How To Get Into The Habit Of Saving Money

                By                    Gabrielle Olya                

Just like any other good behavior, saving is something that you should aspire to turn into a habit. Once saving becomes second nature, you’ll easily build up an emergency fund, retirement savings or even a savings bucket for “fun” money. But like exercising regularly or eating healthy, it takes some effort to turn saving money into a true habit.

Revisit Day 6: Where To Put Your Money: Savings or Retirement?And Back To Day 5 of Living Richer: How To Save a Little Each Month (It Goes a Long Way)

Here are a few ways you can get into the habit of saving money.

Automate It

One of the easiest ways to turn saving into a habit is to automate it. Once you figure out how much you can save every pay period, set up an automatic transfer for that amount from your checking account to your savings or investment account.

Day 4: How To Live Richer on a Budget

Save Your Change

Starting small is one of the best ways to form a habit that sticks, so get into the habit of saving your change. This can be done by using round-up apps, like Acorns or Chime; enrolling in a savings program offered by your bank, like Bank of America’s Keep the Change program; or by collecting all of your physical change and depositing it into your bank account at the end of every month.

Pay Yourself Like a Bill

Consider your savings a monthly bill you have to pay, equivalent to your rent or mortgage, utility bill or mobile phone bill. As you make all your payments for the month, add in a budget line for savings and dedicate as much as you can to it once you’ve covered all of your essential costs. Set a monthly reminder in your phone to put money into savings so you don’t miss out on paying this “bill.”

Amd Check Out Day 3 of Living Richer: 5 Budgeting Apps That Can Help You Live Richer

And Day 2 of Living Richer: How To Set a Realistic Budget You Can Live WithBack to Day 1 of Living Richer: The Top 3 Budgeting Tips From Experts

Turn It Into a Challenge

There are a number of savings challenges out there that can help get you into the habit, such as the 52-week money challenge. With this challenge, you start by saving $1 the first week and increase your saving amount by $1 each week — so you’ll be saving $1 in week one, $2 in week two, $3 in week three and so on until you’re saving $52 on week 52. At the end of the 52 weeks, you’ll have $1,378 saved up.

Day 8: Join us tomorrow for our Living Richer series when we look at how to save when you live paycheck-to-paycheck.

Last updated: July 7, 2021