Articles - Archived Money Matters

Resolve to Save More and Spend Less

If you have made a resolution to save more and spend less, but find yourself in the same situation year after year, you may be in need of a financial makeover. The good news is you can get one at no cost if you are a member of Local Government Federal Credit Union (LGFCU) which you are eligible to join if you are a local government employee. At LGFCU, we have credentialed and dedicated staff to help reach your personal financial goals.

Our objective is to help you discover where your money is going, as well as to find more money to put toward goals. Let's look at an example of how you can do both. Start with your annual salary and subtract taxes, withholdings and other deductions for the year. Divide the amount that is left by 12. This will give you what you have to spend on a monthly basis. Let's take this example into consideration: Your annual salary is $29,000. Total deductions come to $9,900, leaving $19,100 divided by 12, equaling $1,591.57 per month.

Your next step is to create categories of spending, and appropriately align the debts under the appropriate categories—obligatory vs. discretionary. You can also break your categories down further, but the main objective is to determine the areas of weakness that prevent you from reaching your goals.

A good category to start with is dining out (discretionary). If you elect to eat out five days a week for lunch at $5 a pop, you would find you are spending $1,300 over the course of a year. If you considered cutting this expense in half, you could save $650 to build an emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses. This is just one suggestions that could get you well on your way to reaching your personal financial goals. Consider giving us a call at 877.367.5428 to see if we can help further!