The focus of this months blog is September Savings. Savings, easy to say, but hard to do. According to Yahoo Finance, 58% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings. We hear these stats continually, yet many individuals do not know where to begin to increase their savings rates. Most individuals believe that they cannot increase their savings as they live paycheck to paycheck or have unplanned expenses. When questioned about monthly average expenses most individuals could not tell you what they were due to the fact that they were not utilizing a system to track them.
In order to increase your savings rate, you must know where what your current expenses and allocations are. I would suggest purchasing a money management software such as Quicken. These programs allow you to connect your financial accounts and create budgets utilizing real data. You can view your income vs spending, and utilize the information to determine spending patterns and build your budget to allow for an increased savings rate. When utilizing software you will note that most spending comes from discretionary wants and not really financial needs. If the latter is true, then there is the ability to increase your savings rate by allocating discretionary income into savings.
Not sure if just starting to document your patterns will help? Read Small Changes for Big Rewards. Do not put off purchasing money management software till the beginning of next year. Do your self a favor and get financially organized so you can start the new year off right. Use September Savings month and start today.
