When I was 26, retirement seemed like a star in a distance galaxy. At age 46, retirement is a little closer to home. I often hear people say that they can't save any money because they live paycheck to paycheck. They need every dime. I am always amazed at the number of members at our credit union who cash out their paycheck every two weeks. If they are paid $1,257.89, they take it all, even the 89 cents. Everyone knows that savings are important - it helps ease those unexpected expenses like a broken washing machine or school clothes or repairing your car. We know it is good for us, but how do we do it?

All good financial advisors tell you to pay yourself first, and then pay your expenses. That takes discipline and all of us find that hard to do 100% of the time. So what is a working woman/man to do? Start small and build into your savings.

Everyone can spare $20.00 a pay period to put into some type of savings. What can $20 every two weeks do?

• If you are 25 - putting $20 into an IRA account every two weeks for 30 years could become $30,377 if the rate of return is as low as 4% on average. Okay that is not enough to retire on, but it still is $30,000 in an account for saving $20.00 every two weeks. Okay - here is my plug, at MariSol, we offer an IRA saving account that allows you to deposit with each paycheck. Once you have $500 in savings - you could turn your IRA savings account into an IRA Certificate and earn even more money.
• If you want to save money for Christmas or a vacation - then find a savings club account that pays a little higher interest than a normal savings account. These accounts charge a penalty if you take your money out early so that you won't touch it. If you put in $20 every two weeks at payday, then at the end of one year - with interest - you could have up to $525 ready to spend! That means not having to put it on your credit card and paying a much higher rate of interest.
• If you just put $20 in savings every two weeks that is $520 at the end of the year. At our credit union, that means you have enough saved to open a share certificate of deposit (CD). A CD means that you can earn a lot more interest.

Savings means sacrifice, but $20.00 a week is the loss of 4 Starbuck's in the course of two weeks. I am sure our scales and our wallets would be happier if the $20 went into our accounts instead of our tummies!