Saving money can seem impossible.
Baby step #1 of Dave Ramsey’s plan for getting out of debt is to accumulate $1,000 cash in an emergency fund. The reason you need the cash is your car will break or your washing machine will die or you’ll have a wreck and have to pay your insurance deductible. If you don’t have the cash you’ll have to go further in debt.
Whenever I teach about finances I get asked, “How can I save $1,000 if I can’t pay my bills as it is?” Well, I’m going to show you how and at the same time help you develop the money saving habit.
The reason most people fail when they attempt to save a $1,000 is they try to do it all at once. When they fail, they give up because they think it’s impossible. The genius behind this strategy is it’s gradual and starts with an amount of money anybody can save, $1.
This idea is so insanely simple, I wish I had thought of it. You put $1 in your savings in account in week one. Then you add one dollar more per week for every week of the year. By the last week of the year, your deposit will $52 and you’ll have $1378 in your savings account. Boom! you’ve got your emergency fund AND you’ve developed the habit of saving money every week.
Here’s the spreadsheet I use to track my deposits.
No more excuses! Get started today!