By coinnews 
00:00 Brad
According to Pew Research about half of Americans have an emergency fund that can cover three months of expenses. But once you start saving every month, what should you do next? I want to bring in Bobby Rebel, who is the cardrates.com certified financial planner and personal finance expert as part of our savings series, brought to you by Synchrony. Great to see you, Bobby. So let’s dive into this right now. How can you take action to make sure you’re saving as much as possible?
00:30 Bobby
Well, first of all, thank you so much, Brad, for having me. And taking action is exactly where we want to be because we have to be proactive. It’s not going to just happen by itself. One of the best things we can do is set very specific goals by separating our savings goals. You mentioned an emergency fund. That, of course, is a priority. I thought that statistic was actually better than I would have expected. So kudos to the people that are saving already. But separate, you know, you want to have your emergency fund, you want to have your vacation fund, you want to have your retirement funds, whatever it may be, and make sure that you’re separating them to make it more realistic and more tangible. You also want to track your spending backwards. And what that means is by putting your savings first, you prioritize that, and you say that’s the way I’m really going to gift to myself. The way to get there, use the right tools. Obviously, traditional budgeting apps are a smart way to go. But even AI tools can be really productive when it comes to putting our savings first. Throw it into chat GPT. If you can’t figure out where to get that extra savings, throw in what’s going on in your personal situation. You might be surprised. Some good ideas could really come out of it.
02:04 Brad
How do you approach setting a savings goal?
02:14 Bobby
So you want to really focus on, um, what matters most to you. Be intentional, be thoughtful. Be proactive, as I mentioned, and also, of course, take specific steps. You might want to, as the graphic that just went away mentioned, you know, do things like stopping automatic renewals on subscriptions because that way you aren’t just mindlessly paying for things that you may or may not be using. I promise you, they will come back to you to renew many times often with better offers. And also make it a little bit harder to spend that money by removing your credit card information from your computer, so you have to actually physically get up, go get the number, re-input it. I can’t tell you how many times I just haven’t bothered, or I got distracted with something else, and it just didn’t happen, and I forgot to buy that thing. And I guess that money can go into savings.
03:17 Brad
Yeah, I might have to, uh, men in black flashy thingy myself in the mirror just to make sure that I could forget those numbers because I just remember them all. So what do you do if you get an unexpected windfall, whether your tax refund or an inheritance, or even a bonus check from work?
03:50 Bobby
Don’t we wish this would happen to us? Yes, just the season of the tax refund. I hope for many of us, although we don’t want too big of a refund because that means we misestimated our taxes. That’s a different segment. But I want everyone to respect the money by saving it and again making that a priority. A good goal, if you want a random number, is 50%. Obviously, 100% is the ideal, but the most important thing is to avoid lifestyle creep. Sometimes we tend to say, “Well, now we’re making more money or I got this bonus this year. I’m sure I’ll get it next year. So now I’m going to live a little bit larger than I was previously.” Don’t do that. Stay true to yourself. You’ve been doing just fine as it is and enjoy the bonus by rewarding yourself and saving it.
04:45 Brad
So how can you reframe your savings mindset?
04:54 Bobby
I love this. What you want to do is really think of it as a reward to yourself. Very often, our friends, and they’re well-meaning, will say, “Oh, we’re all going out this night. What are you doing? Are you going to buy a new outfit? You deserve a new outfit.” This has happened to me so many times. And I think to myself, “Well, instead of spending this amount of money on a new outfit, maybe if I have the money, I can put it into my savings account and put it towards, you know, the next vacation I want.” Think of it as an investment in your financial freedom for the future. I love to set up mood boards. You can even do this digitally and picture where that money’s going to go in the future. And it can be the way future. It can be your retirement. It doesn’t have to be buying something or splurging on something.
05:40 Brad
Bobby, thanks so much for taking the time here with us today. Really appreciate the time and insights.
05:46 Bobby
Thank you for having me.