Savings

[greenmonkey51]

This has been bothering me for a while. I just graduated high school and Im waiting for community college to start. I currently put about 25% of my check in savings and the rest in checking. I live at home since its cheaper the the college is a mile away. I won't be paying for college since I got a scholorship and my parents will pay the rest. I have no bills beside insurance and gas. I feel guilty when I buy stuff I want even though I have plenty of money to. Should I be saving more.

[shhhli]

wow. we are in the EXACT same position.
i put away 100$ from every paycheck (well, okay, i am as soon as i get my two rims, vet visits for chewbacca, phone bill, and car tags paid for and am keeping up with the weeks)

just do what you feel, ive got a great job for an fresh HS grad making 8/hour as compared to most of my friends who make 5.15-6.00/hour. I plan to have a nice 4 year college nest egg so i dont have to work for the first year or so.

but right now its spend spend spend. eck. i've got a 900$ bp to finish paying, then next month come the rims' payment so....
put away as much as you want, personally and ideally, i would go through my week normally, and at the next pay check, everything in checking gets put into savings and the new check into checking.

but im anal about saving
^^
what are you going into? college wise

[Shelby]

Saving is so rewarding. If I was more.. normal (going to movies and out to eat all the time, buying other stuff that's not neccessary) I wouldn't have the snakes that I have now.. among other things.

Save as much as you can.. if you have goals in mind for the saved money that are exciting, it can really not be hard to put a lot of your money away.

That's just how I do things. I've invested a lot of my money into my snakes, and have a collection worth close to $4000.. I love them so it's not hard to save, or invest in them. It really helps if your goals are exciting to you!

[JLC]

My advice would be to save now, while you can. And get in the habit of making a conscious choice to NOT buy something you want, even though you have the money for it. Because someday down the road, you'll have to make those hard choices frequently, and if you're already in the habit of carefully considering each purchase, it'll be a LOT easier. Spending freely is a very hard habit to break.


So...if you want to "practice" for some of the hard times in life that virtually everyone goes through, put more money into savings...enough to make you really consider how you spend the rest of your money.

EDIT: PS -- And good luck with your future! It sounds like you're already on a good track saving anything at all!

[tigerlily]

Save NOW!!! You'll need money for all sorts of stuff when you get started on your own. Not to mention a downpayment on a house, if that is your goal. Plus, I'm with Judy. Don't start bad habits now, because they are super hard to break.

[Freakie_frog]

Take it from a banker and someone that had to work thru college. You want to put as much in savings now as you can. "Delayed Gratification" that is the word of the day. just think if you put say for example 3000.00 now that is 12.00 a day for 250 days. If you are going year around then that's even less. College is stressfull enough without worrying about a job and gas money. LOL

Best of luck study hard and remember "Delayed Gratification". Work now and study so when your my age you can play and have fun.