13 Money Saving Strategies That Help You Reach Your Financial Goals
Here’s something I noticed after years of reading and trying just about every piece of saving advice out there: most of it is written for “saving money” in general, as some kind of vague, ongoing virtue. But that’s not actually how I’ve ever managed to save anything real. Every time I’ve actually hit a savings target, it was because I was saving toward one specific, named thing, with a real number and a real date attached to it.
So that’s what this article is. Not thirteen ways to be a more frugal person in the abstract, but thirteen strategies built around the goal itself, whatever yours happens to be. Pick the ones that fit where you actually are.
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Get the Free Workbook1. Give the goal a real name and a real number, not a vague wish
“Save more money” isn’t a goal. It’s a feeling. Your brain can’t do much with it because there’s nothing to actually check progress against. “Save $3,000 for a used car by next June” is a goal, because it has a name, a number, and a date all attached to it.
This sounds almost too simple to matter, but I’ve watched it change everything for people, including me. The moment a goal gets specific, it stops being something you feel guilty about not doing and starts being something you can actually plan around.
Write down your goal today with all three pieces: what it is, how much it costs, and when you want it by.
2. Do the math backward from your deadline before you do anything else
Once you have a real number and a real date, there’s one calculation that tells you almost everything you need to know: take the total amount, divide it by the number of months you have, and that’s your real, required monthly number.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone avoid this step because they’re scared of what the number will say. But an uncomfortable number you actually know is far more useful than a comfortable guess that’s wrong. If the math says you need to save $500 a month and that feels impossible right now, that’s not bad news, that’s just real information telling you to either adjust the deadline or find the money somewhere.
Do the math today: your goal amount divided by your number of months.
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Visit Premier Print Works3. Give this goal its own account, completely separate from everything else
There’s a real, well-documented reason this works, and it’s not just organizational tidiness. The economist Richard Thaler, who won the Nobel Prize for his work on this, showed that people don’t actually treat money as one big interchangeable pile the way economic theory assumes we do. We split it into separate mental “accounts,” a vacation account, a bills account, a savings account, and we treat money differently depending on which account it’s sitting in. He called this mental accounting.
You can actually use this quirk in your own favor instead of letting it work against you by accident. A physically separate account for this one goal means your brain files that money under “this is for the car,” not “this is spendable.” It becomes considerably harder to dip into, not because of some rule you have to enforce through willpower, but because your own mind has already sorted it into a different category.
Open a separate account today just for this one goal, even if you start it with five dollars.
“An uncomfortable number you actually know is far more useful than a comfortable guess that’s wrong.”
Get Clear on What This Goal Actually Means to You
My free 7-Day Life Reset gives you one honest prompt a day for a week. It’s a good place to get clear on why this particular goal actually matters to you, before the numbers take over.
Start the Free Reset4. Move the money the same day you get paid, before you see it in your checking account
This is the classic “pay yourself first” idea, and it’s a classic for a reason. Money that sits in your checking account for a few days before you save it has to survive every decision you make during those days. Money that moves out the moment your paycheck lands never has to survive anything.
Set up the automatic transfer for the day you’re actually paid, not a few days later. It sounds like a small detail. In practice, it’s the difference between saving what’s left over, which is usually nothing, and saving on purpose, which actually adds up.
Set up an automatic transfer today, timed to the exact day you get paid.
5. If you don’t have a system yet, start with the 50/30/20 rule
If you’re staring at your income with no idea where a savings number would even come from, here’s a real, well-known starting point. Senator Elizabeth Warren and her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, laid out a simple split in their book “All Your Worth”: roughly 50 percent of your after-tax income toward needs, 30 percent toward wants, and 20 percent toward savings and debt.
It’s not a law, and your own percentages might need to look different depending on your cost of living. But if you have nothing else to go on, it’s a real, tested place to start rather than guessing blind.
Check your own numbers today against the 50/30/20 split, and see how close or far off you are.
Work Through the Actual Numbers With Me
My free Money Reset Workbook walks you through this math step by step, so you’re not doing it alone on the back of an envelope.
Get the Free Workbook6. The moment a recurring expense ends, redirect it straight into this goal
When a car loan gets paid off, or a subscription finally ends, or a kid grows out of daycare costs, that money almost always just quietly gets absorbed back into regular spending. Nobody decides that. It just happens, because there’s no other plan for it.
Beat that by deciding in advance: the moment this specific expense ends, its exact dollar amount gets redirected straight into the goal’s account, automatically. You won’t feel the loss, because you were already living without that money. You’ll just feel the goal moving faster.
Name one expense today that’s set to end soon, and decide now where that money goes next.
7. Break the total into checkpoints, and actually mark each one
A single, distant number, like $3,000, can feel too far away to feel real for months at a time. Breaking it into checkpoints, 25 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent, gives you real, regular moments to actually notice progress instead of only noticing the huge gap still left.
Mark each checkpoint when you hit it. Say it out loud, tell someone, write it down. This isn’t about having a party at 25 percent. It’s about giving your brain real, periodic proof that the plan is actually working, since proof is what keeps most people going far more than willpower does.
Mark your first checkpoint on your workbook or calendar today, even if you haven’t hit it yet.
8. Tell one person the actual number and the actual date, not just “I’m trying to save”
There’s a real difference between telling someone “I’m trying to save some money” and telling them “I’m saving $3,000 for a car by next June.” The first is easy to quietly let go of. The second has specific enough details that someone can actually check in on it, and that you can’t as easily pretend didn’t happen.
Pick someone who’ll actually ask you about it later, not just nod politely once. Give them the real numbers, not a softened version.
Tell one person today the real number and the real date behind your goal.
9. Match the type of account to how soon you’ll actually need the money
This one gets skipped a lot, and it matters more than people think. If you need this money within the next year or two, it should stay somewhere safe and easy to access, a regular savings account, not tied up somewhere you can’t reach quickly or where the value could drop right when you need it. If the goal is much further out, further-out savings can afford to sit somewhere that grows more, since you have time to ride out any ups and downs.
The mistake I see most often is locking up short-term money somewhere illiquid, and then having to scramble or take a loss to actually get it out when the deadline arrives. Match the account to the timeline, not to whatever sounds most exciting.
Check today whether your goal’s money is sitting somewhere that actually matches how soon you’ll need it.
10. Decide right now what you’ll do the day you’re tempted to raid this account
At some point, almost everyone gets tempted to dip into a savings goal for something unrelated. The best time to decide what you’ll do about that isn’t in the moment, when the temptation is already strong. It’s now, while you’re calm and thinking clearly.
Write down your own rule in advance. Maybe it’s “I wait 48 hours before touching this account for anything outside its purpose.” Maybe it’s “I text my accountability person before I move a dollar out of it.” Whatever it is, decide it now, so future-you isn’t negotiating with a decision that hasn’t been made yet.
Write down today the exact rule you’ll follow if you’re ever tempted to raid this account.
11. Revisit the math the moment your income or your goal changes, don’t just abandon the plan
A raise, a new bill, a change in the goal itself, any of these can make your original monthly number wrong. The mistake isn’t the number becoming outdated. The mistake is treating an outdated number as proof the whole plan failed, instead of just recalculating it.
When something changes, go back to strategy two. Redo the math. A revised number is still a real plan. An abandoned goal is not.
Check today whether anything has changed since you first calculated your monthly number.
12. Automate a small increase every few months, before you get used to your current amount
Whatever you’re saving right now will start to feel normal after a while, which is exactly the moment to nudge it up slightly before that comfort turns into a ceiling. A small increase, even five or ten dollars more a month, made automatically on a schedule, keeps the goal moving faster without ever feeling like a big, painful jump.
Set a reminder today to increase your automatic transfer slightly in three months.
13. When you reach the goal, actually stop and notice it before moving to the next one
It’s tempting to hit a savings goal and immediately roll the momentum into the next one without ever really registering that you did the first thing. I get it, there’s always another goal waiting. But skipping that moment quietly teaches your brain that finishing doesn’t actually matter, which makes the next goal harder to stay motivated for, not easier.
When you hit the number, stop. Actually look at it. Let it be real before you move on.
Decide today how you’ll actually mark it when this specific goal is reached.
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See Our Top PicksTwo People I Think About When I Write This Stuff
I know a woman named Amara who spent years telling herself she was “trying to save,” without ever attaching a real number or date to it. Nothing ever really moved. The first time she actually wrote down “$2,000 for an emergency fund by October,” and did the backward math, she told me it was the first time saving had ever felt like a plan instead of a hope. The number scared her a little at first. Then it just became the thing she did every payday.
I also think about a guy named Joel, who kept his savings and his everyday spending money in the same account for years, and could never figure out why the balance never grew even though he “meant to save.” The month he finally opened a separate account just for one specific goal, he said it was strange how much easier it suddenly was to leave that money alone. Nothing about his income changed. Just the account did.
If You Only Do Three Things From This List
Name the goal with a real number and date. Do the backward math to find your real monthly amount. Give it a separate account. Those three, on their own, will get you further than most general “save more money” advice ever will, because they turn a wish into something with actual shape.
Everything else on this list is there to protect that plan once it exists. But it has to exist first.
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Ready to Put a Real Number on Your Goal?
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A Small Reminder for the Journey
Take a look at Premier Print Works for prints, mugs, and shirts made for people working toward something real.
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This page is for information only. It is not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice, and should not be treated as a recommendation for a specific financial strategy. The 50/30/20 rule referenced here comes from Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi’s book “All Your Worth,” and mental accounting is a real concept from economist Richard Thaler’s research, both summarized here in plain language. Talk to a qualified professional licensed in your state before making major financial decisions. Results vary from person to person.
Amara and Joel are made-up characters used to bring this content to life. They are not real people.
Some links on this page, including links to Premier Print Works, are affiliate links. If you buy something through one, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only own and sell products through our own store, Premier Print Works.
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