Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Top 10 Ways to Save Money

I recently reached a milestone in my life on Twitter: The number of people following my tweets passed the 1,000 mark. I’m still a piker compared with champion Twitterers like Ashton Kutcher, but four figures sounds impressive to me. To thank everyone, I promised that I would tweet my top ten savings tips.

I’ve always believed that the trick to saving money is just that -- a trick. You don’t have to win the lottery, strike it rich on Wall Street or even earn a six-figure salary to build a comfortable savings cushion. You just have to play psychological tricks on yourself to stay focused on spending less and keeping more cash in your pocket.

Over the years, we’ve written about a lot of these strategies in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, and the promise I made on Twitter encouraged me to mentally cull through those tactics to choose the ones that I think are most practical and effective. And here they are, each in Twitter-ready form of 140 characters or less (with a bonus for visitors to Kiplinger.com).

1. Start right away. Don’t wait till you make more money. The more you make, the more you spend. For ideas on how to make a salary of any size go further, see our story on easy ways to stretch your paycheck.

2. Start small. It will add up to big piles of money over time. To see how fast your money will grow, plug in your numbers at our How much will my savings be worth? calculator. (more)

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