This year, I turned 24, and while I know this isn’t old, I never thought I’d be this old. With this in mind, I’ve been asking all of my friends and family members the same question: “If you could give any piece of advice to your 24 year-old self, what would it be?”
While I’ve been getting varied and interesting pieces of advice, the one I need to focus on more is working on saving more money. This can be tricky, especially when you first start making money, so it helps to hear how others do this.
Recently, Bustle surveyed over 1,000 millennial women, in their 20s and 30s, and they shared how they save money. Their incomes ranged anywhere from $30k to $150k. Included below are some of the individual responses that include innovative ideas that anyone at any age could potentially implement.
1. Samantha, 30: Uses a budget for her finances. Rather than enjoying instant gratification, Samantha makes a wish list of things and experiences she wants to save money for. Then if she accomplishes a goal, she treats herself to something on the list.
2. Ronnika, 33: Instead of continuing a habit of meeting friends for drinks every week, Ronnika has found it is more fiscally responsible to invite friends over. Also, She takes any extra money from her paychecks and puts it in a checking account that is not locally accessible.
3. Michelle, 24: To save on entertainment, Michelle has opted for only using WiFi rather than getting cable. Additionally, she keeps her thermostat set at 62-64 degrees and uses layers and space heaters to save on costs. She also encourages packing a lunch everyday, as that is a big saver.
4. Kelly, 24: Kelly attributes her money saving to living with her parents. She also suggests an app called Qapital: “You can set your own rules for how you want to compile your savings — for example, I have a ‘Round-Up Rule,’ which rounds up every purchase to the nearest dollar and puts that change into savings, as well as a ‘Set and Forget Rule,’ which just automatically takes out a pre-selected amount. For me it’s $10/weekly.”
5. Libby, 24: Libby only uses her credit card for necessary expenses (such as payments for her car) and puts anything else on debit. With her credit card, she makes sure she pays off the balance in full each month so that she does not fall into debt.
6. Savannah, 25: Savannah keeps a peaceful mind savings to fall back on in case of emergencies. “I’ve found having a savings account balance equivalent to two months of my salary is a good cushion.”
7. Alexandra, 26: Alexandra keeps an Excel spreadsheet that tracks all of the money she has coming in as well as what is going out. She helps herself save by setting goals of what she wants to save and by when.
8. Lyn, 29: Lyn saves her money by looking at it as a way of paying herself first. She puts a large portion of her paycheck into her 401k and puts the maximum amount of her paycheck into her Roth IRA each year. She will then spend liberally on the things that are important to her, and harshly cut anything that she deems frivolous or won’t make her happy.
9. Marissa, 26: Marissa budgets her money and attempts the tactic of cooking for herself as much as possible. She has found that one meal out is equivalent to five meals at home.
10. Danielle, 23: Danielle saves by setting up two automatic transfers from her paycheck to budgeted savings. “So it’s like I don’t even notice the money is there. One transfer goes to ‘future me’ in the form of RRSPs or other investments, and one transfer goes to ‘fun times,’ like trips abroad.”
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