A Little Savings Today Can Add Up to a Big Nest Egg Tomorrow for Atlanta Residents
Most folks today don't think picking up a penny is worth the effort. After all, it's only one-hundredth of a dollar, right?
But over time, one percent adds up - especially when you've been slacking in the saving department thanks to a lot of debt, too little pay and overall financial fallout from the recession.
Don't believe me? Just check out a new calculator tool from the New York Times. A few more dollars saved today can become a lot more tomorrow. Let's look at an example.
Let's say you're bringing home $40,000 a year in income and you're currently saving 5 percent of that, or about $2,000 a year. If you're earning an average of 3% interest on your savings - a pretty easy rate to obtain - you could have $20,000 saved up in 10 years. However, increase your savings rate by just one percentage point - or $400 yearly - and you're looking at $24,000. Better yet, up your savings by an additional one percent each year and you could more than double your original stash to $42,000. Imagine what you could do in 20, 30 or even 40 years.
The numbers are even more shocking if you're one of the many Americans saving nothing, or close to it. Start saving just 1 percent of your paycheck, and you could go from having a big, fat nothing in a decade to having $4,000. Increase your savings rate by just one percentage point a year - so 1 percent this year, 2 percent next year and so on - and you could have $22,000 squirreled away. Now that's a difference.
So where would you come up with that extra $400 a year? Considering the fact that it breaks down to about $7.75 a week, just about anywhere. Try switching to generic brands at the grocery store to save a few bucks each trip. How about cutting back on fancy coffee drinks - or lunches in the office cafeteria - for bringing meals and drinks from home? Maybe scale down your cable package, or cut out subscriptions like magazines, DVD rentals, etc. Instead of going to the dry cleaners, wash your laundry at home on gentle. Cut out sodas, alcohol or bottled water for cheap stuff, like tap water (which half the time is no different than what's in those bottles anyway), coffee or tea. There are as many possibilities for saving as there are for spending - you just have to make the effort to look for them.
Worried you can't afford to save because the bills are piling up and you don't have enough money as it is? You might not be able to increase your income, but you can decrease your obligations. Bankruptcy can help you reduce debts so less of your future paychecks will be tied up each month. Try a free one-on-one debt analysis with one of our Atlanta bankruptcy attorneys and find out if bankruptcy can be the savings boost you've been waiting for.