Ideas for Staying out of Debt 2 – Make sure to save

In Ideas for Staying out of Debt I plan to cover my ideas/plans on how to stay out of debt.

This is one issue i cannot stress how important it is. If you do not have money saved back at all ether as a buffer or as a separate account and disaster hits, how will you pay for it? But anyone who has read any other finance site should know this. Yet how many of us do this? I myself have been very bad at doing this, and the results are never good. But when money is in my account it is good. Take something recent that happened, my windows got broken. There was a bad storm and my back windshield and two side windows both were broken. At the time I had money to cover it and I could just write a check and pay for it. But had I not had any money in my account, it’s likely I’d still be driving around with broken windows.

So how should you save? This is really an opinion question. What works for one may not work for someone else. I’ve read about automating your savings and I even tried it, but for me being self-employed one month on the scheduled date there wasn’t enough and I haven’t used it since. But for someone on a regular job this would be an excellent way to start saving. You would start with say $5 or $10 a week and just slowly increase it till your at your comfort spot for where you want your savings to be. (Topic for another day)

Another way of savings which is what I do for taxes is every single time you get paid, save a percentage of that pay before you have a chance to spend it. Which for me has worked out great, come quarterly estimated tax payment times I’ll have no issue sending it in. But I only did this after realizing my flaws with not moving the money out. I would believe my business was doing good and blow it on stuff I didn’t need. Then when it came tax time (about now) I would freak out and be angry at myself for not putting the savings in a savings account.

While for some people, they may not need a savings account. I personally know people who will keep a buffer of a few thousands and this works out great for them. Just try out different approaches till you find the one that works. I know before automated savings were popular some would make their own “payment slips” which would be a deposit slip with the amount already written and would mail it to their bank like it was a bill. Which I tried that method and it worked out good for a targeted savings goal. Once you find what works for you, just stick with it, do not one month forget about it and say oh, I can make it up. If anyone is like me, they never will make it up.

25 thoughts on “Ideas for Staying out of Debt 2 – Make sure to save

      • Jason / June 30, 2011I’m not sure, but my girlfriend has an acnuoct with HSBC she’s obsessed with money and is trying all the tricks to get more money one of them being a savings acnuoct and I’ve been told by her many times that I would benefit greatly if I switched to HSBC. I don’t care that much but she sounds like she knows what she’s talking about so look there is my acvice.Reply

        • I go through the same thing, and have for many years now. Lately, I’ve been tniklag to my wife about starting a coworking space. No one else is doing it in our area (well, within biking distance anyway). I’m slightly terrified about the idea of starting a brick-and-mortar space though.Do you have coworking spaces near you? I’ve tried them before and really liked it.

      • Sounds like you are responsible with money and I aridme your motivation to improve your life style. I would pay off the debt which would increase your credit score and show creditors that you are credit-worthy. You can always think about waiting awhile to replenish your savings. Make sure you come up with 20% of the down payment to avoid the additional charges that will be figured up with your mortgage.References :

        • The way I look at it is this, we loaned the bakning industry 700 billion, I hadn’t received timely payments back so I’m declaring that they are late so I’m upping the interest to 30% (legal in my state). I believe that equates to an extra 210 billion in interest per month. Its been a few months now so their debt is really skyrocketing out of control. I’m sending this to collections.

        • No office! Just a dsntgeaied space at home where you can work in peace. A door that closes is a plus. I’ve been doing it this way since 1984 except for a few jobs in the early years (while I also had an office at home) and wouldn’t want it any other way. I love being able to get right to work within an hour of waking up. I love being able to work at 2am if I feel like it. Zero commute rocks! I love how work and life blend together seamlessly. And I REALLY love living debt-free after having had a crushing load for so many years. The less expenses, the better.

      • ig you think $3,000 is a lot of money then you can’t afford a house.It’s iamortpnt to pay down your bills to at least half of what you are allowed on that account. Yes to bring down debt you’d need to pay more than the minimum. Never close a credit card account.Not everyone can afford to buy a house.References :

        • I don’t own an office, thgouh I do have one bedroom of the house dedicated to being an office when I need to sit down . or get out of the rain. However, I have a laptop which I take out on the deck, to the park, or various random places to work whenever I can. So I vote No-ish to an office . but a quiet corner somewhere in the house can suffice when necessary.

    • greatbrickhill / June 30, 2011The most important faotcr you must bear in mind is that of entrapment. I know that one or two of the English Banks are offering a supreme’ interest rate but you have to have a current account with them. Next point is that the object of the exercise is to offer you a superb interest rate for an unmentioned period of time before they take it off! That’s because they merely (oh really!) wish to acquire your business because you are obviously a chap with cash. DON’T BUY IT. Go for someone straight and honest like Yorkshire Building Society or Birmingham Midshires (owned by Halifax/Bank of Scotland). I don’t do calculations! that’s your job. What I do is to point you in the way of good honest Financial Institutions in the UK and I do know what I am talking about. I am a retired Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and I know the game plan of many of the “slickers”. There’s an old saying in Banking . . . “The higher the rate, the higher the risk” . . . . just remember this . . . ALWAYS, forever and a day!Reply

      • Exactly right. The thing is that in order to develop the oiosppte mindset you need to practice somewhere. Now, no one wants to practice with their own money. But there is a great site where you can participate in projects and earn money online and then decide what to do with the money. magnuscash com a good way to practice some of these concepts in real life without spending any money.

    • On one of the screens that talks about procudtion and the student is supposed to choose the one out of five choices where productivity has increased the choice doesn’t work. In fact, none of the choices work. I think that there is some sort of mistake in the software program. Go ahead and try it yourself. The students enjoyed the program up to that point. They couldn’t work any further when they reached that point. Thanks for fixing this.

    • It depends upon the terms of the criedt agreement but if you say you have 14 months left with no interest being charged I would put the money in a term deposit that matures 1 month before the payment of the criedt bill is due. This will keep you from spending the money on something else.The interest on the term deposit will be taxable at whatever your tax rate is but the net effect is you will come out a couple of bucks ahead.If you are the type that would probably spend the money on some other item rather than to save it I would put it on the Best Buy charge account.Remember when it starts to bill you the interest and you have not paid it off it will be at about 28%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      • My vote is no office. (For the time being and to be cenaghd to office whenever deemed necessary by you.)I work at home because it’s practical but I miss my office. It helps me to go someplace and go home at the end of the day. I like the community aspect, too. I shared space with another larger business and that was nice. They invited me to their weekly breakfast/staff meetings and such.One thing I have learned is that certain tasks are more conducive to different spaces. For example, I like to write in coffee shops or outside (with headphones on). The change in scenery helps to get rolling for some reason.Boring administrative tasks are great for the home office!Also, FYI dig the short video post.

    • You can check the advertisements that come with your criedt card statement. Most of the time you can pay off the other cards with the one that has the lowest interest rate. CUT UP THE ONES YOU HAVE PAID OFF!!!!!! Stop using your cards altogether if you can. I f you need a card apply for a new one with a small limit like maybe $500.00. That should cover any emergency that may come up.

    • I have a warning for crdeit card users. I was promised a low (4.9%) APR interest on a loan I took on my crdeit card. When I got the bill, I was shocked to see the APR is 26.28%. When I called the company, the representative insisted that I did indeed receive 4.9%. I sat arguing with him for 5 minutes. Either they don’t know what they are talking about or they are just B.S.ing the consumers. Be wary of any purported low interest rates, even if they insist that the APR is low, before charging anything that will leave you paying over time. I thought there was a law passed to prevent this type of abuse, regarding the APR. Apparently not. Please learn from my mistake

      • I have a room at home as my office. Granted, I polbabry spend more time on the chaise in the living room or even out on our balcony, but when push comes to shove I have a room with a huge window and -most importantly- a door that closes. I suppose the only way to chain me to one spot would be to toss the laptop and get a desktop computer. I have to say that while I like having a room in the home as my office, having something out of the house, even a converted shed in the backyard, would help me delineate my work/home issues better.

  1. As a former clooectiln guy, there are multiple ways to skip trace an individual. When he opened up a new bank acct they may have run his credit. When they did this all inquiries are listed on your credit report, which include all your current information. That’s how they were able to acquire the new info. A bad debt will not be a criminal offense. however, if not resolved can and will become a judgment. Pay the debt, 480 is cheap compared to jacked up credit. Good luck

  2. Thanks for staying open late thuogrh the Holidays! I bought my wife a ring 10 years ago from Goldline and it’s as beautiful as the day I purchased it. See you in September for the 10 year anniversary gift.

  3. This is what makes up your score:1. Payment history-35%2. Total debt owed to avllaabie credit ratio-30%3. Length of time establishing credit-15%4. Types of credit established-10%5. Inquiries and New accounts-10%What you need to understand is this: #1 #2 are affecting your credit the most. So, by knocking down that $9K balance would definitely help your score. Just make sure that you’re paying on time.

  4. Paid towards the card. For serveal reasons:1) The fact that you are very high on yoru limit means it could be hurting your score unless you have lots of other available credit on other cards.2) did you read the fine print? A lot of the time, they have that 0% period but if you do not pay it in FULL by the time it expires, they add the interest from that moment all the way back to the original purchase date, for the fullpurchase amount!! Leaving just a penny on there could cost you hundreds.

    • The comments your raeedrs have left are priceless plus, some added really good points and ideas. Love the idea of office sharing. It sort of officializes’ your business. But, working at an outside office is certainly an added expense. For me, I needed the tax right offs so I took the plunge and I am in the process of moving my stuff over to my new shop.Personally I love working from home as I have done for well over 8 years. Your clients wouldn’t even know you were in your slippers or not while talking with them on the phone or emailing them. And working from home with all its many distractions really brings home the point that you (and all other house members) must respect your home office space as just that. A place to work. (not that my pets respect that with their jumping up on my desk at the most inconvenient times)I’ve opened up an art gallery and artisan goods store from which I run my custom art business out of. Convenient? You betchya! I can walk to work, the office space is amazing. And it’s just 8 blocks from my home.The expense though? I ended up getting yet another mac so that I could work from home when I needed to, or for when my shop was closed. Then I had to network the macs . plus I needed to buy another set of slippers I just can’t work unless I’m in my slippers.

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