Question

When it comes to saving money, what is a good rule of thumb

Answer 1

Buy what u need when u need it not what u want when u want my dad always said

Answer 2

I've had a real hard time with trying to save money. I've always spent more than I had really.

Something I've always heard is to pay yourself X% of your paycheck. I've never really don't that because I've always used my money no matter what.

Now I'm in a crunch where I need to save up some money. Build up a savings so to speak but am having trouble doing that. I am bad about managing my money.

Any ideas that I should incorporate? I have always thought about opening a second bank account for savings so I don't have access but don't want to spread myself out too thin.Biggest tip for saving money: Stop spending.

Until you learn some self control, hints and tips and tricks won't work because you'll still know the money is there and you'll still have access to it Here's two steps:

Figure out where you are spending money unneccesarily (bars, resturants, eating out for lunch, video games, toys, etc)Reduce that spending

The best way to do step one is to use a service like mint, or to just keep all your reciepts and tally them up at the end of the month, I'd recommend the first.

Budgeting isn't neccesarily about saving the maximium amount of money possible, it's about managing your money and making an active longer term decision about where you want to spend it. You are currently making short term passive decisions.