I like to read about money, since I don't have much myself, and would like to have some one day. And so today I was doing a little surfing and found an article on MSN.com by Liz Weston entitled "10 Easy Ways to Stash Away Thousands." It's about Jean Chatzky's book Pay it Down: From Debt to Wealth on $10 a Day. It's a gimmick, she notes, but a gimmick that works. Basically, the concept is: if you can find $10 a day to put towards your debt, you will soon have those credit cards paid off and be on the way to great riches.I'm thinking, "Well sure. But I don't have an extra $300 a month that I can afford to give up." And of course, while it is assuming a lot (in my case, anyway) that everyone actually has $10 a day they can afford to set aside, she does offer some excellent advice as to where the $10 could possibly come from. And here they are.
1. Pad your checking account. Put $300 a month into your checking account but don't record it. Pretend it's not there.
2. Weed through the bills in your wallet. Choose a denomination, any denomination, and any time that denomination ends up in your wallet, put it into a jar. Say it's five-dollar bills. It could add up quickly.
3. Start a household tax. Ask everyone in the family to donate a dollar a day to a bank. (Obviously this is for those family members who have an income of some type.)
4. Bank any reimbursements you receive. If you have to pay out-of-pocket for something for your work, when you're reimbursed, throw it into the bank.
5. Make hay with rebates. Fill them out. Send them in. Bank the money.
6. Record less than the actual deposit amount you make into your checking account. (I, myself, don't care for this one. I like accuracy.)
7. Charge yourself fees. For example, if you put $11 in the bank, charge yourself $1 fee, and record $10.
8. Save any money from raises. Enough said.
9. Have money automatically deducted from your account on a regular basis.
10. Pay yourself first and last. The usual advice is to pay yourself first. This is good advice. But if there's money left over at the end of the month, pay yourself again. I like that.