Comments on: Want to Save Money? Hide it from Yourself!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 13:28:15 +0000

In reply to Amy. It does sound confusing, but if it works for you then def. get back to it! :) I know a friend who opened up an account way across town so it would be annoying to go to on purpose (and he didn't get access to online stuff) so that way he wasn't tempted to touch it. And then every paycheck he had a portion automatically xfered there which forced him to save :) So that could be another route too.

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 00:58:15 +0000

I am terrible with fast purchases. See something online, paid for and in the post. I have auto transactions, but when i run low on my wage account, I debit the others. BAD IDEA! So, from todays paycheck, I get paid every week on a thursday. Which is also hard, as weekends I compete with my horses. So I am now going to set up an account maybe with another bank, where i DD every week, and do not have access to it.. maybe. My other idea, is to completely limit my spending.
But the major thing I am paying, and I don’t need to, is too many transactions. I have an accoutn which allows 6 free transactions per month. So I am going to try to not spend anything each month except the things I need to, so maybe transfer once from my wage accountper week (4 / month) , and then once in that new account, into another accout (fuel), another accout, rent/board/living 4 x /mnth, horse shoes are only 1nc a month, so can let money build up in another account. This seems really confusing, but have had it work before… just have to get back into having dollars rather than cents.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 16:55:35 +0000

Nice!! There you go! Something new I’ve started doing is cashing in money for $2.00 bills whenever I go to the bank :) I’ve found it’s MUCH harder to spend those than other bills, so I end up just storing and storing them for one big stack of money, haha… and although they’re only worth $2.00, it feels like they’re worth a lot more and you could probably sell them for $3.00 if you ever wanted anyways ;) Ya gotta do whatever works!

By: skelly

skelly — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 09:18:14 +0000

I have always had trouble saving money because I really like to shop. If I don’t have money in my wallet then it’s not as hard. I decided to try something different recently, I have these individual small envelopes and I put cash in each one and seal it up. Once their sealed up I put them someplace I don’t usually look in or think about. So far so good, I haven’t touched it! : D

By: J. Money

J. Money — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 02:27:26 +0000

Haha, I like that too :) And totally true with your 401k and IRA! Once money goes in there it’s THERE FOR GOOD and you don’t get tempted to mess with it (unless you’re in retirement years, of course). It’s a great method to follow indeed.

By: Leigh

Leigh — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 19:14:03 +0000

I’m finding that my 401(k) and IRAs are the best places to hide my cash – since I can’t get it back out for a very long time, I hardly notice that the money is gone each month. Having an online savings account is also AWESOME for hiding money, since then I can’t see it when I sign into online banking to make sure nothing fishy happened in my checking account – I only check on my online savings accounts once a month to record the interest transactions.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:47:04 +0000

@Long – Yeah man, it’ll def. help! EXCELLENT book too. I haven’t read it entirely, but people *swear* by it. Good for you on taking charge!
@Ann – Nice! That’s a sexy pile of change ;) Err… bills.
@Simon – HAH! That’s a pretty interesting dilemma you had there – glad it worked out in your favor though!! Pretty cool :) Thanks for sharing, my friend. All the way from Sweden too – woo!

By: Simon

Simon — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:30:41 +0000

I’m not sure how much you’ll recognise Swedish income tax policy, but my last employer failed in his obligation to pay income tax out of my wage. Instead, every month when I received my full wage, I had to reserve the tax amount myself.

That doesnt sound awful, I’m sure, but when you’re used to disposing what money is in your account as you wish, it’s hard to be strictly forced to save. I’ve had savings targets before but it’s different, because you can always say to yourself, this month I can save a little less so that I can do X. With the IRS breathing down your neck, that savings account was non-negotiable. So every month, my wage would come in, and I was forced to shave off 30%.

Then I phoned the IRS last week to find out that with all applicable discounts, my tax rate was nearer 12%. After a few months of part-time work I suddenly had thousands of kronors (or hundreds of dollars) disciplinedly squirreled away that could be fed straight into my proper savings account.

So next time I need to reinforce my savings account? Hire someone to break my legs if I don’t.

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:06:51 +0000

I currently save all my $1 bills and track monthly. At the end of 2011, I had $397 saved! This just goes to show small amounts add up over time

By: Long

Long — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:12:00 +0000

I’m currently working on The Total Money Makeover baby steps and currently working on paying down debt. Automatic transfers sounds like a great idea to save money. I will do that when we start beefing up the emergency fund. Thanks!