New Year's Resolution: Saving & Investing

According to our New Year's Resolution poll earlier this week, our readers' most popular goal for 2007 is "boosting savings & investments." Let's tackle this resolution head on!

A great place to start is with Credit.com's Saving & Investing Worksheet. This article helps you create a basic savings plan in five easy steps:

1. Calculate your budget. See how much you can afford to put into savings each month by quickly creating a spending plan. If you allocate the cash early on, you will be less likely to spend it instead of putting it into savings. Don't forget to include your end-of-the-year bonus, that lump sum is great way to jump start your savings.
2. Evaluate your savings goals. We all have different reasons to save. Assign importance and value goals to your various short term and long term savings needs. Are you saving for retirement? For a vacation? For a mortgage? For an emergency?
3. Calculate your savings plan. Use our free goal-based savings calculator to see how much you should put away each month to achieve each of your savings objectives.
4. Choose your accounts. Different savings needs require different types of accounts. Short term savings should go in an easy to access account such as high-yield savings program. Retirement savings can go into a 401(k) and education savings will go far in a 529 plan.
5. Track your results. Follow your progress for a few months to see how well you are able to stick to your savings plan. You can redo the worksheet if you find you aren't able to contribute as much as you thought or if you are able to contribute more. Using automatic withdrawal from your paychecks is the easiest way to ensure that you are contributing toward your savings each month.

Even if you can only afford to save $100 a month and don't have time to complete the whole plan, you should start now by automatically moving that $100 to a retirement account or high yield savings account each month. If you don't save it now, you'll probably spend it.   

Once you've built up some savings, you'll have to start thinking about where to invest your money. Luckily, there is a wealth of free resources available to help you become a good investor.  The Motley Fool is my favorite resource for learning about creating an investment portfolio, buying stocks and choosing mutual funds. Their simple online how-to guides can teach you all about the basics.

You can also contact your investment company's customer service department to ask questions. Companies like Fidelity and E*trade have quality, trained representatives who can help you with your investments. Your company HR office can help you get your retirement savings on track and Morningstar.com is an excellent place to find free information on investing. If you are not sure where to start, choose an index fund. These funds have low fees and are a smart, simple investment choice.

The key for this resolution is to simply get started! The hardest part is often just physically getting the money from your paycheck into a savings account. You can make progress on this resolution in the next 15 minutes by setting up an automatic withdrawal into a savings or retirement account online. Or, if you already have this set up, by increasing the amounts you are contributing.

Do you have savings and investment tips to share? Questions about boosting your savings? Share your feedback in the comments section below!