A lot of us need to just do it: save, invest, spend and be happy. Most of us have the spend and be happy part down, but not the save and invest part.
There is or should be an order regarding money and how people deal with money. People should save money, then invest it and once it earns a good amount of money, spend some of it.
Just Do It: Save
The unfortunate thing about most people is their lack of ability or desire to save money. More than half of Americans have less than $1,000 in an account.
What this means is most Americans aren’t even putting away $19.23 a week into SAVINGS. I know that not everyone has a spare $80 a month. I know the realities of things being that tight. But I also know the benefit of putting something aside no matter how much it is.
If you are a person who just doesn’t have $80 a month to spare, try $40 a month and plan to save your $1,000 over a two year period. Just do it and don’t worry about how long it may take you to get to $1,000.
Saving $9.61 or $38 a month can get you to a $1,000 savings in two years.
If you aren’t great at tracking your savings, you can use my budgeting worksheets. There are a number of worksheets in this section of my website. One is to achieve a $1,000 emergency fund savings in one year and the other is to get a $3,000 emergency savings in two years. To change what you want to save simply determine how much you want to save (generally enough to cover three to six months of living expenses) and determine how long it may take you to save that amount.
Build Your $1,000 Emergency Fund
Just Do It: Invest
You can’t invest money if you haven’t saved any money. You have to get into the habit of putting money away, saving it and then move onto investing.
Ideally, you will want to invest in a retirement plan sponsored through your employer or you can open up an individual retirement account (IRA) on your own.
The purpose of investing is for your money to grow. You can grow your money by the interest earned as well as how well the investments do on the market. If you are a new investor, you may get spooked about the fluctuation of the market but don’t be. I have seen where the market goes low and my earnings are wiped out and when it comes back I am pleasantly surprised.
If you are new to investing please read some basic investing books. You can also find some great articles for beginning investors.
Invest
How to Invest Your First $,1000
Start Investing with Only $1,000
What’s the Best Way for Beginner Investors to Get Started?
Just Do It: Spend and Be Happy
During the process of saving and investing you should be putting some fun money away for you. This is something I have failed miserably at and I regret it. I am starting to realize that it is o.k. for me to spend money and to be happy doing it.
Some people may not understand how someone can’t be happy spending money especially on themselves. But I truly feel weird spending money on me. But I need to spend money on me because spending money on me is good for my mental health.
As hard as I work and have worked, I know I need to just do it. Spend and be happy. Since I know I have put aside money for retirement, my emergency fund and I am paying down my debt (car note and small credit card balance) quickly, I deserve to treat myself on occasion.
We need to reward ourselves for our accomplishments. However, don’t let every rewarded accomplishment lead you back into debt. Save, invest and spend in moderation.
Just Do It: Start Small
If you are someone who is not a good saver, start with a savings plan. You can start small. As I stated, I have worksheets you can use to track your saving. I started saving loose change and used that to start my daughter’s college fund. I also used the money to help buy groceries when I had nothing in my account. I was able to save three years worth of college tuition for her by saving and investing my money.
In order to make your money grow, you will want to invest if you haven’t done so already. If your employer has a retirement account I would strongly encourage you to start saving with the company’s retirement plan and also reading about investing.
Last, don’t forget to put money aside for you. The money you set aside for you could take the form of loose change, extra $1 and $5 bill set aside or even money you have automatically contributed into an account every time you get paid. Whatever method you use to get started will be fine.
Just do it!