Automatic Plan-Make things Automatic-Debt, Savings, and Investments

1. Figure out Where all of your Money is Going
2. Make things Automatic-Debt, Savings, and Investments
3. Make paying off Credit Cards a Priority
4. Add additional payments to the Debt you like the least
5. Pay off home early
6. Make sure you and your loved ones are taken care of
7. Build wealth and give!

Make things Automatic-Debt, Savings, and Investments

There is a reason companies want you set up on an automatic plan, whether it be student loans, car payments, or a gym membership.  If you set it up to come out automatically versus writing a check and doing it yourself, there is much higher probability that the company gets paid.

So let's all be really smart and copy exactly what companies have been doing for years to get our money. 

• Most important thing, Pay Yourself-Even if it's $25 every pay period set it up to come right out of your check into your savings.   
• Because you know where all your money is now going from Step 1, you should have a good idea of your expenses.  The easiest thing to do is have everything set up at one central location.  You can set up your Bill Pay and all of your Savings Transfers.  After you have that set up there may be one or two bills that is easier to go through that company.  An example is my student loans, if I set up an automatic debit through my student loans I get a discount in my rate and still automatic, good for everyone.
• So if you haven't already start or set up your 401k with your work.  I have read many different ways to look at this, but I recommend starting with whatever your company matches.  If they match 3%, set up 3%, it really is a foolish thing not to use this.  Let's say you make 100K to make things easy.  You set aside 3% of your pay before taxes and have 3K in your 401k at the end of the year, well at the end of the year they match this total, so you now have 6K.  That's a good amount of money for just agreeing to save!

So you know where your money is going and now you have everything set up to where you want your money to go and even better yet it's automatic.  I think this is a great start, just make sure to monitor the comings and goings.  I like to make sure right before I get paid to make sure everything looks right and is going

Why I think Dave Ramsey's a Genius, But I Want My Own Plan!

I agree with Dave Ramsey, his way works, but why can't others.  I instead of going with his steps I am going with my own priorities.  I think that you need to live and enjoy things while you are young.  I believe that you need to pay for items in cash or have money saved.  For example if I want to go on a trip and it costs $2,000, then I will have $2,000 in the bank before I take that trip.  I will put together a couple of steps showing what I believe and what I am currently doing.

http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/

Here's the process:

1. $1,000 to start and Emergency Fund
2. Pay off all debt using to Debt Snowball
3. 3 to 6 months in savings
4. Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
5. College funding for children
6. Pay off home early
7. Build wealth and give!

I have a plan, but Dave Ramsey has a proven plan so he wins.  But here has been my working plan.

Automatic Plan

1. Figure out Where all of your Money is Going
2. Make things Automatic-Debt, Savings, and Investments
3. Make paying off Credit Cards a Priority
4. Add additional payments to the Debt you like the least
5. Pay off home early
6. Make sure you and your loved ones are taken care of
7. Build wealth and give!

I'll go into more details as the blog moves on, but my approach is geared more towards the person who has all there bills online, the person who gets online statements.  Be Young, Have Fund, Drink My Kool-Aid.

Coupons

Now recently I have read some great material on how much people have saved and use coupons. Great blogs like Get Rich Slowly and I Will Teach You to be Rich. So yesterday I did the grocery shopping and here are some things that happened with coupons and saving money.

> First I went through and looked what we needed, made a general list while looking at the Publix shopping ad online, which allows you to start a grocery list. So I really focused on the Buy one Get one Free deals and fruits that were on sale.

> Next I looked for coupons that would save money on the brands that I usually buy. For instance we buy Horizon brand chocolate milk(best tasting stuff out there you should try it). I was able to sign up on there website and save .55 on a 1/2 gallon of chocolate milk. Although it was difficult finding a coupon for certain grocery items like Chuluha Sauce, but I was able to find a couple of good coupons.

> So I sent the grocery list to my email and went to the store. Overall I did a good job in buying only what was on the list. Whatever was not on the list I put in the child seat to give myself a chance to think it over. My goal was $90, my total was $113. So I stayed close to budget.

> Always check your receipt before you leave the store. I found 3 different errors, where I was able to save $8.00 on my grocery bill. So I went over my budget only $15, which I considered a small success.

> What I learned is you find a good sale make sure to buy it even if you don't need it. For example, I bought Crystal Light because it was Buy One Get One Free, now I already had 3 or 4 in the pantry, but getting them at half price only makes sense. So some items I purchased were not necessities, but will save money over the long run.

> So overall I consider it a success. My total savings according to Publix was around $37 and with the $8 they put back on my debit card, I would say I saved $45, which really makes the frugal me very happy.

So remember it's ok to cut out or print coupons and save money. My lesson is frugal=value=cutting coupons=making a grocery list=saving money.