Little ways to boost your savings

I am always looking for ways to boost my savings. Here are a few ways I have run across:

1. Do you have change/coins sitting around in a box or jar collecing dust? Put this money into a savings account that pays interest, preferably a high interest savings account. I recently rolled a jar of coins i’ve had collecting for over a year and it ended up being over $60!

2. Pay bills online, and don’t pay them early. Most banks allow you to pay bills online directly through the banks website. This saves $0.42 per stamp (as of today, 6/23/08), plus you don’t have to write a check. So instead of paying a bill 2 weeks before it is due, why not park the money in an online savings account for 1 week, earn a little interest on it, then transfer the money back out to pay the bill a few days before it’s due?

3. Treat savings like another bill. Just like you have a monthly utility bill or credit card bill, write yourself a check (or transfer a set amount to your savings) every paycheck. Even small amounts add up big in the long run. If you transfer $40 a month ($20 from each paycheck if you are paid twice a month) into a savings account, in 10 years you will have saved $4,800! And that’s not including interest.

4. Save all or part of your tax refund. This is a great way to boost your savings. Or better yet, use the IRS Witholding Calculator to make sure you are not having too much or too little income tax taken out of your paycheck. As nice as it is to get a refund come tax time, remember this is YOUR money that you have just loaned to the government all year. Why not adjust your witholdings to have less income tax taken out of your paycheck (if you are entitled to) and park it in an online savings account to earn some interest?