How I Finally Started to Save

I get intimidated by all the rhetoric about saving money, like how I should start putting cash away as early as possible, and how I should do it regularly. I’m a recent college graduate so I don’t make that much money right now. It’s hard to find anything to save when I have to stretch a small paycheck to cover bills, rent and groceries. For a long time, I didn’t have the willpower to put money into a savings account. The choice was too hard for me to make because I got much more enjoyment from eating out and going to concerts. The only way I was going to be able to save money was if I forced myself to do it every paycheck.

Luckily, I discovered a way to automatically save money each month so that I can avoid the agonizing battle with myself (which the saver side of me usually lost).  Since I’m a university employee, I have them take money from each paycheck and deposit it into a savings account. For CU employees, the concept is simple – you just add a second account for direct deposit. Once you’ve done that, you can have 10%, 20%, or any percentage of your paycheck put into savings. It’s pretty simple to set up: go to the MyCUInfo portal (www.mycuinfo.colorado.edu) and log in with your identikey.

  1. Click on the CU Resources tab. (You’ll have this if you’re an employee.)
    – Click on the Employee Information drop-down arrow.
    – Click on “Direct Deposit”.
  2. On the new screen, click the “Add Account” button and add the information for your savings account.
    – Then click the “Edit” button next to the savings account and change the “Amount/Percent” field to whatever percentage you want to save every month.
    – Change your first account’s “Amount/Percent” field so that both accounts add up to 100% of your paycheck.

If you’re not a CU employee, but still have direct deposit, your payroll department or manager should be able to set this up for you. You only have to make the decision once and you’ll start saving money automatically on your next paycheck. I now have money set aside for emergencies or big expenditures like down payments and insurance premiums and I feel a lot less guilty when someone tells me I should be saving money.

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