Saving And Spending: How To Make, Meet Goals When Planning For The Future
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Saving money is one of those things we all know we should do, but it often gets pushed down the priority list.
For young families, it's especially important, but often hard to see in the struggle to make ends meet.
Do not underestimate the impact of having some money put away.
"That can give you a lot of comfort when the next bad thing occurs," CBS Senior Business Analyst Jill Schlesinger said.
Schlesinger says a lot of people live paycheck to paycheck and can't see a path to savings.
"The easiest thing to do is take some dollar amount every single month and allocate it to your savings, and it can be a very small amount, It can be $10 a week," Schlesinger said.
That amount t can be increased as you are able. Schlesinger says the key is to automate the transaction, so you're not actually involved.
"So, what we know from behavioral finance, is that when you automate things, it goes a lot better," Schlesinger said.
A word of advice, however -- don't put your money just anywhere.
Watch: KDKA's John Shumway reports:
"If you need access to money and emergency reserve, it means you have to have access to it and it can't be at risks," Schlesinger said.
"I really strongly recommend that people have 6-12 months of living expenses in a safe place -- a bank, a CD, a short term instrument of some sort that you can get in and out of quickly," Schlesinger said.
Before the pandemic, the recommended reserve amount was enough for 3-6 months, but the last the years and COVID-19 job vulnerability have upped that need to 6-12 months.
If you're trying to figure out how much money you could afford to put into savings each month, Schlesinger suggests starting by tracking all spending for 90 days.
She then suggests doing a self-assessment to make the tracking of spending easier.
