How to Save Money If You Don't Have IRA or 401k Options at Work

When you hear "save money" you automatically think savings accounts, money markets ,IRA's, CD's and other "forms" of saving money. Those are all good and well, but many of us don't have the money to open and contribute to those things.

IRA's and 401k's - if you are fortunate enough to work for a company that offers those - great! But what about those of us who work for companies that don't include such luxuries in their employment packages? It is quite common for them NOT to be offered, especially on the lower levels of job descriptions. So what do you do?

So what do you do? How do you get the money to open the savings, CD's or save for retirement?

Don't sell yourself short just yet!

Reprogram your thinking and budgeting to accomodate what you have. To get ahead you have to have more than you have right now, so that is where you have to start... Adjust what you have right now. Rearrange your availabilities, resources and expenditures.

First, you must reprogram your thinking about money. This is where I came up with my slogan "Save a little to save a lot". You only have so much monthly income - how do you plan to use it? If you're like me and have limited income - those options can be small and seemingly insignificant, but you put them all together, you'll be surprised at what the out come can be. Don't look at it as saving a dollar a day. Look at it as saving a dollar a day...FOR A MONTH! $30 a month is a good chunk!

Second, in order to make any money saving "program" work, you have to have a plan, a budget, a system - and YOU HAVE TO STICK TO IT. You must commit yourself to the program and follow through. If you don't, it won't work no matter how hard you try. If you are building a model airplane and get half way through and then stop working on it, you will never be able to enjoy playing with it.

Third, you MUST use common sense in your thinking. This world is full of get rich quick schemes, make millions over night offers, "I made $10,000 in one month" come-on's... well, use your common sense....if it was that easy to make that much money, why is anyone employed? Why does anyone have a job? Why is the employment field not shut down because everyone is at home making $10,000 a month?

Because, it isn't that easy and isn't always that possible, bottom line...to make money you have to spend money and if you don't have money to spend, you can't make that money. Read that fine print at the bottom of the TV screen - "not typical results" is on most of those ads - including the lose weight ones! Ergo, the theory "if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is". Common sense. It might have worked for a few, but if you are reading this article, it is most likely not something that will work for you. You must use common sense.

The most MAJOR factor to start reprograming your thinking about your money is to start at the bottom. If you give yourself an easy start, you'll see how easy it is and how quickly you can make a savings grow and next thing you know, it will be second nature to you and you can just watch that savings grow! You can even make a game out of it, and try to "beat" your savings this month over last month!

There are so many little wastes of money that we do - every day - sometimes a couple times a day. And we don't even think about them. It is only in relation to a buck or two, and at the end of the day you say, "It's two bucks! What's the big deal? I can't retire on that!!" Of course you can't retire on that, but we aren't talking about retiring. We are talking about saving money.

Again, common sense. $2 a day, is basically nothing. But $2 a day....for 365 days is $730 a year! Put that into a savings, CD, money market and let it collect interest! You do the math as to $730 a year for 10 years at X% interest rate, rolling over every year. Do it in writting. Once you see that final number on that paper - THEN you can think about what retirement has in store for you, or should I say what you have in store for retirement!

Just think, if you stop for a flavored cup of coffee ($3.75) every day, you spend $1368 a year! If you go through a drive thru fast food place for a large soda ($1.69) every day, you spend $616 a year! That's $1983 a year just for 2 drinks a day!! Are you getting this? Nearly $2,000 a year on 2 drinks a day! Until the recent change, $2,000 was the yearly limit of contribution to an IRA. Here you had it and didn't know it!

Think about all the little things you do, how often you do them and do you really NEED to do them? Add up what those little things cost you EVERY MONTH and multiple it by 12 months - you will be amazed at the savings you can have if you just re-adjust your spending. You can stop, cut back, compromise, re-adjust or re-program. Take your pick and then think about what you will do with your $2,000 every year!