Before you throw your yukky carved pumpkin seeds at me for suggesting that you can save money, please read on for more of my witch’s brew while I dish up some tasty ‘Food For Thought”, it won’t kill you, and may even make you feel better.
A survey by the Consumer Federation of America found that 71% of women worry about their finances, and 49% say they lose sleep over money concerns. Yet 42% of women have less than $500 in savings and 2/3rds of the non-savers don’t even have a savings account.

Interestingly, the reason we don’t save has got nothing to do with a person’s income or expenses….it’s because we CHOOSE not to save. So much for those tried and true excuses. This tidbit is thrown into the pot from Steven Venti, professor of economics at Dartmouth University and David Wise, professor of political economy at Harvard University who studied people with very low incomes who easily out saved middle income earners (about $100,000) and they also studied people with vast incomes who didn’t save a dime. I could have saved them the money on research if they had just ask, for here in Polk County I have people living on $660 a month who save and people with over $10,000 a month who cannot get through the month and have no savings, but it is nice to know Polk County is not weird, but does fit into the rest of our national demographics..

In addition to that one simply reason that we choose not to save, further study showed we don’t save because it’s so easy to spend ! In our culture, we don’t think about money management as something we need to do because the bill won’t be in for another 30 days…Procrastination sets in, we’re not stupid, we know the bill will come in the mail, and that we really need to save in order to pay for what we want and need, but…our lives are so hectic, things are so expensive, it is easier to put off things until whenever that to prepare now for what’s coming. So for those who still prefer to use an excuse there’s one.

JUST DO IT ! SAVE MONEY - START BY PAYING YOURSELF FIRST !
a. Out of sight out of mind, talk to your employer about auto withdraw from your paycheck and direct deposit a portion into your savings..
b Develop “THE HABIT.” Cash your check at the same place every week.
c. Do The Math – Multiply 5% of your pay and deposit that into a separate account for your Emergency Fund ( remember that your goal is to accumulate 6 times (minimum) your current household expenses.
d. Do the Math – Multiply 10% of your paycheck and deposit that in a separate account IF you don’t take this responsibility to promote yourself, secure your future –FACT: no one else is !
e. SAVE loose change – Pennies make dollars ! in ash tray, the dish on the shelf, the big jug, whatever, and then apply it where it does the most good.

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http://FinancialEducationAndOPtions.blogspot.com and http://WomanToWomanMagazine.ning.com.
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