{"id":1055,"date":"2010-01-14T14:41:52","date_gmt":"2010-01-14T19:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/?p=1055"},"modified":"2010-01-14T14:48:14","modified_gmt":"2010-01-14T19:48:14","slug":"jean-chatzky-savings-tips-and-book-giveaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/jean-chatzky-savings-tips-and-book-giveaway","title":{"rendered":"Jean Chatzky Savings Tips and Book Giveaway"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a special treat for Coupon Mom members, Jean Chatzky (regular\u00a0money expert on The Today Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, in Money\u00a0Magazine and The New York Daily News) shared her best tips for how we can best use our grocery savings!\u00a0 Keep reading for her strategic advice.\u00a0 You can get lots of great money advice from Jean and watch her segments\u00a0at her site:\u00a0 www.jeanchatzky.com<\/a> .<\/p>\n

She has also generously offered to give away a free copy of her new book, “Money 911” to three lucky winners<\/strong>.\u00a0 Just enter here <\/a>and watch your Coupon Mom newsletter next week to see if you won!\u00a0<\/p>\n

How to Get the Most Out of Your\u00a0Strategic Shopping\u00a0Savings
\nby Jean Chatzky<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two hundred dollars.\u00a0 That, on average, is how much you\u2019re saving following the Coupon Mom\u2019s money-saving methodology.\u00a0\u00a0 But what are you doing <\/em>with that money?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I ask because If you\u2019re not consciously using it to accomplish one goal or another, then this year $2400 is going to fly through your fingertips without you knowing what happened to it.\u00a0 And that would be a shame.\u00a0 Because if you, say, decided to invest that money in some sort of tax-deferred account where you earned an 8 percent return, then in 10 years that money would have more than doubled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it gets better: If you continued <\/em>to deposit your $200 in savings every single month for 10 years into that account earning 8%, at the end of the decade you\u2019d have $36,600.\u00a0 And in two decades, you\u2019d have $117,800.\u00a0 You could put a child through college.\u00a0 Build the kitchen you\u2019ve always wanted.\u00a0 Or maybe retire your mortgage altogether.\u00a0 That\u2019s the power of saving money month in and month out.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

So how should you be using the money you\u2019re saving with the Coupon Mom?\u00a0\u00a0You should be doing these three things — in precisely this order.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Build an emergency cushion<\/strong>.\u00a0 If you do not have savings in the bank, you need them \u2013 because unemployment is not only as high as we\u2019ve seen in quite some time, if you lose one job it\u2019s taking months to get the next.\u00a0 Your goal should be to amass six months worth of living expenses in a money market account at a local bank. Open a month market and automatically have $200 transferred out of your checking account into this account right after you receive your paycheck. And note: Living expenses are not the same as the money you spend every month.\u00a0 Living expenses \u2013 your rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries, gas \u2013 include just the money that you need to spend every month to live basically.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Pay down high rate credit card debt<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 If you are paying off a balance on, say, a credit card charging you 19 percent interest, then you are putting a 19 percent return in your pocket \u2013 guaranteed.\u00a0 \u00a0You may wonder, why would I suggest funding an emergency cushion (money on which you\u2019re going to earn a 2 percent return at best) before paying down debt that could yield you 10 times that?\u00a0 Because the days of knowing that your credit cards will bail you out in an emergency are gone.\u00a0 In advance of the CARD Act, a pro-consumer credit card law that takes effect February 22, card issuers have been slashing lines of credit and closing cards altogether.\u00a0 You need that emergency cushion \u2013 in cash \u2013 just in case.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \u00a0<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Invest tax-deferred<\/strong>.\u00a0 First, turn to any company matched retirement plan you\u2019re being offered.\u00a0 \u00a0If your employer is offering to match your contributions into your 401(k) for example \u2013 by putting in 50 cents for every dollar you put in, or even 25 cents for every dollar you put in \u2013 that\u2019s the next step to take with your $200 a month savings.\u00a0 Some companies have cut back on the matching dollars they\u2019re able to give you in this economy.\u00a0 If yours is still offering to match \u2013 take it.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s just about the last free lunch going.\u00a0 If your company is not matching, investing tax-deferred is still the way to go because you\u2019ll get a tax-deduction on your contribution in many cases and you won\u2019t have to pay taxes until you retire.\u00a0\u00a0 Once you max out your retirement opportunities, move on to college for your kids, or even a health savings account.\u00a0 All offer tax-advantaged ways to help your money grow.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Get more great advice and watch Today Show segments with Jean at www.JeanChatzky.com<\/a> .\u00a0 Thanks, Jean!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        As a special treat for Coupon Mom members, Jean Chatzky (regular\u00a0money expert on The Today Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, in Money\u00a0Magazine and The New York Daily News) shared her best tips for how we can best use our grocery savings!\u00a0 Keep reading for her strategic advice.\u00a0 You can get lots of great money advice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contests-prizes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8FFMs-h1","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1055"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1058,"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055\/revisions\/1058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.couponmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}