Building up savings, especially in uncertain times, offers peace of mind and can shield you and your family against a financial crisis. You’ll find these 7 Saving Strategies very helpful as you navigate through these unprecedented times.

1. Automate your savings

Putting your savings on autopilot is an easy way to separate savings from spending money. It’s tempting to spend money after it hits your checking account. Automating your savings will help you avoid that temptation.

Two great ways to automate your savings are:

• Split up your direct deposit and funnel part of it into a savings account.
• Set up a recurring transfer from your checking account into a savings account.

Typically, you can take either a percentage of your paycheck or a fixed amount and direct-deposit it into a savings account. You can also set an amount to be moved from your checking account into your savings account and then set the frequency of this transfer.

2. Set up an emergency fund

The common wisdom for emergency funds is that you should save at least three to six months’ worth of living expenses before you start saving for other goals. The emergency fund is separate from your other savings. It is a ready source of cash for unexpected expenses and a hedge against tapping a 401(k) or other long-term savings accounts. A sufficiently padded emergency fund also keeps you from having to use credit cards or borrow money to pay bills if you lose your job, need a costly car repair or encounter some other major, unplanned expense.

3. Tackle high-interest debt first

It’s critical to tackle high-interest debt as quickly as possible because it compounds and grows. The interest you pay is money you could be saving. One strategy for paying off debt is to zero out the highest-interest debt first. Once you’ve cleared that balance, move on to the debt with the next highest APR. This strategy, called the “avalanche method,” will reduce how much interest you pay over the long run.

4. Save for short-term goals

Once you have established an emergency fund, separate your next priorities into three “savings buckets” for short-term, medium-term and long-term goals. Savings for short-term goals should be liquid, meaning it should be accessible cash. And there is no time to ride out market corrections, so avoiding losses is important.

5. Save for medium-range goals

Let’s take for instance, If your dream is to save for a down payment on a home or your child’s college education, you’ll need to go beyond belt-tightening and set up midterm savings buckets. For instance, to save for your child’s education, consider using a 529 savings plan as your bucket. These tax-advantaged savings plans work much like a 401(k) or IRA. Your contributions are invested in mutual funds and other investments. With midterm savings buckets, avoid exposure to too much risk. The goal is still to preserve or increase capital.

6. Save for long-term goals

Retirement is perhaps the one savings goal where the time horizon is long enough that you can usually ride out market volatility. Still, it depends on how long you’ve been investing, how close to retirement you are and what sort of lifestyle you expect in retirement. Most experts say the only way investors can achieve a comfortable retirement is to invest a percentage of their long-term savings in equities.

7. Use multiple savings accounts

Having more than one savings account is a great way to earmark your money for different financial goals. This can help you make sure that money meant for one savings goal isn’t being used on another. If all of your savings is in one account, money meant for your emergency fund might accidentally be used for a vacation, for instance.

Having multiple savings accounts also gives you a clear picture of how you’re progressing toward your different savings goals.

Culled From Bankrate

When it comes to money, almost everyone will have their challenges in life. But the key is to learn how to effectively get through a financial speed bump (or two or three) and become all the wiser for it. The tips below can help you do exactly that.

Have Open Conversations

Talk to family members and friends about the obstacles you’re going through and the related stresses on your finances. Whether it’s your car unexpectedly breaking down, another unexpected bill, or something else money-related, the chances are good that a loved one can offer their experience on a similar situation.

Whether you take their advice or not, at least hearing someone else has gone through something like it is reassuring. Plus, you can hear how they dealt with a similar financial speed bump.

By having someone to bounce ideas off, you’ll likely feel less overwhelmed. Plus, now you have an idea of what you’re up against financially and can best plan how to maneuver through it. 

Practice Self-Kindness

Let’s say you’ve lost your job or find in-home expenses piling up. These are just two examples of a financial speed bump. While it can be easy to blame yourself for the hardship, that’s not going to do any good. 

Instead of feeling sorry for yourself, disappointed, or angry, the better thing to do is to use that energy to get out of the difficult place. Plan how to solve the issue and learn from it so that it doesn’t happen again (or, if it does, you’ll know how to overcome the obstacle from experience).

All the while be gentle on yourself, just as you would be with a loved one who was going through the same situation. Beating yourself up over the problem isn’t going to help anyone.

Lastly, putting a positive spin on things can help you maintain motivation to get through the hard times. When you believe you’ll get through it then really you will do so.

Educate Yourself

There are numerous resources online and likely locally too that will help you to learn more about how to budget, invest in stocks, as well as anything else money-related. Start reading up on the financial speed bump you find yourself in, such as the piling debt after having your first baby, to learn ways to navigate it that you might not have thought of.

Personal financial experts can also help you by answering your questions and providing suggestions. When you’re not finding what you’re looking for online or from loved ones, then speaking with a money coach is a great idea.

Tap into this resource for help planning short-term and long-term strategies to not only get through the current problem but also avoid some future ones.

Set Up a Financial Cushion

A safety net, also known as an emergency fund, is a useful way to plan for the unexpected. The reality is that a financial speed bump will happen to almost everyone and accumulating extra funds for when it does so will help you get through it more easily than without it.

Furthermore, this cushion provides peace of mind now about the future. Think of something unexpected, such as emergency dental surgery, and then imagine how you’ll feel less stress if you have the money in the bank to pay for it than if you don’t have that extra cash.

Saving for emergencies doesn’t have to mean a major change to your lifestyle, either; just putting a small amount of your paycheck into your bank account can be seamless and you won’t even notice it missing from your daily life. Over time, with a high-interest account, you will notice the accumulated wealth!

Finally, remember that obstacles are ones that we learn from. If you make a mistake, don’t be overly hard on yourself as that’s not helping things; instead, look to family, close friends, or a trustworthy advisor for help with managing your money issues. Your problems do not dictate your future and you can be financially successful!

Culled From BlueEdge

One way for business negotiators to avoid being predictably surprised is to overcome the cognitive biases associated with intuitive thinking. A particularly pernicious cognitive bias in negotiation is the tendency to discount the future. Research consistently shows that when making decisions, we tend to focus on short-term considerations and discount the future in a way that we regret later. Concerned about maximizing short-term shareholder value, for example, business leaders sometimes rush headlong into “quick fix” solutions, such as merging with another company.

Here are three guidelines for those looking for new guidance on how to negotiate a business deal:

1. Add long-term considerations to the conversation. You may understand the value of discussing what will happen during the implementation stage of a business contract, but you may have to convince leaders in your organization and your counterparts across the table to give future concerns the same attention. If short-term concerns—such as a current financial slump—are looming large, try to counter them through your negotiation behavior. Vividly portray the potential risks of rushing into an ill-thought-out deal, such as a broken agreement, bankruptcy, and so on. Seek unbiased advice from financial and legal experts about the risks of a deal. In addition, try to set deadlines for your negotiation that will give all parties plenty of time to weigh the pros and cons of a deal.

2. Take time to build rapport. The more time you spend getting to understand your counterparts and their organizations, the better equipped you will be to assess whether your partnership is a good idea or not. Even if you get along well with those seated across the table, seek out information about the organization’s culture and share information about your own. What values and norms are employees of both firms encouraged to ascribe to? How are employees selected, trained, and assessed? Spend time visiting one another’s headquarters and speaking to employees in different areas. If you are thinking of merging, discuss how your workers would be combined and what challenges you might face. Even if you are hammering out a simpler deal, such as a purchasing agreement, it pays to know whom you’ll be working with.

3. Prepare for adverse circumstances. Another common cognitive bias that exacerbates short-term thinking is the tendency to be overly optimistic about the future. Our unrealistic expectations about how a deal will play out lead us to search only for information that confirms our existing views and overlook information that might challenge them. This error explains why so many new businesses quickly fail. Negotiators need to envision not only best-case but also worst-case scenarios, including the possibility that conflicts will arise during the course of their partnership. You may be able to head off conflicts through two deal-design First, agree in advance to regular check-in meetings throughout the life of your contract to address any disagreements, dissatisfaction, or misunderstandings that arise. Second, prepare to handle such conflicts efficiently by including dispute-resolution clauses in your contracts that mandate the use of mediation.

In the flush of dealmaking, it’s easy to focus single-mindedly on closing the deal in negotiations. By playing devil’s advocate, you can teach yourself and your counterparts how to negotiate a business deal: by looking more realistically at the challenges that lie ahead and preparing to face them.

Culled from: www.pon.harvard.edu