Comments on: Are you working feverishly to meet your financial goals?

By: Savings Toolbox

Savings Toolbox — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:24:50 +0000

Excellent comparison. People do tend to react financially during tough times. Being more progressive about money can certainly relieve the stressors of the tough times/emergency situations.

With so many options avilable for consumers to save money, it’s important people understand the need for savings. We did an article about one of the options that you can read here http://www.savingstoolbox.com/2008/08/18/should-you-open-an-online-savings-account/ . It’s also important to remember to start teaching principles of savings to the young in order to instill the importance of saving money early.

Thanks for a great article!

By: PDamian

PDamian — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:05:22 +0000

Steward, thanks for writing. When it comes to saving, I’ve never been able to sustain a gazelle-like intensity for more than four to five months at a time, after which I go a little stir crazy and splurge on things like dinner at my favorite upscale restaurant and a hundred dollars’ worth of books and CDs at Barnes & Noble. My splurges never last more than a week or so and never cost me more than about $300 total, and they’ve never come between me and my monthly goal of $1000.00 savings minimum, but I used to feel terribly guilty about them. Over time, I’ve come to regard them as a much-needed pressure valve, and I try not too beat myself up too much over them. As long as I’m meeting my 1K monthly quota, I figure I’m okay. Focusing on a goal for short bursts of intensity does indeed get you to goal, as long as you continue to experience those short bursts over the long term.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:40:08 +0000

Interesting post. Would you be interested in syndicating your content on the home page of my site? It’s an online community of finance professionals ( http://www.wallstreetoasis.com ). I could add an RSS feed that will allow me to promote your blog posts to my home page (when i think it will lead to a good discussion and/or is appropriate), but I wanted to make sure you were comfortable syndicating first. The syndicated post would have a link back to your original post. Thanks, Patrick (you can reach me at wallstreetoasis@wallstreetoasis.com if you have any questions).

Also, if you are willing to provide a link to wallstreetoasis.com that would be much appreciated.

By: Fern

Fern — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:29:50 +0000

Thanks for the prodding. I’m supposed to be contributing $500 monthly to my taxable retirement account (on top of the 15% to 401k and fully-funded IRA), so i will do that today. thanks again!

By: Steward @ My Family's Money

Steward @ My Family's Money — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 19:09:11 +0000

I think I am a fan of quick bursts of intensity to fix problems. I think some people call it Gazelle intensity (especially when referring to getting rid of debt), but I think it applies to a lot of things – even positive financial goals. By focusing on fixing something or improving something with a lot of intensity for a short period of time you can get a lot done and then ride out the benefits until you have enough energy or desire to improve it more later.

By: ToughMoneyLove

ToughMoneyLove — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:29:19 +0000

Even folks who are careful with their budget when money is tight have a tendency to relax when they have a windfall or extra income and spend it. I agree that this is the moment to bear down and put those extra funds to work for you, not into more “stuff.”