A five-question checkup worth doing once a year. You do not need to answer yes to all of them.
- Emergency savings. Aim for three to six months of essential expenses. Start with any amount — the habit matters more than the number at first. Look for an account with no monthly fee and a high interest rate.
- Retirement. A common target is 10 to 15% of your income. That can come through your employer’s plan, an IRA you open yourself, or both. If your employer matches, start by capturing all of the match.
- Pay yourself first. Set up an automatic transfer on payday, straight from your paycheck or through your bank.
- Raise your savings with every raise. Move part of every pay increase into savings before you get used to spending it.
- Review once a year. Life changes and prices change. Check that your goals still match your life, and remind yourself why they mattered.
Four things that make saving stick
- Write your goals down and put them somewhere you see every morning.
- Make a chart you can fill in, so progress is visible.
- Find someone to tell how it is going each month.
- Decide now how you will celebrate when you hit the goal.
Small changes today create real results later.