I believe that there are two main methods by which people save money, that is if they save any money at all. But one of the ways is definitely better than the other. If you’re really serious about saving some money this year and improving your finances, you might want to change the way you approach savings.

Most people get paid at some sort of regular interval and will use the money to take care of necessary expenses, bills, and then for other things that they want. After all this is paid for, they may then save what is left over. While this is one method of saving, it unfortunately leaves money on the table. Our natural tendency is to spend money that we have and we’re pretty good at it. If we’re waiting to put money away into savings until after we’ve spent money on everything else, it’s highly likely that there won’t be much to save.

In order to improve our saving process from what is explained above, we just need to change the order in which we do things. The first thing we need to do after getting paid is to put a certain amount into our savings. Once this has been taken out, we’re then free to spend the rest on our bills and other things that we want. By doing it this way you will guarantee a specific savings rate. You will also save more than you otherwise would have because when you run out of money to spend, you’ll just have to stop spending it. You will have forced yourself to think ahead and better plan out your spending and expenses.

It’s a very simple process to save, yet so many people fail miserably at it. And all you have to do is follow a few simple steps. It really is this simple.

• Get paid
• Put a percentage into savings
• Spend the rest

To get started with this process, just open up a High Yield Savings Account with ING Direct and you can make these simple transfers. This is what I do, so obviously I highly recommend it.

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