How to Save Money in Your Twenties

The sooner you can establish a habit of saving, the better off you will be. When you are in your twenties, you often have more disposable income because you have not yet purchased a home or started a family. You may have a great deal of student loan debt you need to pay off and possibly some credit card debt, as well. You can tackle the debt issueand begin saving money on your everyday expenses. Establishing frugal habits now and regularly setting aside a portion of your paycheck will make it easier to continue to do this as your financial obligations increase as you take each of the major steps in your life. These steps can help you stop bad financial habits from affecting you. If you can make savings automatic now, you will benefit later on.

1.  Start Saving for Retirement Now

As soon as you are eligible, sign up for the retirement plan through your work. Begin by contributing up to youremployer’s match. Then as you receive each raise, raise the percentage until you reach a contribution rate of fifteen percent of your income. Doing it this way means that you will not miss the money, because your paycheck should stay about the same. Once you reach the fifteen percent limit, you can just keep your contribution level steady. If your employer does not offer a retirement plan or if you are self-employed, it is even more important to start saving for retirement now. You can start by contributing five percent towards retirement and then work to raise it two or three percent each year.

2.  Create Frugal Habits

The habits you set up when you first start out on your own will influence the way you handle your money as you get older. The same thing applies when you first get married or begin living with someone. The financial habits that you create now will benefit you in the future. Make it a goal to take lunches from home to work. You can also limit eating out with friends or on your own to once a week. These basic steps will help you to savemoney over time. It is important to realize that part of saving money is finding the most inexpensive ways to do something. This can cover everything from eating at home to researching the best deals on the items that you need to buy. Finding ways to save on a tight budget makes it easier to save as you earn more. Being frugal can help you reach your goals. Good habits can help you stop dipping into your savings account each monthso you can begin to see real progress. You may want to take a frugal challenge to see how much you can start saving each month.

3.  Set Tangible Savings Goals

Saving money is a great habit to establish. It helps to have specific goals that you are working toward each month or year. This should be separate from your retirement savings. You should set a goal that you want to reach, and then set a time limit. This will determine the amount that you should put into savings each month. You need to make sure that you can reach the goal. However, you should be saving enough that you are conscious of your other spending decisions. Saving now means that you will have the down payment for your home when you are ready to buy a home. Saving now means that you can save up for your Europe vacation. You can also save up to pay for your car in cash.

4.  Challenge Yourself to Stop Spending

Another way you can increase the amount you save each month is to challenge yourself to stop spending money in a different category each month. You may even go extreme and stop spending money completely for a month except for groceries and transportation to get to work. The good thing about these types of challenges is that they are relatively short, just a month. This means you can make the sacrifices for just a short amount of time. It allows you to recognize areas, where you can get by without spending at all or areas where it may be easy to cut back on the amount you spend each month. These challenges can also help you drastically cut your spending if you need to raise cash quickly.