How to Save Money

The only way to make money is to spend less than the amount of your income. So you can either make more money or spend less. This article will talk about ways to spend less money.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Income
• Will Power

1. Analyze Your Financial Situation - The first thing that you need to do is find out where your money is going. This is very important because you do not know where you can save if you have no idea where you are spending your money. There are many sites that will aggregate your financial information, transactions, etc (mint.com, wesabe.com, yodlee.com). Finding ways to save are easier once you know where your money is going and have a better understanding about your financial situation.

2. Set a Savings Budget & Savings Goals - After you have a better understanding about your financial situation, you need to set goals on how much you want to save. You need to have short-term savings goals and long-term savings goals. When you have your savings goals finished a budget needs to be made to reach that goal. There are many tools online that will help you set a budget (just use Google) or you can use a good ol' fashion spreadsheet.

3. Trim Your Spending - Believe it or not but when you have reached this point it is easy to see where you can save money. If you understand where your money is going you should see fees, subscriptions, and random spending that could easily be cut out.

[spinningblue]

on 12/3/2008 Great article...and much needed right now.

[chenderson00]

on 12/2/2008 Great tips and advice!