Starting a Savings Account

Last January I encouraged a friend to start a savings account. She was always complaining that she had no savings and had to charge emergencies when they came up (such as having to buy a new tire). She said she had no money to start a savings account with (bank requires $25 to open it) and could not afford to add to it if she did. So, I told her to save her pennies and put them in a clean empty plastic milk jug.

She did it and even added a few extra nickles and dimes, and any money she found on the ground while doing her daily walk for exercise.

I asked her this morning if she had kept it up. She informed me she had, and had taken the milk jug into the bank for them to run through their coin counting machine. To her amazement, she had over $100 in the jug. So, she opened her savings account. She also got a small raise at work last month, amounting to an extra $100 per month. She filled out the form for her payroll to put $50 of that into her savings monthly. She plans to keep that building up, and next time she needs money for an unexpected expense, she can use that rather than having to charge it or take out a small loan and pay interest.

Start slow and stay at it. If you are steady, you can do it.