With lower salaries and longer life expectancies coupled with an economic slowdown, saving for that rainy day has become more difficult for women than ever. Women are paid less than men for the same job done, life expectancies are longer, and our career time is shorter.

Women are great planners. We need to wake up to the fact that we must commit ourselves to a savings plan to avoid the “bag lady syndrome” in the future. The question is how?

Some of these suggestions maybe painful but we need to get moving now. A little sacrifice can go a long way. Here are three immediate ways to help you start saving today.

1. Buy only what you need, not what you want. Get out of debt and pay off those high interest rate credit cards as quickly as possible. Think, “Ddo I really need those extra pair of shoes?”

2. Establish a budget where you force yourself to save what you can. My daughter gave up smoking recently (I am very proud of her for doing this) and banks what she saves on not smoking a pack of cigarettes a day in her “piggy bank.” How about you? Most of us are strapped. By establishing a budget, you may find a few extra dollars here and there to put away for emergencies.

3. Start an emergency account. Research mutual fund companies for the lowest fees in the industry and establish a money market account. They pay a higher interest rate than the typical savings account or CD at the bank. This will help you to establish an emergency account where you can sock the extra money you budget for into an interest bearing account.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Women Only. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.