A friend has been practicing for years now by paying herself first before anyone else every payday. She told me that she's taking 20% from her take home pay and putting it on a savings account. I can see that she's pretty successful with her strategy, so I'm immitating her strategy but only 10% coz it's only what I can afford.

Wow!20%? I thought my 5% monthly savings was great :

That's a cool plan. I'm still getting a feel on what works best for me coz I'm also planning on saving for retirement. I'm still young, but as the saying goes -- the early bird catches more worms.

A friend has been practicing for years now by paying herself first before anyone else every payday. She told me that she's taking 20% from her take home pay and putting it on a savings account. I can see that she's pretty successful with her strategy, so I'm immitating her strategy but only 10% coz it's only what I can afford. Does anyone here have another successful savings plan?

5/11/2009

Thanks for the clarification smcc, I appreciate your comments and your original Thread. Take care... Have a good week!!
Rockin35!

You know what Meya? I hear ya and understand. I started this thread because one night I was watching CNBC and the Anchor spoke about that staggering statistic that many of us are just one or two paychecks from being in a lot of trouble.

Also have been laid off in the Bay Area and your right, EDD is only going to go so far.

Your also right about saving what you can, when you can.

Hellloooo! And they do not offer extesions anymore I heard. Is that true? I know one thing, something got to give by next month, or I am going to turn into a basket case and my head is going to turn around like that girl on the Exorcists!


Hopefully everything will be back to normal next month, I do not, I repeat, do not want to go into my savings knowing that I will not be able to put it back. For simple things yes, but not because I have to make a living off of it. That is when I have to chop it up as a loss.

What can make it harder is the fact that the job market isn't very good right now. I know a lot of places in my area is only giving out part time jobs. I see the fact that they don't or can't always give benifits (if there are any).

You know what Meya? I hear ya and understand. I started this thread because one night I was watching CNBC and the Anchor spoke about that staggering statistic that many of us are just one or two paychecks from being in a lot of trouble.

Also have been laid off in the Bay Area and your right, EDD is only going to go so far.

Your also right about saving what you can, when you can.

MsKiwi, the worst part about that is what excuse are you going to come up with to tell your friends and family? You can't tell them that you car got repossessed, it's humiliating!

By the way, were you able to get approved for another car loan after the re-po?

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My car got repoed because I lost my job, my family was well aware of what was happening (unfortunately).
So far I've not tried to apply for another car as I doubt I will qualify. My car was repoed in 2005.

Hi smcc and Rockin35, I see a good conversation here on both sides and I am pretty sure that rockin is not taking the situation at hand offensive. Acutually, I see what both you and she is talking about. You both are correct, saving, WHEN YOU HAVE IT, is a good thing to do depending what your finances are like and how many people are saving with you (ie. spouse). Some individuals here are set well with savings because they either, reside with their family or friends, not paying mortages, cheaper housing costs (or paid mortgage), or have a significant other with good income (or both). It can be a numerous reason why someone else is able to save over others.

In this day and life, you are not going to find too many people able to save a dime, just have to focus on paycheck to paycheck. For instance, my husband contract is over on his job and I have seen these guys laid off for as long as 4 months. Unemployment wont cut it in my household. So I may have to dig into our savings for our children to make a backup plan happen. This is not the first time it has happen, and it wont be the last.

I salute to anyone who are paying low balances on bills by force because that shows true dedication and management to stand up and face life. Let's look at the worst side, some will have to fall short of paying any bills because times are getting rougher and rougher by the minute.

Hey Rockn35, Please don't take offense, the thread is not mean't that you should save more just to put anything you can away for a rainy day. Your right we all have obligations other than our credit cards, but sometimes we put saving on the back burner and if you could put anything away its still better than putting nothing away. The thread isn't about saving more, its just saving in general. I apologize if you found offense to what I was trying to say

ORIGINAL POST EDITED
Lets Be Mindful

Lets be mindful, most of us in this Forum are not "slowly" paying off debt because it is a choice. If I had more money and made a decent income, I would save more and pay more. If I could put 25 percent into my 401K instead of 8 perecent I would. Some of us just have little to no addtional money to save anything.

Just my take.....


Rockin35!

I am looking for a secondary job, but I am having trouble with trying to get a consistant schedule out of one job so I can have another.

Eldarwen, it's always a good idea to have one job to pay for your bills and have another one to save the money that you have coming in every 2 weeks. It might be a little hard, but it's definitely worth it when somebody in the family loses their job. At least, you won't be stuck out in the cold so to speak.

I am trying to save something, but it's very difficult to do when you have a budget that you have to rearrange.