Principle 3: Savings
Savings are pivotal to you accomplishing your financial goals. According to a U.S. Department of Commerce report, the savings rate in the United States compared to disposable personal income has dropped dramatically. What does that mean? We have gone through some tough economic times recently and people have not been saving as much. The good thing is that this rate has gone up a little, but we still have a long ways to go. There are many reasons why we would want to save: down payment on house, rainy day fund, education, emergency fund, new car, vacations, retirement, etc. For me, the purpose of savings is to give me more of a pace of mind. I like knowing that if my car needs repairs I have a little set aside. I like knowing that I have enough to go on vacation, even though it may be small, with my family. We will explore why save money, how to save money and where to put that savings.
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Top 10 Summertime Money Saving Tips
Summer is fast approaching. Summertime is my most favorite time of year because of all the things to do. I admit going to Disneyland or cross country may not be in everyone’s budget. I have found that there are lots of activities or ideas that do not cost a lot of money. I thought I would share with you my top 10 tips for low cost summertime activities.
- Find Free Community Events. Your city or the cities surrounding you will have events throughout the summer that won’t cost anything. Some of the events we found last year within 15 miles of our house were multiple parades, a rodeo, and movies in the park, fireworks, and other cool events. The fireworks are so close to our house that we invite all our friends over for a BBQ and to watch them from our backyard. It helps when they are less than a half mile away.
- Join Your Local Recreation Center. I used to workout at Gold’s Gym and switched to a family pass for our local recreation center and still spent less than the gym. We are lucky because our recreation center has all of these indoor amenities; lap pool with 8 lanes, fun pool, lazy river, water slides, basketball courts, quarter mile track, weight room, aerobic room, and lots of free classes you can attend. It is less crowded and a better facility. The whole family can do anything versus only me being able to work out.
- Use Your Local Library. I know that this may not sound like the best entertainment, but we have found this one to be great. Our family loves to read books. Rather than purchasing books, we will go and check out 20 books at a time. Some are novels. Some are Dr. Seuss books. The great thing is that if they don’t have a book you want to read you can put in a request for the library to purchase that book. My wife did that the other day and was the first to read that book. My daughter has also done that. Each library is different, but we didn’t know they did that until we asked.
- Learn To Love The Park. You will be amazed at how many parks are nearby. When we go to visit my parents in St. George we spend a lot of time at the park. Find ones that are different and you can spend lots of time for no charge. I find the park to be a relaxing place until I have to play tag with the kids and climb through the pipes.
- Look For Discounted Locations. It seems like more and more discount websites and recreation venues are popping up. We have two favorite discount passes we buy. We buy one at the beginning of the summer and one at the end to break up the cost. One includes a water park, ice skating rink, local minor league baseball team and D-league basketball team season tickets, 3 miniature golf courses, laser tag and a bunch more for less than $200 for a family of 5. The other includes a dinosaur museum, farm and petting zoo, botanical gardens that includes the largest man made waterfall, children’s garden and discounts at the ice cream shop for less than $150 for the family. We used this pass for my nephew’s birthday party and saved over $150 with the 50% of all guests feature. It pays for itself really fast.
- Go Camping. I look forward to going camping. It might be because I have convinced my kids of Bigfoot and we are always watching out for him. It is amazing how many times my kids have spotted him. We are lucky to be located near lakes, rivers, mountains, and deserts. This provides us with ample opportunities to camp in new places. Just remember to bring the essentials: pillow, bug spray, matches, marshmallows, chocolate, firewood and a stick to roast the marshmallows on.
- Try Something New. Our friends do geocaching. This is where you use a GPS device to search for treasure. There are websites devoted to it. Rather than buy a GPS our friends would loan it to us if we want to go. This provides a fun and adventurous way to get out of the house. Who knows what you will find.
- Love The Netflix And Redbox. I am a firm believer in Netflix and Redbox. Sometimes you just need to sit down and watch a good movie. I know that I can always find something for anyone in the house with these two. The best is making sure that we have the caramel popcorn ready to watch the movie. Make it feel like it is a special experience and they will enjoy it.
- Be A Volunteer Or Mentor. You may not think of this as great summer entertainment, but there is something in volunteering your time to help others. I just received a notice from my MBA program that is looking for mentors for second year students. I also know of a friend that was able to get out of bed thanks to a charity organization that uses animals to help those who have become disabled. I think my kids would enjoy working with those who need help and animals at the same time.
- Have Fun. There are so many things you can do that don’t cost a lot of money. The idea is to make sure that you still live and enjoy life.
Dinner Groups
We have a very close knit neighborhood and group of friends. Some of our friends have dinner groups. This is where four families of similar size get together to cook meals for each other. Each family takes one night a week and cooks and delivers dinner for the other three families. This way, out of four days you are only cooking one night. We were invited to join a dinner group this past month. I ...
Setting Milestones
I was up early this morning thinking about savings. We had an incident this past week that made me very grateful that I had a rainy day fund. This triggered my thinking about saving for emergency fund, rainy day fund and my children’s education. I don’t know if anyone has gone through what I went through when thinking about this, but I was overwhelmed. I am going to put out some rough numbers ...
Use 529 College Savings Plans
Higher education is becoming very expensive. That means if you have children and want to have money set aside for them to go to college you need to start saving now. There is a great program set up to help with saving for higher education. They are called 529 plans. These can be sponsored by states, state agencies or educational institutions. Why a 529 college savings plan? I believe that ...
