Tips for saving

TAMRA CLARK CHAMPION: Hello, and welcome to our video for tips for saving presented by U.S. Bank Goals Coaching. Let me introduce myself briefly. My name is Tamra Clark Champion, and I've been goals coach with U.S. Bank for the past three years. I've been in the financial services industry for more than 20 years. And I hold three coaching certifications, one from iPEC, one from the International Coaching Federation, and I also earned a health coaching certification from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition as a step in my own personal journey to wellness. 
I'm curious if you're familiar with the Goals Coaching program, and I'm going to tell you towards the end of today's video, how to get in touch with a coach. But I want you to know a few things first of all. It's a free service, complimentary. You don't have to be a customer of U.S. Bank. And goals coaches don't sell products or services. 
On screen, you see some of the most popular goals that we coach our clients around one on one. And whatever your reasons are for watching this video today, I'm hoping that you'll leave with some tips around how to save for your dreams, and might even feel encouraged to tap into a coach for support in achieving your goals, whatever they are, whether they're financial, professional, or personal. 
In my role, I provide financial education like this, but I also help clients build self-awareness and promote habit changes one on one. And our program is designed to help you approach your goals with clarity and confidence, because we use coaching techniques and methodologies and behavioral science to help you build that strong foundation in achieving your goals. 
So let's talk about saving, right? There are a lot of ways to save, and good reasons to save. And if you have a financial goal that you want to reach in five years or less, a savings account is going to be a good strategy to start with. But to grow your money faster, you might also consider using a CD, or a Certificate of Deposit, to grow your savings faster, or even a high-yield savings account. And both of these will typically have a higher interest rate than a traditional savings account. 
Now if your goal is a longer term goal, and liquidity or access to that money is not essential, you could consider investing it. Today, we're going to go through some other steps that you can take to easily follow to save more this year. And hopefully some of these will be new to you. 
Now the first step is setting a goal, because a desire is really just a dream until you declare it as a goal. So start with this as your first step to saving. And you can do this in a few ways. You could use something like a SMART goal planning worksheet to assist you in getting started and asking some of the questions about why this is important to you. How will you measure success? What should your timeline look like? And things like that. 
Or you could start with a vision board or a dream board, which can be a lot of fun to create, and also help keep you inspired. But more importantly, when you set a goal and you have a visual cue or reminder that you can keep somewhere close to you so you see it on a regular basis, it can really be a great motivator. 
And the thing I love about having a vision or dream board around my goals is that when I post it above my computer screen, my kids ask about it, my two teenagers. And I have had a lot of conversations about goals that I've had over the years, simply because I had a vision board or a dream board in front of me, and it made them curious. And that actually ended up meaning they were supporting me in my goal and helping me to feel encouraged and motivated along the way. 
Now the second step is to create a budget. Stick with me here. I know not everybody loves the word "budgeting." However, when you know what you're spending, you also know how much discretionary income you have to work with, and this is important. Having a budget is going to keep you from overspending and allow you to make sure that you save the money for what you want instead of charging it. And also, if you want to build foundational financial habits, this is how you start, by asking yourself where you can save right? When you see all those expenses, it's a lot easier to be aware of where your money is going. 
One of the things that I think has become very commonplace for most of us is a convenience factor. If we think about the pandemic, a lot of things became very convenient in terms of having them delivered right to our door. I think about restaurants as an example. If I don't feel like cooking, I could just place an order through DoorDash or Uber Eats, and a meal is here from my family of four within a matter of minutes or even an hour. 
And that was awesome. But I continued to rely on that, even though purchasing through an app like that can be more expensive. So I tend to avoid that convenience factor now to help myself save. Now when it comes to groceries or shopping, I like to go grocery shopping. But when it comes to Target, one of my favorite stores, I let them do the shopping for me. 
And that's because if I go in the store with a list of five things, I'm probably still going to put another five things into my cart and end up spending more than I need to versus having someone else do my shopping where I get only the five items that I need. So you have to kind of know yourself and your mindset around spending. Plus, be aware of impulsive triggers that you have when it comes to spending. Look for ways that you can avoid those triggers or remove them altogether. 
Also, think about using round up options when you're using your debit card or your credit card, if this is offered by your financial institution. This is when you use those cards to pay for everyday transactions, and then they automatically put the change into your savings account or round it up to the next dollar. Another great tip is to set it and forget it. Using automatic transfers of a set amount from your paycheck or checking account into your savings on paydays can be a great way for you to start saving. Even if it's only $10 or $15 or $20 a month, it's a great place to start. 
And before you make a big purchase that feels like a splurge, this is a question that I want to give you that is really super simple, but requires you to just slow down or pause for a moment. And that is, Is this a want or is this a need? Because sometimes just asking this question can start to tip the scale in the favor of waiting, or even avoiding an expense altogether. 
Now if it is a want that you want to move forward with, maybe you could also consider if you could buy it somewhere less expensive, or if you could hold off on buying it and make it maybe a reward for something. I personally love motivating myself with rewards to buy myself something that I really, really am excited about or looking forward to as a way of congratulating myself for hitting another goal. So that's something to consider also. 
Now I wouldn't be a great coach if I didn't include some behavioral science tips in this video today. So I want to share with you this one, which is habit stacking. And this is a really good way to maintain your budget and keep up with good habits. So habit stacking increases the likelihood that you're going to stick with a new habit by stacking that on top of an old, existing habit that's already in place. And this can make it a little less intimidating to start something new, especially if you've been holding off on it. 
So let me give you an example here, like the one we have on screen. Let's say that you want to start checking your credit more regularly because you're really working hard to improve your credit. And so looking at your score on a regular basis is going to help you be more mindful and stay aware of how you're doing. I'll also help to keep you motivated, especially if that number is moving in the right direction. 
So let's say you want to check your score more regularly. What you could do is say, hmm, every Friday when I go to my favorite coffee shop and I treat myself to a wonderful latte on Friday mornings, because it's something that I look forward to, when I'm standing in line waiting for my latte, I'm going to open up this app and I'm going to check my credit score, just see how I'm doing and give myself a little pat on the back or tell myself, you know what? You need to work a little bit harder, and maybe next week we should try something different. But this would be a great way to adopt that new habit very easily, simply by pairing it with something else. So this is a tip that can also be helpful to some clients. 
Now the third thing that you want to do is estimate your timeline. It's really important when you have a goal that you think ahead about how long it will take, and that you're realistic. What you don't want to do is defeat yourself or feel like a failure because you didn't allow yourself enough time to get from here to where you want to be. It's going to take some time, and it's going to take some work. So use the tips that we're giving you here today. 
And more importantly, when you're thinking about that timeline, I want you to also be thinking about unexpected obstacles or setbacks that could occur. When you think ahead about these, when they happen, if they happen, you won't feel completely derailed because you'll already have thought about a plan to work through them. And ideally, you'll already have an idea of who you could call on for support, maybe from a friend, a loved one, or a coach. 
Now this is one of my favorites, personal favorites, which is the 30-day rule, because sometimes savings is not about how much you can save, but more about what you can keep yourself from spending. So I like the 30-day rule. Instead of allowing myself to make an impulsive purchase, I will say, let's wait 30 days. 
And following this rule means that I'll defer all nonessential purchases for 30 days, which gives me ample time to really think about whether or not I need to make that purchase or want to make that purchase. And if I decide to go forward with it, I'll save that money for that thing for 30 days and then decide, Do I still truly want this? If I don't, I'll take that money and I'll put that nice big extra chunk of money into my savings account and see how excited I get just being closer to my overall goal. 
But, alternatively, if at the end of the 30 days, I know I still want that thing, I waited for it, and I'm going to get it. So it's a good rule of thumb to try. And I encourage you to just see how it works for you. 
Now money hides in places outside of our bank accounts, too. So I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, one of my favorite things was when my mom would ask me to clean out her car, because she'd offer me $10 to do it, and she'd tell me whatever I found in the car, I could keep-- money, candy bars, whatever it might be-- jewelry. So inevitably, I would end up getting paid to clean out mom's car, but I'd end up finding somewhere around $15 to $20 in change. 
So I was always really excited to do that. So I loved money hunts as a kid, and I still love them today. So there are some places that you might be surprised where dollars and cents can show up and help contribute to your goal, either by offsetting your spending or allowing you to put a little bit more into that savings account. 
So be sure that you're looking at things like payment sites like PayPal or Venmo, that you're returning items that you've purchased that you've been meaning to return. Or maybe somebody has giving you a gift of something with a gift receipt that you've decided you're not going to use. And also don't forget about credit card points or rewards. And if you have credit cards that aren't giving you rewards or cash back, I encourage you to look closer at credit card options for yourself so that you can ensure you're getting those benefits. That's a great benefit to having a credit card and using it. 
Also, look for gift cards at the bottom of your purse or drawers. I have a couple in the junk drawer in my kitchen. Even though they typically say right on the card that these funds do not expire, sometimes they do expire if you wait too long to use them or the business closes down. So be sure you're taking advantage of those gift cards that you have as well. 
And then this seems like a small thing, but the small dollars add up. Check and monitor any subscriptions or services that you're no longer using that are being automatically charged or debited from your account, because, inevitably, having two teenagers in my house, the four of us, we love to watch shows. But we want subscriptions to different channels, and sometimes, almost inevitably, every month or every other month, I'll end up realizing that I have several subscriptions that none of us are using. So make sure that you're monitoring that and closing those things down as you're not using them. That will save you a few bucks here and there, too. 
We talked about loose coins or bills. Look for those in your home or your car. And then this last one, I also love to share. There's a website called unclaimed.org. And this is where you can go and you put in your website, and then you enter some personal information. 
And it will tell you if companies-- like utility companies, for example, or title companies-- may have money reserved for you that was an overpayment on your account. Or maybe they lost your address and they haven't been able to mail you a check because they don't know where to send it. So be sure that you check unclaimed.org and see if there's any property that you might be missing. 
Now we're going to review the last couple of tips here. The next one, and I talked about this briefly before, is to consider automating your savings. Set it and forget it. Here at U.S. Bank, if you're a customer, we have a couple of different tools that you can use that can help. 
And the first one is automatic transfers. You can set up automatic recurring transfers to move money from your checking account to your savings account on a regular basis. Personally, I do this, and it helps me to save. I have a $50 automatic transfer set up for every payday. So when I get paid, $50 automatically goes to my savings account. And that has allowed me to save several hundred of dollars when ordinarily, I don't tend to transfer money manually to my savings account. So it's really helped me to stack that money up. 
And then the other one is purchase transfers. This is a really useful feature that lets you save money when you use your debit card or credit card. Again, this is with some financial institutions, but through U.S. Bank, you would log in to your account at usbank.com, set an amount between $0.25 and $5. 
And then every time that you swipe your debit card or your credit card during a transaction, that amount is going to get transferred from your checking account to your savings account. It's a great way to just make you, again, more aware and feel a little more disciplined around savings, because every time you spend, you're going to be saving. And that automated approach can really help you to be successful. 
Now I want to give you one more behavioral science tip, and this one is one of my favorites. And that is to use friction to your advantage. Now friction means that you're going to make the positive habits easier to do and the negative ones harder to do. So when you add friction to something, it's going to make it a little bit harder to do that thing. But when you remove it, it's going to make it easier. 
So let me give you an example here. During the holiday months, right around the October time frame, we start getting just bombarded by ads from retailers who maybe we subscribe to, or we have the app and we're getting notifications. We're getting a lot of coupons. There's just a lot of buy, buy, buy pressure. 
And to me, I don't like this because it does end up usually resulting in me spending more than I want to spend, than the budget that I've set for the holidays. And so what I do is I unsubscribe from everything, and I remove those apps from my phone. And I simply force myself that if I want to make a purchase from one of those retailers, I either have to drive to the store to make those purchases, or if it's maybe a store in another state or something, I'll go to their website and I will force myself to have to put things into the cart, enter my credit card information manually, my address, everything in. Instead of signing in, I have to do everything manually. 
It seems like such a small thing, but sometimes it's enough to slow me down and to create enough friction that by the time I get done entering most of that information, I decide, maybe I don't need all of these things. Or maybe I only need a couple of these things. So think about where you can add friction or remove friction to help you to hit your savings goals. Inevitably, you're going to end up finding some opportunities for those. 
Now let's look at all of these steps together that we've just gone through. Setting the goal, creating a budget, estimating your timeline, think about using the 30-day rule, try going on a money hunt, automate your savings, and use friction to your advantage. Now if you are somebody who looks at this list and says, this is great. Seems simple enough, but I still feel a little bit overwhelmed, or I don't know where to start. I have an idea for you. 
But first, I want to ask you to consider, What are you saving for? And what is the next step that you want to take? Because after you watch this video, what I don't want is for you to step away from it and simply not start. So if you're feeling even the least bit of overwhelm, or like you might just procrastinate and you really want to get started, I want to tell you to consider our coaching program. If you think that support and accountability could be the difference between you simply saying, I want to save this year, and you actually achieving that goal, check out our program. 
With U.S. Bank's Goals Coaching program, it's a complimentary service. It costs you nothing, and you do not need to be a customer of U.S. Bank. And everything that you discuss with a coach is 100% confidential. And you can get started with either a 15-minute intro session where you meet the coach, ask some questions, and understand what this coaching process looks like, or you can schedule a one-hour goals discovery session, where we dive right in and we start putting structure to your goals during that first conversation. 
There's a QR code on screen here right now that you can scan with your phone-- with your phone's camera-- or you can visit usbank.com/coaching to get started. We currently have six coaches on our team. Each of us has a unique background, but we are all committed to helping you to make meaningful progress towards your goals. So please go to our site, read our bios, and consider scheduling with one of us. 
We know what it takes to strengthen good habits and replace less than helpful ones. We also understand it's not always easy, and most people need that additional accountability and support. We also have access to a variety of subject matter resources. People who can offer you valuable insights around various financial components, services, or tools that may help you. And a lot of times, we're able to refer you to those partners without any charge as well. 
Now whether your goal is professional, financial, or personal, we can help. If you prefer a do-it-yourself approach to finances, U.S. Bank also has some great resources available to you, like Financial IQ. So be sure to check out our Financial IQ library for a whole bunch of comprehensive videos, articles, online calculators, and more. It's a little bit like a choose your own adventure if you want to do this yourself. 
With that, I want to thank you so much for watching this video today. And I hope that you're able to take something away that may be a reminder of something you used to do in the past, or something totally new that you want to try that you will-- help you reach your savings goal this year. Good luck. Thank you so much for joining me, and take care.