Driving the Encore in Portland with Rachel
Next week I’m buying a new car. I sold my Jeep to Ben, and after driving the new Buick Encore at Heels and Wheels in Portland (the women’s driving event) earlier this year I knew that it was going to be my next car purchase. Don’t get me wrong, that Aston Martin DB11 was FABULOUS, but there’s just not enough room in the trunk for all of my shopping, the Lexus LC 500 was sexy as hell, but at 63 I don’t want to compete with a car for who’s sexier. The Buick had me at …. OMG this is GORGEOUS and it’s under $25K. Since I’m a cash buyer (I hate having payments), this meant making sure I had enough available to walk into the dealership and write a check. It means that I had to be a “stellar saver.”
Have you ever thought that your savings would be stellar, if only you could remove the human element—aka, you?
Most of us have been there. However, the good news is that you actually can remove the human element via automation. By doing so, money automatically goes into your savings without you needing the weigh the pros and cons or convince yourself that new pair of shoes is more important. Below are just a few ways to automate your savings.
Yes, I still toss my coins into a jar & bring them to the bank.
- Use Digit
Digit is a free service that takes care of your savings for you. All you need to do is connect your bank accounts and digit will determine your spending habits and decide how much you can save each month. Then, it transfers that money into your savings, broken down into small increments every so many days.
2. Set Automatic Transfers from Your Checking Account into Your Savings Account
This is pretty quick and easy to do, though it takes more work from you than Digit does. With this method, you need to determine what you can spare for savings and how often you can spare it, then set up the transfer. Once it is set up, it happens automatically, so the work for you is really just at the start.
3. Work with Banks with Special Programs
What kind of programs? Bank of America has one called keep the change; this program rounds up every purchase made with your debit card and puts the extra change into your savings account. Other banks have similar programs, so ask yours what they can offer you.
4. Use High-Interest Savings Accounts
With a high-interest account, your money sits in your account and makes more money. After setting up the account, all you need to do to make money is deposit the money and let it earn interest. To make the most of this, set it up with one or more of the methods mentioned above to pull money in on a regular basis.
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