The Start of My Savings Plan

Why was the first real post regarding online savings banks? I touched on this before but it is important. If we are going to save money, we have to make the most of it.

So I have identified who I want to use for my online savings account we need to be able to fund that account right?

Well, next is to figure out how I am going to fund this account and how much is going to it. I have decided for the time being, since the stock market is not fairing very well and I do not anticipate to improve in the next 6 to 12 months, I think investing in a high yield savings account is the way to go.

Here are 3 ways that I plan on funding this account in the short term.

1) I have roughly $50 per pay check placed in my savings account directly. I want to keep enough in this account to be able to have access to a small amount of emergency funds if I need it. So I have started a nice little base of about $250 in that account now. My wife and I have a separate account that we call, "The wedding account" even though we have been married for 5 years for our larger true emergency account. Nothing comes out of "The wedding account" unless we both agree. Therefore, having a smaller emergency fund for my own purposes is needed.

Now that I have a small base built up, I can start to use a portion of that automatic savings and redirect it to E-Trade. I plan on moving $25 per pay check. I am going to set this up automatically so I don't even have to think about it.

2) I have ghostwritten for a website for a couple of mortgage originators (loan officers) in Arizona. I have been on break from that since the end of November but have been in contact with my contact and he promises me that starting in Feburary that he will again start accepting posts from me. He pays me $15 per post. I normally give him somewhere around 2 per week and receive my payment every two weeks.

He has discussed a much bigger project that could lead to more income, though he has been very vague with details so we will have to wait and see.

I use the first installment and put it towards car insurance. The second installment will now be up for grabs. I have yet to decide if all of this will be put toward the E-Trade account or if I am going to put it into the 2010 cruise fund that the wife and I have. I can split it between both, and that seems more likely.

I do not want to count on this income as it could stop nearly at any time, though being in the mortgage industry, I'm sure I could replace most if not all the income from this gig with a little research. But being that it could end, I do not want to set up an autodraft for these funds.

3) I hope that this and my other blog www.financialbullet.com will continue to generate a little money. I'm not aiming for the stars but just a nice little amount each month. If it cracks $30 per month each, I think it would be a good start. These funds would either be A) used to produce more traffic for each site using stumbleupon or adwords. Or, B) Be placed into the E-Trade account.

Again, that this income is not reliable, I would not set up an autodraft on my accounts.

So between these three streams, hopefully, I can deposit $100 per month in this account. While modest, if my ghostwritting and blogs increase, my deposits could increase significantly.

So, were off! Let's start saving together!