With the New Year comes a variety of resolutions, and saving more money is often at the top of the list for many people. Tracking your spending patterns, creating a budget, and cutting back where you can is a great place to start, but it helps to have some concrete goals set into place as well. The financial experts at Wayne Bank and Trust Co. in Cambridge City and Richmond, IN, have a few specific tips that will help you spend less and keep more in your bank account throughout the year:

• Spend Only The Cash In Your Wallet: Those with checking accounts and credit cards frequently find it all too easy to swipe their card or write a check for unnecessary purchases and not give it much thought afterward. Using cash instead gives people a better sense of what they’re actually spending and cuts down quite a bit on impulse buys. Take enough money out to last a week for non-essential purchases and don’t allow yourself to spend over that amount.

• Divide Up Any Extra Cash That Comes Your Way: It’s exciting to come into some extra money, and the first inclination is generally to go on a shopping spree, but dividing it up for different uses would be a much smarter choice. A good way to allocate unexpected cash is to use one third to pay down some debt, put another third into a savings or investment fund, and the final third can go to help buy something you currently need or would like to have.
• Save Your Money In A Worthwhile Place: If you don’t have too much of a spending habit, you may be able to get away with keeping your nest egg somewhere in the house or in a savings or checking account. But why do that when you could put it somewhere more lucrative, like a money market account, and begin to earn a higher interest on it without having to pay annual fees? Before you know it, you’ll have a nice chunk of money building up.

Saving money ultimately comes down to discipline and determination. Call Wayne Bank and Trust Co. at (765) 935-5222 or visit their website for more financial advice.