Savings Matching: Double the Price
Setting up a budget is a step in the right direction. But even the most carefully planned budgets are powerless to save you from your own lack of willpower. Trust me; I know this from personal experience. Even when I make a determined effort not to spend my money on anything unnecessary, I still find myself trying to buy things I don’t need. Do you have this problem too?
I found the answer to my problem: savings matching. Savings matching is my personal policy of putting $1 in my ING Direct savings account for every $1 I spend on discretionary purchases. Whenever I buy something I don’t need, I put an equal amount of money in my savings account.
Savings matching works because it effectively doubles the cost of everything. Once you’ve trained yourself to mentally double the cost of everything, it’s much easier to say “no” to your inner spender. For example, I may be tempted to buy a DVD player at Best Buy for $100. But when I stick to savings matching, the temptation is a lot easier to handle when I tell myself that it will really cost me $200.
The beauty of savings matching is that it forces you to save money every time you cave in. By reducing unnecessary expenditures and forcing you to save, you live within your budget and are much better off financially.
