No, you don’t need a $1,000 to start saving. Five dollars will do just fine. But save. And regularly. Saving is one element of building wealth and creating more income. Saving allows you to create a security net that doesn’t require you to borrow money from family and friends and definitely not a payday loan place.
You become your own ATM. You become your own bank. But in order you need to start saving. And monthly. And yeah, it could be that five dollars you have extra. Put it in the bank. Don’t touch it. Add to it. Keep working. Keeping adding to it. Watch it grow.
And if you, save more. That’s always the goal. The more you save, the more secure you’ll position yourself in case of an emergency. Or… an opportunity.
Don’t let your tax refund burn a whole in your pocket
We’re going to bypass that whole conversation about tax refunds really being money we all gave the government and now they’re giving it back to us without interest. Got it. Received. Heard.
But the truth is that people still enjoy receiving a tax refund. Why? A large sume of money that’s outside of our regular paycheck. It’s like winning a weak version of the lotto. But with this money comes great responsibility. Like…saving, investing and paying off debt. All of which should be done if we have a sizeable tax refund coming our way. The more we can put away for our retirement, a lofty goal or towards debt, the happier and prepared we’ll be. And side hustlers aren’t excluding from this practice. Because we’re constantly creating income streams, and much of the time it’s inconsistent, we have to be more mindful of how much we put away for a rainy day and any debt we’re trying to conquer.
I’m still playing around with the numbers for how I want to divvy of the money, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to be saving $1,700-$2,000 of my refund which is 2/3 of what I’m getting back. The rest will go to paying some of my student losn debt and I’m considering investing as well. I’ll keep you updated with this plan. Do you have yours?
I really do consider myself a student of the things that I am passionate about and one of those things are obviously money and finance. How to better manage it, how to make more of it and how to create savings nest eggs so I can be well protected from… well, hell, life.
I discovered this workshop through a newsletter I was sent via email. I actually invited a colleague as well who unfortunately couldn’t make but I still soldiered on as I want to learn all and more that I can about improving my finances.
What are you passionate about that you’re wiling g to spend a few hours on a Sunday learning?
Last week we talked about saving money or saving more money if we’ve already been saving. But we didn’t specify where to save our money. If I hurt your feeling with this next statement, well, then consider your feelings hurt. But you should know not to save your money in a shoebox or underneath your mattress, right? Good. No one was offended. Perfect. Some of you may argue – with a very good point – most of these commercial banks don’t even offer a decent percentage on our savings accountd so it’s almost like we’re saving it underneath the mattress anyways. Agreed. My bank, Chase and I think Bank of America and Wells Fargo, only offer 0.01% interest rate on all savings accounts under $25,000. Oh, but if you do have $25,000 or more, you’ll be able to earn 0.05% on your money. Wow.
Yeah, no. Do you know what 0.01% of a dollar is? Nothing! Do you know what 0.01% of $100? Still, nothing. 0.01% is basically one penny sliced into a hundred pieces. And then the bank telling you we’ll give you one slice of that penny.
If you’re outraged, you should be. That’s your hard earned money not even trying to work for you.
But if you have your savings in a online bank, like Aspiration or Ally, you can earn 1.7% interest rate on every dollar you have. Which is actually something versus nothing.
Which do I have? I have both. I have a traditional savings account with Chase… boo! And I have an online bank with Ally. Kinda yay. Let me explain. With Chase, even though I earned all of six cents this years, it’s liquid. I have access to my money 24 hours. With Ally, I earned over $26 this year, but if I need to pull out the money, it’ll take three business days to complete that transaction. I earn more money with Ally but don’t have immediate access. I earned way much less with Chase but can get my money whenever I need it.
Now, why did I say “kinda yay” for Ally? At one point I had a 2.2% interest rate with them. But with the federal rate being reduced repeatedly, it affected private institutions and their rates came down too. So this year, I lost 0.5% of my interest rate which makes me sad, but yet, my Ally savings account still out performs most brick and mortar banks.
Let’s talk about banks and saving. Email at: femalesinglehustlin@gmail.com
Happy 20-20! I am pumped about this new year. Partially because I took way too much time off last year (from the blog) to really think about my time, my efforts and what I want to do and what kind of impression I want to leave on this little blue-green planet and how much more money I wanted to make!!! Hello!
Truth be told, in order to make more money you first have to begin saving more money. Listen, if you spend every extra dollar you earn, it would start to feel like you’re not earning any extra money. Why? Because you’re not seeing it. There’s no proof it was ever in your hands at one point. Oh, yeah, you may have paid off a bill or two. But bills gotta get paid regardless. So if your 9 to 5 isn’t cutting it in the bill paying department, we gotta to get you a new 9 to 5.
But, yes. Saving should be one of the first commitments you make to yourself this new year. And if you’re already saving, save a little more. And make that a commitment every new year. Each new year save an extra $25 a month. Is $25 extra too much to pull? Okay, fine. Then add an extra $5 or $10 to what you’re already saving. Think of it as money you’ll have later versus money you’ll never have again because you spent it on something stupid or you Postmated when you could have easily cooked yourself a meal.
This year, let’s start off when either saving or saving more. We’ll get to spending less later. I promise.
Want some advice or tips to better save? Email me: femalesinglehustlin@gmail.com
