Road to Financial Freedom~ Building a Savings Account

Hello DIVAs'!  Hope you are having a pleasant Monday! To begin our next installment on regaining (or for many of us is starting to build) our finances I want to start off by introducing a powerful book that you DIVAs' should consider purchasing, by Catey Hill called "SHOO, Jimmy Choo! The Modern Girl's Guide to Spending Less and Saving More".  This book is an excellent read & covers everything from how to tackle taxes to paying for student loans, and EVERYTHING in between! I have been reading this book in pieces, writing notes and have been evaluating my spending and most importantly- starting to concentrate on SAVING!

Lets' talk Savings!!!

• 401k
• This type of account can be setup through your employer in which you can personally setup a contribution to that you want to deposit each paycheck (& with this account your employer can contribute a percentage that can match what you deposit)
• If your employer does not offer a 401k (or 403b) account try opening a Roth IRA account. IRA is an account that you can setup through a company like Fidelity. There are two types of  IRAs'- a traditional or Roth. Both, Catey Hill and Suze Orman recommends getting a Roth IRA, since this is taxed dollars and you can withdraw from this account at anytime without being taxed or penalized. You can also rollover money easily to another account like from an old 401k (403b); which makes a smoother transition if you make a career move.  If you are setting this account up through fidelity; by going online to www.fidelity.com can guide through a step-by-step process on which will be best for you, as well as the projected amount of money that you will by the time you are ready for retirement.
•  Stock Markets
• These type of accounts, like a CD (certificate of deposit), mutual funds, money marketing account can be setup through a credit union, financial institutions or bank. This option is more for short term savings, if you have a certain amount of money you want to save for an event or big purchase-these type of accounts help. DIVAs' don't get caught up with paying interest...these accounts you pay interest on to keep the account in whichever financial institution you decide.  To explore these options further contact a credit union or financial institution(s) like Bankrate.com, HSBC, TIAA-CREF. 
• Savings Account
• If you just want an option to put away money for long-term and begin to develop an emergency fund or want to feel good about having a little "cushion", check with you current bank about opening a savings account (which would be at no expense to open), in which you can transfer funds from your current checking. Another great way to save is setting up a direct savings account through INGdirect. By setting up this account you can connect it to your current checking account to set your desired amount of money to be deposited as well as how often.  You can set this up online by going to www.INGdirect.com. 

DIVA's, yes there are options out there to help us (& there are more), but with these basic options I'm sure we can begin to start somewhere to guide us to "financial freedom". If there is a savings option that works for you please share... DIVAs' the power is in spreading awareness to each other and strengthening ourselves the best way we can..