My Happiness Project: Week 8

For the month of November I have focused my happiness project on finances.  So far I have worked on setting a budget, making charitable donations, and eliminating debt.  For this last week of November, I am going to finish out the financial part of my happiness project by focusing on savings. 

Most people would agree that it's important to have a savings fund set aside for emergencies.  I've heard a lot of advice about how much to save and it seems to vary from 3-6 months of living expenses.  It's pretty overwhelming to think of saving even 1 month of living expenses, and especially overwhelming when you think of 3-6 months. 

I've decided to start small and set up a recurring transfer to my savings account each paycheck.  Once the money is in the savings account it will be un-touchable unless there is an emergency.  I've heard the experts say that this is the best way to grow your savings account because you can get the money straight into a savings account and try to forget about the money all together.  The automatic transfer makes sure you stick to the plan and then you just have to exercise self-control and not touch the money.

So that's it for my financial happiness.  I feel better now that I have gotten a good look at my budget and have laid out a plan for paying off debt as well as beefing up my savings account.

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Next month's focus will be working on my spirituality.  I don't want to push my spiritual beliefs on anyone, so I will keep the posts relatively short and non-denominational.