Every Monday I withdraw a small fixed amount from my account and put it in an envelope.
i don't touch it. Not for groceries, not for coffee, nothing. After three months I had enough to cover a small emergency without touching my savings.
i know it sounds old fashioned but something about seeing physical money made me more careful with the rest. Has anyone else tried something unusual like this?
Curious if it's just a me thing or actually works for others too.
I started paying myself first in cash — weird but it changed how I see money
byu/SubRosaVis inpersonalfinance
Posted by SubRosaVis
6 Comments
Never tried. For me is quite the opposite instead, I despise cash so much that if I have it I look forward to use it/give tips around so that I get rid of it. But to give more context I travel frequently so I always have cash in different currencies and get frustrated about that so I try to keep everything “digital”
From a personal finance perspective I track all my expenses with a spreadsheet so I am quite disciplined and don’t need further tweaks like the one you are using by withdrawing cash
Its all fun and games until some asshole steals your cash. Don’t keep cash, not only is it a huge theft risk, but it’s also depreciating by not being in an interest accruing saver.
For me personally, the one hour it would take out of my day every single week to physically go to an ATM, then physically store cash, is nowhere near worth it.
That said I have gotten a similar psychological benefit out of opening up a siloed checking/savings account as a target fund before, so I guess I kind of get it.
Seems more prudent to just open a separate HYSA with online banking once, set automatic transfers once, and forget it opposed to going to the ATM every week.
It really varies a lot what works for different people. To me, when I have cash, it feels like it’s already gone while money in my account feels worse to spend.
When I really truly need to reign in my spending, I’ll take out a set amount of cash for the week and spend it sparingly. When I try to do the same with a credit card, it just doesn’t work out the same. Probably because I can physically see the cash leaving my wallet. It’s crazy how quickly things can add up when using a CC.
Thankfully I’ve never been extremely out of control with the CC and I always pay it off, but it’s much easier to save more money when I deal with cash.
You might open an account someplace where it’s not easy to just spend. If you have to wait a few days for a transfer Ive found it feels more like a piggy bank and Im much less likely to touch it for frivolous shit, you know? It’s all about what works for you, but it’s nice to be earning interest where you can. I know it’s not much but knowing it’s growing with that interest also helped me putting money towards it