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You're Saving Money - Now
What?
Jennifer Thompson
You've figured out some
ways to save some money. You're putting your change in a jar at the end
of each day. You called your auto insurance company and got a lower
rate. You switched from buying a latte every day to making coffee at
home four days a week. Good job - you're saving money! But the big
question is this: what are you doing with that money?
Saving money is only helpful if you are taking the money you have saved
and doing something purposeful and meaningful with it. When we lower our
expenses but do not do anything with our newfound money, it is easy to
spend it elsewhere, and we find that we are just as deep in debt or just
as lacking in savings as we were before we started cutting corners and
finding ways to scrimp and save. What is the point of trying to find
more money in our budget if we do not take that money and do something
with it to help ourselves?
If you have outstanding credit card debt, then take the money you are
saving and apply it to your credit card payments in addition to what you
would send in already. Maybe you don't have a debt that needs to be paid
off. Take the extra money you are saving and invest it. Investing it
might simply mean putting it into your savings account, or it might mean
buying stock or shares in a mutual fund. Whatever your preference, put
that money to work.
Identify your goal, whether it is paying off a credit card, a student
loan, a car or a house, or saving for something big like college, a down
payment or retirement, and then take that money you are finally saving
and make it work for you. There's nothing like watching the debt go down
or the savings go up to motivate you to keep on finding ways to cut back
on your expenses!
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Jennifer Thompson
owns and manages DivaTribe,
www.divatribe.com, an online community for
women with articles, book reviews, message boards and blogs. Come join
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