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Weekly Money Saving Plan

Have you planned on doing a weekly/monthly savings plan this year?

 If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the picture. This is a quick Pinterest search I did and there are tons of these plans out there!

While I am super glad you want to save some money this year, let's make sure that one of these plans is actually right for you.

Here's a couple things you need to consider when deciding to do one of these:

1) Can you afford it? Make sure that you actually have the room in your budget for this type of savings challenge. Point blank: if you don't have the extra money in your budget, you should probably stay away from these challenges (at least for the time being).

2) Do you have debt? If you have debt (car payment, credit card, student loan, etc) that you are paying interest on, I would advise you to use this money to pay off your debt faster. Why? Savings is great, right? Here's the deal: You aren't going to make as much in interest as you are going to pay on your debt. So you would actually be paying more money to put some money in savings.

I know that probably sounds like I am saying to stay away from them altogether. I'm not. There are definitely situations where these challenges are great effective ways to get your savings where it should be.

There are a couple situations where I will say that you can use these effectively even if you do have debt.

1) If you know you are going to have a large expense in the very near future. This could mean that you are going to need the money for a down payment on a car, a new air conditioner for your house, or even a large medical procedure that you are going to have to pay for.

2) If you already have a vacation planned. You are going to wind up spending money one way or the other when you are on a vacation, right? Why not go ahead and make a plan so you can spread that spending out over the course of a few months to a year by putting it all in a separate savings account.

3) If you plan on only using the money for Holiday gifts. Quite frankly, you probably don't need to put away as much money as these plans encourage just for Holiday gifts, but that's a whole 'nother topic (read: tangent) for a whole 'nother day.

I absolutely love that there are so many of these plans out there that encourage people to save. I know this post probably sounds the opposite, but I promise I really do love them! I actually love anything that encourages people to save money.

I just wanted to write a quick post because it is the New Year and I know that these posts are HUGE at the beginning of the year because everyone wants this year to be better than the last in all areas, and financially is definitely one of the big areas that everyone wants to change EVERY YEAR.

Basically, if you can afford to put money away like the plan suggests and you don't have debt to throw that money at, go ahead and throw it in a savings account. You'll be glad at the end of the year that you did.

I can't wait to see everyone achieve their large goals for 2018! Let's get out there and make it a great year!

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