RS: First, I would take a look at my discretionary spending, and I would get serious about tamping down or eliminating most of it. Discretionary spending is the fun stuff. It’s stuff like going out, travel, drinks, eating out those kinds of things, and I would immediately redirect that toward savings.
Second, I would pause and stretch out expenses as I could. A simple example would be any major plans to move, to buy a major purchase, like a car, home renovation, anything that can be paused. I would pause it and anything that can be stretched out, for example. You know, even if you were able to stretch out, say, regular purchases that you make, for example, let’s say, any type of self-care, even if you stretch that out one month over the course of a year, you can save hundreds of dollars.
Next, I would consider decreasing [payments toward] any low-interest debt that I am overpaying. For example, if I have a 3% mortgage and I’m paying an extra $200 a month, not anymore, I’m sending that $200 a month straight to my savings account to build that emergency fund up.
Number four is, if necessary, I would consider decreasing my 401(k) [contributions] just to get the match. I would really try hard not to eliminate it altogether, but I would consider decreasing it for the time being.
And then finally, and I really, really try not to get to this, but it’s an option if necessary. If you’re aggressively paying high-interest debt, like a credit card debt, I might, in the worst case, consider decreasing the amount I am paying towards that to build up a savings account, but I would try as hard as possible not to get to that level.
