5 Reasons You Should Save Your Money! & 5 Ways to Save Your Money!

5 Reasons you should save your money…

Saving money is a safety net
Imagine you’re cruising down the road on a lovely Sunday afternoon, and then BAM! Your tire blows out. You don’t have a spare and the nearest auto shop is at least 10 miles away, so you have to call a tow truck. You get there and they tell you that you need 4 new tires on your car because the tires are so bare they’re unsafe to keep on your vehicle. So, within the span of a couple hours, you went from having a lovely afternoon to having to spend around $1,000 on a tow truck and 4 new tires. That BLOWS! (Literally lol). If you don’t have anything saved up or tucked away this can be a huge financial burden. So, putting money in savings for emergencies is a huge help!

2. Having money saved away makes you less stressed
This one might be a little controversial, but just think about it… If you lived paycheck to paycheck, would you ever worry about making ends meet or being able to handle unexpected expenses? Or being able to take care of any emergencies like we talked about in our first point? Saving money and setting it aside just in case can be a huge stress reliever. Just think about it, if you had a substantial amount that you had saved away and promised yourself you wouldn’t touch unless it was absolutely necessary, you wouldn’t be as worried when expensive things broke or needed to be taken care of.

3. Saving money sets you up for success
When you think of a successful person, what comes to mind? For me it is someone smart and disciplined, but the latter is the most important. A disciplined person gets up early, works hard, and does what’s right. They are disciplined with their time management, their work, their leisure, and their money. Being able to save money takes some real discipline, but it will set you up for success. If you can be disciplined with your money and other areas of your life, the sky is the limit!

4. You can buy a house!
Having a good amount in savings will allow you to put a down payment for a house which you’d like to buy. During the home buying process, your creditors and bankers will make sure you have enough money and assets to pay for the house you wish to buy. You’ve got to have some money saved to get approved for a loan to buy your house. So, saving money is a must when shopping for your home! And don’t forget, the bigger the down payment (the more money you have stashed away for a house), the lower the interest payments, and the more money you save! If you are ready to purchase apply today at www.gnty.com/mortgage

5. Retirement
We weren’t meant to work all of our lives friends! We deserve to kick back and relax and enjoy life without having to work if we don’t want to. This is where having savings is CRUCIAL. You’ve got to have enough money saved away that you will be able to live comfortably after you quit working. Now this is something that takes a long time to work towards, which is why the sooner you start saving, the better!

And now… 5 way to save your money…

Pack Your Lunch!
I’m sure you’ve heard it before, people tell you to pack your lunch for work to keep you from eating out. But you think, ‘packing a lunch can’t save that much money, and the food I can get somewhere else is way better than at home.’ While the latter part may be true, the first half is not! You can abso-stinkin-lutley save money by bringing food from home. Let’s do some math to make sure. So, when we go out for lunch, the average cost for lunch can be anywhere from $8 to $17. If you’re going for a fast food lunch, it’ll be closer to the $8 mark, but if you go for a healthier and sit-down option, it’ll be closer to $15. That adds up over the course of a month! If you eat out 5 days a week for lunch and spend $13 a meal, that totals to $260 a month. That’s a decent amount of money! Now I’m not saying to never treat yourself, just be aware that eating out, and buying coffees and drinks can really add up. Doing without for a few days a week could give you some extra cash that you can then put in your savings!

2. Pay yourself
I know what you’re thinking… “CASH, what in the world do you mean by pay myself?” Well friends, allow me to explain. Say you get a paycheck for $1,000. Before you use any of that to pay bills or take care of expenses you take a portion of that and put it in savings. This forces you to save money and then use the rest for essentials and necessities rather than spending money where we don’t need to.

3. Set a goal
As simple as it sounds, giving yourself a saving goal is extremely helpful in growing the amount of money in your savings. If you have a number in mind you must save each week or month, you are much more likely to stick to that rather than just aimlessly putting money away. If you push yourself to achieve a goal and have the discipline to stick with it, you’ll be amazed at how much money you can save!

4. Keep a record
No one really likes seeing how much money they spend. It’s a tough and challenging exercise for someone to look at where their money goes. You’ll be surprised at how much of it is spent on things that you don’t really need, and that’s what makes this exercise to helpful. Seeing your expenses all together helps you categorize them into needs and wants category. The need category are necessity purchases like groceries, gas, utilities and the like. Whereas the want category has things like Iced coffees, movie theaters, concert tickets, and restaurant meals. The need category is obviously the expenses you must pay in order to survive. But the want category is where we need to focus as it will show us areas of our life where we are spending too much money. This category is where you will find opportunities to cut back spending and use that money to put in savings.

5. Make it automatic
We are busy people and don’t always remember to save or move money into our savings accounts. If only there was something that automatically saved your money for you….. TADAAAAA! Your wish is our command friends! Guaranty Bank & Trust has a tool available at that automatically does this for you! It’s called Cash RoundUpSM, and it automatically puts money in your savings account when you make a purchase. For example, if I go to the gas station and fill up my truck, and the total comes out to $29.30, it will automatically round that up to $30 and deposit the $0.60 in your savings account! It’s the coolest thing ever AANNDDD we’re running a promotion at the moment where if you sign up for Cash RoundUpSM you are automatically entered to win a family vacation! It’s greatness!

Go to offer.gnty.com/cashroundup for all the details!

Alright my friends, I know that was a longer blog than normal, but we had a lot to cover! Thank you for tuning in to my CASH the Mascot blog, I hope you found the 10 total tips helpful and motivating!