Create Your Savings Plan

It is difficult to develop a savings plan if you don't know where your money is going each month.  For this reason, your budget (spending plan) and your savings plan go hand-in-hand.  If you have not already created a budget, you might want to start there first.

Think of a savings plan as "paying yourself".  Decide on an amount that you will save each month and include that in your budget, just as you would for any other expense.  If you treat your savings plan like a bill that must be paid, you are more likely to save.

Think carefully about your goals.  You can find more information about goal setting in Maintaining Your Budget and Creating Goals.  Using your spending/savings plan, you can then decide how many months might be needed and what dollar amount should be set aside each month to reach that goal.

Make saving a habit and be realistic in setting your goals.  Although sometimes goals may seem hard to meet or need to be reevaluated the effort will be worth it in the end!