Life can be hard without money, that's why we need to save.

Control your money!

1) Do you keep track on your expenses every month?
2) Do you have 3 months worth of your salary in a savings account?
3) Do you have credit card payments that are higher than $100 a month and won't pay off the bill within a year? *Except home loans, tuition, or car payments.
4) Do you have retirement plan savings (such as 401K or IRA) set up which will set you up with a nice amount by the time you turn 65 years old?
If you have "NO" as an answer for any of the above, you need to think about the solution.

Here's how to do.

Do "Debt Diet" program from Oprah

1) It's troublesome to keep receipts and put them into Excel, but to know your financial condition, you need to do this. I'm using Excel spread sheets and a peace of paper with 2 envelopes cut in half to keep receipts in sections; "Grocery" "Restaurant" "Others" and "Tax" and Excel spread sheets like this.

Keep simple Excel records divided into Grocery, Restaurant, others, tax (gas, post office, and so on)

It's good to keep track of monthly expenses like rent, phone, cell phone, payment for cards and so on. Don't forget to check your balance with online banking.

Using letter size paper and envelopes (just use the ones from junk mail!) cut in half and attached to the paper, to keep your receipts.

2)After you've started to calculate your expenses monthly, think about what you can live without it. Usually it's food, especially eating out, clothes, movies, etc. depending on your lifestyle. Make a budget less than what you spend every month, even $25 - and put it into a savings account! Interest rates are getting better. You can get 4% or more depending on the bank. If you have $1000, you can get $3.27 each month. You may think it's nothing, but in the long run, it adds up!

3)Credit cards.. They are making good money thanks to a good customer like you. Most of the interest rates on the credit cards are more than 10%. You give them $10 a month to them for every $100 you spend. What a great customer you are for them!

4)You can't stay young forever, start early so that you'll have more later! Can you imagine you have to live without any savings after you become 70 years old? You have to work until the day you die!