Paying Yourself First

I first became interested in personal finance about four years ago. I was fresh out of college and had my first full time job and very few expenses. I read a few books on the subject and began saving my money. This is when I first came across the idea of paying yourself first. Unfortunately, I never put this idea into practice. I did, however, start a modest savings and opened an investment account. Two years later, when I started grad school, it became next to impossible for me to put any money into savings, as I was living on very little income and accumulating quite a bit of educational debt.

Now that I'm done with grad school and beginning my career, I'm making it a goal to start paying myself first. My first step in this is to get my budget in order so that I can accurately gauge how much money I need to get myself through the month, and how much can be saved. Once I have a realistic idea of how much money I can save, I want to get to the point where the first thing I do after I deposit my paycheck is transfer money into my savings. That way it's not sitting in my checking account just begging to be spent. When I start my new job I want to start making automatic 403(b) contributions, as well.

I don't make a lot of money, but I also don't spend a lot of money. Putting money away before I even really "see" it shouldn't be too difficult. It's just going to be a matter of making it a habit!