Thought it would be helpful to have a thread for folks to share their tips for saving money/financial planning. This is NOT the thread for you to comment on other's fiscal irresponsibility, your stock picks, share recipes, or crow about your frugal lifestyle - many others available for that! The best pieces of advice I've gotten: 1) Set up your paycheck so that a fixed percent of every check goes to a savings or money market account. (This is great because you never have to make a concerted effort and you don't spend the money because it never shows up in your checking account.) A friend also does this percentage system, but has her percentage sent to a "fun" account that she withdraws a fixed amount of cash from every week and gets to do whatever with it - until it's gone, then she's SOL. 2) Max out your IRA every year. No major luxury purchases allowed until you've maxed it out for the year. 3) Keep a "forgotten" savings account. Never consider this money as an asset when figuring out your budget and only use it for a "true" emergency. Then you have a cash cushion for major unexpected expenses instead of an emergency credit card that will compound the financial problem. 4) Pay off your credit cards every month - finance charges and interest payments are the fastest way to have money go out the window.
