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Monday Money: Saving Small Amounts Adds Up

Jul 21, 2008 Money

When I was younger and more stupid than I am now, I had a technique that I used when keeping my checkbook that worked great for me, but managed to drive my wife insane. Looking back, I wish I could have continued using the technique and not got lost in the laziness that has doomed me to being the pathetic, financially-stressed nerd I am today.

What you do is this: whenever you make a purchase, round the amount up to the next dollar (i.e., if you spend $24.35, round it up to $25) when you write it in your check register. After a while, you will be surprised at the amount of ‘extra’ money you have in your account.

Why did this drive my wife nuts? Because it wasn’t an ‘accurate’ reflection of the ‘actual’ amount in the bank. While I concede that she is correct, and I also have a thing for accurate numbers, I liked knowing that there was a bit of extra money tucked away in the account.

Fast forward to today: I’m overdrawn (thanks to BoA’s processing timing) and I don’t have a checkbook that I keep. How can I make this work?

What I’m doing now (in order to pay off the ridiculous fees that Bank of America charges) is this: whenever I get a bit of extra money in my PayPal account, I’ll deposit the change part plus the minimum ($1.00) in the bank to help slowly fight off the offending red numbers. Slow? You bet, but I’m not going to dump all of my earnings into it at one time and NEVER have anything to use.

Anyway, I just thought I’d share this tip with you guys. Hope it helps.

Does anyone know anything about Daniel Neumeister?