate agents. Their commission, their pay always fluctuates and changes. So, your saving strategy is going to be different from somebody with a steady income.

And we're going to cover both. I haven't forgotten about those people with a variable income. Okay.

So, first, if you have a steady income, and I've said this before, I feel like this is so important.

If you get paid on a regular basis once a week, once every other week, a reoccurring steady paycheck, I highly, highly, highly recommend that you set up an automatic transfer.

And I set mine up for the day after payday because I just wanted my paycheck to hit before the transfer came out. And I did have a job where my paycheck didn't hit until three or four o'clock in the afternoon.

But the day after payday, I had an automatic transfer that went from my checking to my savings account. I paid myself first. I put money into savings and it was automatic.

I didn't have to manually go in and do it. I didn't have to remind myself, oh yeah, I was going to save. I set a certain amount.

I wanted to save each paycheck, and I set it up to do it automatically. Automatic transfers are amazing, and they take the emotion out of it. Because sometimes on payday, you think, I want to treat myself.

I want to get my nails done. I want to go buy this. I want to do that.

And you know what? This week, I'm not going to put the money in savings. I'll do that next week.

No, no, no, no, no. When it's set up automatically, you don't have that option. It just does it for you.

And that's really what we need, because sometimes we put emotion into it. Well, it's been a really bad week. You don't understand.

I really need a little pick me up. I know you do. But when savings is automatic, and it just, that's the way you win.

So if you're able to, if you have a steady paycheck that comes on a regular reoccurring basis, I highly recommend you setting up an automatic transfer. I can't think of a bank or credit union that would not offer this very simple tool.

I could set mine up just on my banking app. It's really, really easy. If I get paid every other week, then I have it take money for my checking to my savings on the day I select every other week.

If I get paid every week, you could set it up if you get a paycheck once a month. You can set it up however. It's very flexible in how you can do it.

And I think every bank, every credit union should offer this service. I can't imagine one that wouldn't. It's a very simple, simple thing to do, and it doesn't cost money.

That's the first thing if you have a steady, regular reoccurring paycheck coming in.

The other thing is if you get paid every week or every two weeks, that means that there are a couple months out of the year that you get a quote unquote extra paycheck. What do I mean by that?

Most months you're gonna get, if you get paid every other week, most months you're gonna get two paychecks. And so you pay your bills and your living expenses on those two paychecks, right?

But maybe twice a year, there is a month that will have three paychecks, okay? So if that's how you are paid, I would recommend that look at the calendar, map out your pay schedule, and see what month you will get an extra paycheck, so to speak.

And think about putting that extra paycheck into savings. So you have the money for all your bills, and all your expenses should be covered, because generally, you factor in paying everything on two paychecks if you get paid every other week, right?

So it can be still difficult, because you still got to put gas in your car, you still got to go to the grocery store and eat. I do know that. But maybe you can start off by putting half of that paycheck into savings.

See what feels right for you, but definitely look at that paycheck as a little bit extra, that maybe you could kick over to your savings account, okay? So if you have steady reoccurring income, that's what I recommend.

Automatic transfers from checking to savings. I did this, I loved that. Also taking that quote unquote extra paycheck, when you have three paychecks in a month, which happens once or twice a year, take that paycheck and put it in savings.

Now, what about the people with variable incomes? They can't set up automatic transfers, can they? Because they don't know when their money is going to hit the bank, right?

So, like I said, I worked with real estate agents, and they, you know, may have two closings in a month. They may go a month without a closing, then they have three closings. It can be a wild, varied ride there, right?

Feast, famine, any sales can be that way. Any job that's commission based. How do you handle savings that way?

Well, it's really important that you do, probably even more important than everyone else because of the feast or famine that is associated with that type of job. You do really well, or then you have a dry spell, right?

That's just the nature of the way those jobs work. It's really important for you to have a safety net and a savings to fall back on, okay? So, how do you go about it when your pay varies?

Well, what I would suggest is when you do get that commission check, when that pay hits your bank, you're going to know it, right? You're aware that you just made a sale and you're getting paid and it's hit in your bank.

So, you've got to go in manually, and you decide 10%. So, if I get paid $900, I'm going to move $90 over to savings.

So, you can set up a percentage, then that's up to you, but every time your commission hits your bank, whatever time that is, three times in a month or none this month, whenever a commission hits your bank account, you move that money over to

savings, okay? The other thing I would recommend is, maybe you feel like you can't do 10%, right? Like, that just feels like $90, you actually have a lot of bills to pay, you have a lot of things to do. I do understand that.

So, what if when that commission check hits, you round it? Because, let's face it, it's not going to be $900 even. It's going to be $948.29.

Something like that, like some weird number, right? So, what if you round it? What if you left $900 in your checking account, but moved the $48.29 to your savings?

So, you left the round number in your checking, and just leveled it off and moved the extra into your savings account. So, that might feel less intimidating.

It might feel like less of a chunk as you're building your savings, but you still really need that money to live on. Think about rounding off your commission checks and putting that extra part that you rounded off over into savings. Okay?

That's an idea. The other idea for commission-based people, and let me just reiterate, I gave two commission-based ways to save, whether that's a percentage or rounding it off.

Either way, you have to get in the habit of moving something to savings every time a commission check hits your account. Okay? Especially when they come once a month or they're kind of those big chunks, you have to get in the habit.

Always move it over just a little bit, even if it's 20 bucks, move something over every time a commission hits your account, okay?

The other thing that I feel like may apply more to variable income people, but it really could apply to anybody, is if you get reimbursed for what you do.

So sometimes people with variable incomes, but also, you know, I had a job where I got reimbursed for my mileage, but maybe you get reimbursed for things you purchase, if that is the case and you get a reimbursement check, I highly recommend that you

move that check immediately to savings. You've already paid for your gas, you don't need it. Now, sometimes, yes, you do have to lay out a bigger amount, and you need that reimbursement check to cover it. I get that.

There are instances like that, but if it's gas, if it's dinner, if it's smaller amounts, and you could take that reimbursement check, and just do not pass go, do not let it sit in your checking account, move it straight to savings.

That's a way to start building your savings account. So we've kind of got an idea of what to do if we're commission variable based income, and if we're steady income.

Now, let's talk about a couple of things that I think would apply to either income stream.

If you have steady income or variable income, there's a couple other savings strategies that you can use, and we just want to find the one that's right for you. So one that I really like is a roundup program.

And hopefully, you have a bank or credit union that offers this.

There is an app called Acorn, and it will do the same thing, but I would highly recommend that you go with your bank's program because there won't be hidden fees and extra charges, okay?

The idea of a roundup program is every time you put your card down, if it's $9.75, you know, and you put your debit card down, well, your bank is going to round that up to $10, and they're going to put that quarter, that extra amount, into your

savings account. So every time it's rounded up. And I think of this is very similar to when we used to use cash all the time. Back in the 80s, most people use cash.

You were really fancy if you used a card. Debit cards hadn't quite taken off back then. You wrote a check, you used cash.

But when we use cash, what happened? We would put the dollars down, and then we would get change back, right? And that change got heavy in your pocket or your purse.

And so at the end of the day, you would put it in a change jar, right? And then that would build up over time. You take it to the bank.

Well, this is a digital version of that. It's just rounded up to the next dollar amount, and it's taken that change and putting it into a savings account. This is a simple, pain-free way to save.

You're not going to save big amounts. You might save two or $300 in a year. It's not a lot, but it's something.

So please, if you have this program with your bank or credit union, sign up for it. It doesn't, it shouldn't cost. And it's so easy to do.

Now, it's only when you put your debit card down at a point of sale. So if Verizon comes out of your account, or Netflix, or Hulu, those aren't handled, those transactions aren't handled the same way. So those don't get rounded up.

But when you're at the grocery store, when you buy your coffee, when you put your debit card down, those are the transactions that it rounds up, okay?

If you can save $200, $300 over the course of the year, and you don't even feel it, because it's just change, you feel like it, you don't even miss it, why not do that, right? And this is the digital version.

You know, I had the plastic Coca-Cola bottle that was like three feet tall or something, two and a half feet tall, that would put my change in. I thought that was really cool. This is the digital version of that.

We don't carry around change anymore. We don't really use physical change anymore, hardly ever. This is the digital version, the way to save and put your change into your savings account, all right?

So that's a no-brainer. If your bank offers it, please just go ahead and sign up for it, all right? The next method.

Now, I employed two methods of savings when I was a freshly minted single mom. So I did the automatic transfer that I've already talked about. But moving money from my checking account to my savings account right as I got paid felt scary to me.

I wanted to make sure I had enough money to make it through the two weeks until I got paid again, right? So I moved money over automatically. I knew I needed to do that.

I'd heard that. I believed that, so I did that. But then what I did was I set a buffer amount.

And this is going to probably change as you make money and save money. You're going to feel different. But I set an amount, and the first time I think I set it, it was $500.

And I said before my paycheck gets my account, so the day before payday, right? I wanted a buffer of $500. And I knew that as long as I had that buffer plus my paycheck, I could make it through the two weeks until I got paid again.

So what I would do is the night before payday, I would open up my bank app, and anything above that buffer, so if it was $500 and I had $600 in my account, I would move $100 to savings, and I kept it at the buffer.

So it's just kind of leveling off your checking account, right? And you decide what the buffer is.

What it made me think of, and this is gonna sound silly and probably maybe show my age, but when I would need to get a cup of flour for a recipe if I was cooking, I would fill the cup up with flour, right?

But you would take the back of a butter knife and level it off, right? Well, that's what you're kind of doing into your checking account, and you decide how big the scoop is. You decide if you want $500 in your checking account or $1,000.

And over time, I did make my buffer bigger. My savings account grew, I was careful with my spending, and it felt better to know that if I went to the grocery store, if I needed this or that, I had a decent buffer.

I didn't have to count and pull out my phone and look at my account all the time. Start with what feels best to you. Understand, this method isn't going to work for everybody.

If you spend your money willy nilly, you're not going to have any to scrape off and move to your savings account at the end of the pay period, right?

You still got to be conscientious, you still got to tell yourself no, you still got to stick to a basic budget. So this helps somebody who has the mentality that is like, I need to know that it's there, but I don't have to spend it at first.

And I needed to know that I can make it through the pay period with that money in my account. And then if I didn't use it, it got put into savings.

But I was also, like I said, a single mom, a freshly minted single mom, and my kids would come home from school, and they needed money for a field trip. They needed money for an extracurricular activity. They needed money for everything.

If you are a mom, you know this. I had children in high school, and everything costs money, right? I mean, they need it for literally everything.

And so, just about every pay period, I was able to move a little bit into savings. But some weeks, I definitely was able to scrape off more than others, and it did. It gave me that peace of mind.

So that could be an option for you, depending on your personality and your approach to money. It may be not good for you, or it may be just right for you. I was always really hesitant.

I wanted to make sure I had enough if I needed it. But then, if I was really good and I didn't use it all, I moved it over into savings. So I think that's a really good method.

I like that one a lot. Okay, another idea. We want to save money, right?

But sometimes we do, we feel like we have to save 100 or 200 dollars, and that just feels a little bit heavy. And I get that. So why don't you set it up as a game with yourself, and get comfortable transferring two dollars.

I went to the gym today. I worked on my body. I'm taking care of my future self by going to the gym, correct?

Why don't you take care of your future self by every time you go to the gym, put two dollars into your savings account, because having a savings account is taking care of your future self too, right?

Or I got coffee today, and I got it at one of those restaurants, so it was five dollars or seven or eight dollars. So, I'm going to move the same amount of money I spent on the coffee to my savings account.

Or, conversely, you might say, I wanted to get coffee today. I drove by that place and I almost turned in, but I knew I didn't need to spend the money. I'm going to move that money to savings, okay?

And get in the habit of moving money to savings, even if it's micro amounts. Anything is better than nothing.

And as you realize, you're rewarding yourself, and as your savings account grows, and as you feel the security that that brings, that if something were to happen, I would still be okay.

You do see putting money in your savings account as a reward and not a punishment. I think in the beginning, we feel like it's a punishment. It's money we can't play with and spend on things we want.

But slowly, you're going to have a paradigm shift, and you're going to realize that when you put money into savings, it's really enhancing your security and your peace of mind, and you'll start to feel that.

And one of the ways, maybe, to start that process is to get really comfortable with moving just a little bit.

I'm going to move $2 when this happens, when I go to the gym, when I do this, when I do that, when I go to the coffee shop, when I don't go to the coffee shop. You set it up for yourself, whatever it is.

Set up, when I do this, I'm going to transfer this. I don't care if it's $1 or $10. Anything in between.

Get in the habit of just moving money to savings. That is a good habit to be in, okay? And don't sweat the amount right now.

We're learning to work a new muscle, and sometimes that feels funny, so it might feel better for you to start, you know, just lift the bar. Don't worry about putting weight on it.

The bar is enough weight, so get used to just saying, I'm going to move $5 over today. I had a really good day, and I'm going to reward my future self. I'm going to take care of myself.

It's self-care. I'm going to put $5 into savings, whatever it is, but get used to those little micro-transactions. That's a great way to start a savings program, is getting used to micro-transactions, and do it a few times a week, maybe once a day.

Today, you know what? I'm going to put a dollar in. You know what?

Today was a really good day. I'm going to put $5 in. But get in the habit of moving money from your checking to your savings account.

All right, what else? Oh, okay, this is a good one. The 24-hour rule.

Anytime you go to make a big purchase, I definitely recommend, a lot of people recommend, that you wait 24 hours. So you're not making an emotional purchase.

You're not just caught up in the great marketing that they have put out there that you thought about it. You're really okay with spending it. So what is a big purchase for you?

Everybody's different. I think you could set the threshold at maybe $100 or over. But if you're spending that amount of money on a single item, maybe take 24 hours to think about it, right?

So let's say you went to the store, you found an amazing pair of shoes, but they're expensive, they're $150, right? But they're really, really, really cute, and you really want them. So you're going to wait 24 hours.

So when you walk away from the store and you wait 24 hours, go ahead and just transfer that $150 that you were going to spend on the shoes to your savings account. You can pull it right back out of your savings if you decide to buy the shoes, right?

But put it in your savings account, and that way, psychologically, you can look at it and say, this is what my bank account would look like minus that money. How do I feel about that?

This is what my savings account would look like if I saved that money instead. And that may have an impact. It may not.

There are still big purchases you're going to make. So it doesn't, I'm not telling you not to purchase it, but just, it might have an impact on the way you view it.

If you don't really want it that bad, that might be enough to kind of settle your mind. Does that make sense? And maybe you just leave that money in your savings account for a little while and move it back to your checking when you need it.

But that is a method in a way that you could start saving and stopping yourself. It's just like a speed bump before you make a big purchase, because we've all made a big purchase that later on, we're like, why did I do that?

And we kind of regret it, right? So this is a way to kind of speed bump yourself by saying, you know what, I'm going to wait 24 hours, and I'm going to go ahead and take that money out of my checking account.

I think I have the money to pay for it, right? I wouldn't really be considering it if I didn't have the money to pay for it.

I'm going to take it out of my checking and put it in my savings account and see what that looks like, see what that feels like. All right?

The last thing I think a lot of people probably already know or may do, any found money, any cash back, any rewards. I banked with USAA for a while, and I always got rewards back. It was just pennies here and there, but they added up over time.

So then I would say, oh, I have $58 in rewards or something, right? And I would move that to my savings account.

Also, like, when you get your tax return, if you get a bonus, anything like that, go ahead and earmark that for your savings account and move that just straight to your savings.

I get sometimes when you get a tax return, you've already planned how to spend it. When the bonus comes, you've already kind of planned how to spend it. But please challenge yourself to at least save a good chunk of it.

Your savings as you start this journey, you're going to realize how good it feels to have that money set aside for yourself. We stress so much over money. We stress over the lack of it.

We stress over how we're going to pay our bills, how we're going to do this, how we're going to do that. And once you have money set aside in your savings account, that stress isn't there. Granted, there are other stressors.

There's plenty of stressors in life. This is one you can fix. And it's one that's really common.

It's one that a lot of people stress over, lack of money. And I get it. I've been there.

I have lived paycheck to paycheck, and I got myself out of that hole. And the way I did it was having a savings account and just consistently putting money in it.

And once my savings account grew, and I have like $10,000, $15,000 in my savings account, I stopped worrying about if the car broke down or if I lost my job, or if this or that happened. I still had lots of things to worry about. I was a single mom.

But it changed, it shifted. It was a great thing for my peace of mind to start saving money and not live paycheck to paycheck. I've got to get this next paycheck to be able to pay that bill.

Once that cycle breaks, you won't have to force yourself to save. You'll want to save. You'll understand how good it feels to have money set aside.

And the power that it brings, just that security, just that knowing I'm going to be okay. It'll be a bad day, but I'm going to be okay. And I want that for you.

And you can do that. So these are several methods that we've talked about. There's a lot of ways to save.

I would love to hear from you. What did you do to save? What trick, what idea did you employ that really helped you on your savings journey?

Because I know there are a thousand more ideas out there. So I would love, love, love to hear from you. You can find me online, www.workingonamazing.com.

You can also find me on social media. I have an account on most platforms, but I will say, I do hang out on Facebook the most, and it's just a page, Working on Amazing. So send me a message, let me know, talk to me.

I would love to hear from you. How have you succeeded with savings? Let me know.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I look forward to talking to you next time. Bye.