Any extra cash leftover every Friday also goes to either retirement accounts or extra mortgage payments. Because we make additional contributions throughout the year we always have some sort of tax refund. That immediately becomes either the first contribution of the next year, or a big extra mortgage payment.

Assuming we aren’t taking a major trip or replacing a vehicle that year, we normally tuck 40% away for retirement and extra mortgage payments (which I regard as the same as savings).

That’s what our son did after he turned 18. At almost 21 now, he has over $2500 saved for retirement. Not a bad start for someone still in college!

I had a small account in a bank headquartered in New Orleans. During Hurricane Katrina, the funds and online access were completely unavailable for several days. This didn’t affect me because it was not my main bank and I live across the ocuntry, but if I’d lived there and been trying to buy gas on that bank’s debit or credit card so I could get to a friend’s house instead of leaving my car by the side of the road and being shipped to a shelter in Houston, having a few hundred in cash could have made all the difference.

Granted, if you keep $1,000 in cash at home, you’ll lose maybe $10-15 a year in interest. Think of it as a very cheap insurance policy against rare but serious, possibly deadly, events. Obviously, if you do this, you’ll want to keep it well hidden and not tell undependable family members about it.

Therefore this category doesn’t have anything to do with savings. Savings for retirement were in the “retirements, pensions & Social Security” section. There does not appear to be any other category that addresses savings such as an emergency fund or savings for a future purchase.

Sad fact, but until recently the average savings rate was negative according to the articles I’ve read. And the only other place where any savings figure *might* be hiding is in the difference between the income before taxes and the average annual expenditures (along with taxes, of course).

As for savings, it should definitely be a measurable category and the suggestions, both in the post and the comments, are good. More people just need to do them!

My suggestions are to save even if you think you can’t. Have as little as $5 or $10 taken out every week. Once you get used to it start increasing the weekly transfer gradually. Put your raises away (assuming you get one) because you won’t miss them. If you get a bonus, take a little bit for a tiny splurge (like going out for coffee or lunch or buying a music CD) and then bank the rest (or pay down debt with it).

I have a spot on the family budget spreadsheet for finding savings every month. It seems that I never run out of ways to cut spending.

I would say the best tip is not only to automate month to month, but to automate increases – our 401K providers let us select an option to increase contributions by 1% (or more) automatically every X number of months. You can set this to coincide with your annual raise/cost of living increases and never notice the difference in your monthly budget.

We have had very few vacations, don’t eat out much, and at one point I was working seven days a week to pay off some debt. Save, save and save some more!

This is one area of my financial life were I feel I have been pretty good at.

I immediately enrolled in my company’s 401k program when I got a “real” job out of college. And my budget has evolved over the years where I no longer “miss” the reduction in net pay.

Plus, its nice seeing a steadily growing balance in my retirement account(with the exception of 2009 :()!