Painless Ways to Pay Yourself First We all know that we ought to be paying ourselves first — by building a healthy emergency fund, investing in our retirement accounts, and saving for important future purchases. But for many of us, it can feel like paying ourselves first will end up shortchanging our other financial obligations. How can you pay yourself first when you barely have enough money to make it to the end of each month? But saving is just like Lao Tzu’s journey of a thousand miles. They both start with a single (and, in this case, easy) step. So today we will look at some steps that will help. Automatically Transfer 1% The best way to save money is to keep it out of your hot little hands in the first place. You can do that by automatically transferring funds to your savings or retirement account every time you get paid. That way, you never have the temptation to spend it. Start by setting up an automatic transfer of 1% of each paycheck. While it may seem as though 1% is hardly enough to be worth it, it’s still more than you’d be saving otherwise. Once you get used to having your take-home pay reduced by such a small amount, you can easily increase your savings by another 1% — or more. Losing 1% is painless, and it will add up over time. Emily Guy Birken
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 12:41:03 +0000