Start Saving Money On Autopilot

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. Meaning at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Don’t worry though. I only recommend products that I believe will help you on your journey.

Check Out Related Episodes & Resources

Let’s talk about saving money and ways that you CAN actually do it on autopilot without having to pinch pennies or just live off beans and rice. April is financial literacy month and we’re starting with the basics so let’s do this!

LISTEN OR SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE IN YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSS

Resources

Budgeting Simplified – https://aimeecerka.com/budget

Combat Inflation Training – https://aimeecerka.com/inflation

Instagram – https://instagram.com/aimeecerka

Podcast Key Points
0:00 – Episode Overview
1:23 – Episode Sponsorship
2:51 – Episode Start
3:37 – Do It First
4:02 – Combat Inflation Training Promo
5:35 – Budgeting Set Up To Scale
7:00 – Consistency or Large Scale?
7:40 – Multiplying Your Results
9:10 – 24 Hour Rule
11:55 – Recap
13:22 – Challenge – Which is a new strategy that you’re going to implement now?

Ready to remove stress from your finances so that you don’t have to keep telling your loved ones no? With the Budget Makeover Guide discover the extra money in your bank account that you didn’t know was there – no additional income required!

Download Budget Makeover Guide

Start Saving On Autopilot – Ep. 24

We’re kicking off Financial Literacy Month today!

Let’s talk about saving money and how you can do this on autopilot. Let’s do this!

Welcome to the Your Money Your Life podcast. I’m your host, Aimee Cerka.

After my husband and I faced three major financial roadblocks in the last six years, I felt like I wasn’t doing all that I could and I had let my family down. It always felt like life was a struggle like I had to work harder than everyone else. It just came easy to them, and I didn’t feel worthy of success.

Until, a coach helped me see the successes in our experiences instead of our failures. This allowed me to create and implement systems to grow our network by 200,000+ while spending time with my loved ones and on my priorities. Now I help motivated women create the happiness, family life, financial security, and long-term wealth they deserve.

If you’re ready to eliminate stress, struggle, frustration and guilt within your finances, you’re in the right place. Welcome, I’m so glad you’re here!

Introducing Budgeting Simplified

Did you know that April is financial literacy month? That’s why this episode of the Your Money Your Life podcast is brought to you by Budgeting Simplified.

Do you struggle with stress and overwhelm with budgeting? Or do you get frustrated that you spend so much time on your budget. Yet, at the end of the month, you’re not actually getting ahead? You’re not alone. This is actually super common, and I’m here to help.

Inside Budgeting Simplified, I will show you how to budget successfully in a simple manner that sets you up to create prosperity, freedom and security. As you go through this process, you’ll have a budget specific to YOU and the unique lifestyle that you want to live. One of the best parts is, you don’t have to be a numbers person, I did all that for you. I created the system that you can plug and play and finally have the confidence that you’re craving.

With Budgeting Simplified, you have a failsafe built into your budget. So then when life throws you curveballs, as we all know it will, your budget can handle it. Stop the cycle of your bank account draining every month and finally, feel confident and have fun with your money again.

If this sounds like a heck yes for you, then simply visit aimeecerka.com/budget. And of course, if you need that link again, it’s hanging out the show notes for you.

Welcome back to another episode of the Your Money Your Life podcast. I’m your host, Aimee Cerka.

Do it First – Automated Savings

Today we’re going to be talking about saving money and how you can actually do that on autopilot.

Because I know that the whole pinching pennies, cutting coupons, doing all those things. It’s not fun. It’s time consuming and it’s not something that I want you to have to be doing. But there are ways that we can save money that’s not those things but it’s still smart to do, and it’s not an obsessive manner.

All right. So, let’s see here. Five quick strategies for you today as we kick off Financial Literacy Month.

The first thing when we’re talking about saving money, do it first.

So literally like putting money into your savings account, do it when you get paid. You’ve probably heard this before, right? But are you actually doing it? Because if we wait, well, I don’t know if I’m going to have enough money to make it until next paycheck, whatever. Next time I make money, whatever that might be, depending on your income situation. If we don’t do it first, it’s not going to happen.

Percentage-Based Budgeting

Which brings me to the second point percentage-based budgeting, which is what Budgeting Simplified teaches!

It’s so much better because it’s truly going to scale with you. We prevent what we call lifestyle creep. When we start to percentage base budget, that like makes it easier. I feel like that’s almost it. But percentage-based budgeting will grow with you as your income does.

So if you have a slower month with less income, how much you’re saving is going to automatically adjust. As your income grows, as you continue to scale and do more things, you’re going to save more money on autopilot but you’re still going to have the money that you need to go do the fun stuff that you want to do because it’s all percentage based. It’s a no brainer. Okay?

So when we do the percentage based budgeting, we do it first, sounds great. But if you’re not saving anything at all, I mean, at least start with 1%, like that would be something you could start with, which again, we talk all about inside Budgeting Simplified. But if you’re thinking like that is too much to start with Aimee, I cannot handle that. Give me something else. All right?

Start Small – $25 a Month

Let’s start with $25 a month, if you’re not saving anything. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, $25 a month is not going to cover a whole lot in your savings account, but it doesn’t matter. If you’re not saving anything, right now, our whole goal is not for you to have a bunch of money in a savings account. Our goal is for you to consistently be adding money to that savings account.

Because when you’re consistent, I’ll take that any day over somebody who can do like a big chunk and be done. Because that consistent habit is what is going to create those unstoppable finances, that is what’s going to do the things that you need to, to move forward. Okay.

Multiply Your Results – Separate Bank

The fourth thing, multiply your results.

There is something to be said for having some cash on hand. We’re not talking about that today, but put the money in your savings account, like so that it actually works for you.

So two things with this, put it at a separate bank than where you do your primary checking out, okay. I use and love Discover. You’ll actually earn interest on some of your savings as well because they actually pay you. Probably one of the most decent interest rates I’ve seen when it comes to savings accounts. I’m sure there’s others out there, but that’s the one that I use and love.

But at a minimum, use a different bank. Because if your money is so close right there, you can just transfer it back and forth, you’re going to do it and then it’s not going to stick. So you’re going to multiply your results because what you’re doing is actually going to stick and you’re not going to just transfer it back. But it’s still a liquid asset, if something is happening and you needed the money, you can get to it, and you can get to it fast, you can get to it today if needed.

But you’re still making that one extra step to help designate it as a savings account, put it in a separate bank. Just as a side note with Discover, $25 Minimum opening deposit, at least last time I checked, and they have no monthly minimum requirements. So if you’re only adding the $25 in there once a month, that’s fine, you’re not going to recur any fees. That’s something to be mindful of as well because you’re not always going to have a large chunk of money sitting in that savings account.

The 24-Hour Rule – Intentional Spending

Lastly, let’s talk about the 24-hour rule.

So what the 24-hour rule is, if you’re married, you need to talk with your spouse. But when you set $1 amount, let’s say $500. Actually, let’s go lower, because most of us are going to need something lower $100.

If you have a purchase that you’re going to be making, that’s more than $100. That’s not like a bill. It’s not a pre-planned purchase, this isn’t groceries could be like an item at the grocery store. But this isn’t pre-planned with something that we’re seeing like, “Okay, hey, I need that.” We have to wait 24 hours before we make that purchase, unless it is something you’ve already planned for.

The example I like to share in this instance is a couple years ago, I wanted an instant pot for Christmas, and we had already talked about like that’s what I was going to get for Christmas, all these things. It went on sale for I think it was like a Prime Day deal. It was one of those say it was a deal of some sort, I think it was Prime Day. But because we had already set the intention and plan on purchasing this, we went ahead and purchased it. But if we hadn’t have set the intention beforehand, then I would have to wait 24 hours.

The point that we do with this is we make sure that we are buying things that we need and things that we actually want, not just kind of like it feels good at the moment. This is going to help with impulse spending to do things in a right way, like we did the challenge at the beginning of the year Impulse Spending The Right Way. There is a right way to impulse spent and we definitely can do that. But if you’re making big purchases based off of like “Okay, that looks nice”, but we don’t love it.

I think it was Blindside. There’s a movie that they talked about this, they’re clothes shopping. And they say if it’s not like a heck yes in the store, then don’t get it. Because when you’re in the store, that’s when you’re going to love it the most and that totally made sense because I think we’ve all bought things before that we never really used or wore again, and it probably wasn’t like a heck yes in the store.

So waiting 24 hours. This can be, if you’ve pre-planned, then that does not apply. This was like an intentional purchase. But if it’s something you were not planning on purchasing, wait the 24 hours. There’s not a lot that will happen in 24 hours that you’ll lose it, but it makes us be intentional with our purchases, and you’ll be amazed at how much you save just by intentionally impulse spending.

Recap and Challenge

Okay, so let’s quickly recap our saving on autopilot as we kick off Financial Literacy Month. So we’re going to automate our savings, do it automatically if we can. If not, you’re automating into your calendar to schedule that you’re going to do it. So Friday is my financial check in. Budgeting Simplified people yet again, you know this, that we check in with our finances every single Friday.

So we automated our savings, we’re doing it first, instead of waiting till the end of the pay period. To move those savings over, we’re going to do a percentage-based savings amount so that it scales with our income. But at a minimum, we’re doing $25 per whatever we can do, if it’s only $25, once a month, $25 a week, whatever it is, at a minimum, we’re still doing something, because we know that that consistency is more important than the actual amount. Then we’re multiplying our results by moving it to a separate bank, something like discover where it’s one step out of reach, and you’re actually going to earn a little bit of interest on it as well. And then lastly, we are utilizing that 24 Hour Rule to make sure that we are buying things that we actually want and impulse spending in a way that feels good for us.

So now that you’re doing all the amazing things, I want to hear your challenge for today, send me a message on Instagram let me know which part of these strategies which is a new strategy for you that you’re going to start to implement now? And we’ll see you next week for another episode of the Your Money Your Life podcast. Bye for now!

Thank you so much for listening to the Your Money Your Life podcast. My favorite place to hang out is on Instagram. You can find me at @aimeecerka. Send me a message or post a screenshot and tag me! I love hearing from podcast listeners.

Connect with Aimee

When you’re ready to master your money, go to https://workwithaimee.com. You and I will work together to ditch financial stress and struggle for good with a customized plan that works for you, your goals, your priorities, your life. I’ll see you next time on the Your Money Your Life podcast.

If you love today’s episode, make sure to subscribe wherever you like to listen to podcasts. That way you’ll receive new episodes right when they’re released, then leave a rating and review. It helps amazing people just like you find the show faster. We’ll see you next week!