Savings Accounts: Put Your Savings in the Fast Lane

If you are feeling the pinch of the economic downturn and trying to keep yourself away from furhter debts then it's time to get back into saving money. While it's great to have a savings account you need to make a few changes to put your savings growth into the fast lane and reach your saving goals faster. You won't need to get a new job or work loads of overtime, you simply need to make better use of the money you have now.

Create a Budget: In order to free up more money for savings you should create a household budget. Start by noting down all your incoming income such as wages, dividends from shares and any others. Then add up roughly how much you spend on outgoings each month. Allow money for big items such as insurance that you may pay once per year as well as things like travel and car maintenance. After you add up your incomings minus your outgoings the figure will show you how much money you should have left over at the end of each month. If you are spending more than you earn then you will be pushing yourself further into debt each month and need to take some urgent action. Run through your spending and look for items where you can cut back or make some savings.

Reduce costs: In order to free up more money than you have at the moment then you need to cut back on some of your costs. Just making a number of simple changes can add up to save a lot of money. Here are just a handful of ideas to get you started. - Stop buying your lunch out during work days or expensive coffees in the morning, take your own from home instead. If you spend $10 a day, 20 days a week on food, snacks and coffees that will add up to $2,400 a year. Taking your own would only cost a fraction. - Cut back on a couple of luxuries or unhealthy snacks from your weekly groceries. For example if you removed a $2 bag of corn-chips and a $3 six pack on soft drink you would save an extra $260 per year. - Rent a movie instead of going to the cinema. Renting a movie for the whole family only costs a few dollars compared to an expensive trip to the movies with tickets for each person and expensive drinks and snacks.

Set Goals: It's much easier to stay motivated if you have something exciting to aim for. Write out some targets for how much you want to have saved by a certain date. Think about something you want the savings for such a vacation, a new TV or a new automobile. Knowing that you can book that holiday or go and get that new car once you save enough will be a big help in saving faster. Raise Extra for Savings Go through your home and find all the things that you have not used or worn recently or don 't think you will use again and try to sell them through Ebay, garage sales and so on. Put all the money raised directly into your high interest savings account.

Boost Your Interest: The next thing is choosing the right savings account. Check out the range of high interest savings account products on offer to compare interest rates. The best interest rates often come with the high interest online savings accounts as online banks have lower overheads and pass these on with higher interest rates. When comparing a high interest savings account check if the interest rate is an introductory offer or ongoing as well as any fees or penalties for withdrawing your money.

Automate Your Savings: Rather than having to remember to set aside money each month and pay it into your high interest savings account, set up a direct debit so a set amount of money goes direct to the savings account each month. You can still make extra payments but this at least ensures your balance keeps growing and you don't get a chance to spend the money first.

Hopefully all this tips will help get you on the road to saving faster. Make yourself a budget, set some goals and get started now. With some motivation and a few little changes you will find you can get the things you want faster than you may think and without the costs and stress of debt.