by Texas Homesteader ~
We all try to pay the bills and still build up a little nest egg for the future. But sometimes building up that savings is difficult.
RancherMan & I learned to employ a few simple tips to build up our savings. But they made our march to financial security almost effortless. Now we are completely debt free! Come see how we did it.
Find Recurring Savings Opportunities
The easiest way to build up your savings is to find a recurring way to add to your savings.
For instance if you pay off a large debt, reroute that payment you were making into a savings account instead. Do it every month, and do it automatically. That savings account will begin to build.
When RancherMan & I married I sold my house and we lived in his home. Our expenses were combined which reduced our financial requirements. Now we only had one electric bill, one water bill, etc.
But I asked RancherMan;
“I’m already used to making a mortgage payment of approximately $1,000 each month for my house before we were married. Why don’t we continue to make that payment, but put it into a CD every month instead?”
The Power Of Systematic Saving
If you add money to savings by way of automatic transfer it builds without further action from you. Pretty soon you don’t even think about it and your savings builds effortlessly.
After our first year of investing in a $1,000 CD each month, RancherMan & I knew that were never more than 30 days away from available money from a CD maturity if for some reason we needed the cash. What a comfort!
And because it was using money we were already used to earmarking previously for a mortgage payment, adding to savings didn’t even come out of our current budget. This was brilliant!
Diversify Your Savings
We all know diversified savings helps protect from the ups and downs of only one type of investment.
RancherMan & I had cash building up nicely but we also knew land was a good investment as well. And we’d both dreamed of a day when we’d have our own little place in the country.
We found this piece of paradise in Northeast Texas. I fell in love with that old 1880’s Barn & he loved the lay of the land and prevalent wild game. We decided to call it our own.
But we didn’t want to risk our financial security by blasting through the nest egg we’d so carefully built over the years.
So we rerouted those same $1,000 payments to the land mortgage company instead to quickly pay for our new property.
By doing so we expedited paying the loan for our new property while still working our corporate jobs in the city to fund it.
The note was paid in record time, yet it still didn’t come out of our built-up nest egg nor our current monthly household budget. Wow, that’s exhilarating. NOW WHAT?
Paying Cash Instead Of Spending Savings
We kept our savings nest egg intact. If we decided we needed to buy something, we paid cash so our nest egg would continue to build.
When we needed a tractor, storage buildings, fencing, ponds, etc., they were all taken care of one-by-one using that same effortless step started years ago.
The beauty was that we weren’t going into debt. And it still wasn’t coming out of our monthly budget. Effortless!
More Opportunities When You’re Debt Free!
Fast forward a few more years. We built our home here on the Homestead & moved from the big city to realize our dream of country living.
And a few years later when we decided we wanted to pull the plug on corporate employment to run the homestead full time we were able to do so.
With no debt looming over our heads, our monthly income requirement was already low.
Wow, what a tremendous difference being debt free makes in your ability to make decisions. Those decisions are no longer based on your debt obligations, but on your CASH SAVINGS!
Put Back Money For Unexpected Expenses
We needed a plan for unexpected expenses such as car repairs or medical bills. So we started a special savings account for minor emergencies so we won’t have to touch the nest egg we’d built for unforeseen circ*mstances.
Having a minor-emergency account means when your washing machine goes out or the lawn mower dies, the money will already be in the bank to pay for its repair or to buy a new one. You won’t be forced into debt to pay for repairs due to unforeseen circ*mstances.
Because make no mistake – whether repairs, replacements or something else – there WILL be unexpected expenses pop up. So it’s best to plan for them.
You Can Do This!
Are you longing for financial security? You can take the same steps we did. It’s a more effortless way to build that nest egg. I urge you to try it in a way that works for your household.
Maybe start by making a small monthly deposit into a savings account each payday. Treat it just like any other bill to make sure it gets taken care of monthly.
Then when one of your existing debts is paid off add that amount to your monthly savings deposit too. And the same with the next debt paid.
Soon the amount you’re sending to your savings account will be adding up to some real money!
If you start small and build on it you won’t feel the pinch at all.
And the freedom of financial security is priceless!
~TxH~
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