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You're Saving Money - Now What? |
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Articles, How-To's and Interviews -
Personal Finances
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Written by Jennifer Thompson
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You've figured out some ways to save some money. You're putting your change in a jar at the end of each day. You called your auto insurance company and got a lower rate. You switched from buying a latte every day to making coffee at home four days a week. Good job - you're saving money! But the big question is this: what are you doing with that money?
Saving money is only helpful if you are taking the money you have saved and doing something purposeful and meaningful with it. When we lower our expenses but do not do anything with our newfound money, it is easy to spend it elsewhere, and we find that we are just as deep in debt or just as lacking in savings as we were before we started cutting corners and finding ways to scrimp and save. What is the point of trying to find more money in our budget if we do not take that money and do something with it to help ourselves?
If you have outstanding credit card debt, then take the money you are
saving and apply it to your credit card payments in addition to what
you would send in already. Maybe you don't have a debt that needs to
be paid off. Take the extra money you are saving and invest it.
Investing it might simply mean putting it into your savings account, or
it might mean buying stock or shares in a mutual fund. Whatever your
preference, put that money to work.
Identify your goal, whether it is paying off a credit card, a student
loan, a car or a house, or saving for something big like college, a
down payment or retirement, and then take that money you are finally
saving and make it work for you. There's nothing like watching the
debt go down or the savings go up to motivate you to keep on finding
ways to cut back on your expenses!
Copyright 2006
Jennifer Thompson owns and manages DivaTribe.
This article is available for reprint. Please contact us for details and permission.
Read DivaTribe's review of You Need A Budget, an Excel-based budget system.
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