 TITLE: How Much Should You Save Each Month? CONTENT: How Budgeting Can Help You Save Every Month\n-------------------------------------------\nOne of the best steps you can take toward building your savings is to create a budget. Budgets can help you live within your means and make it easier to stay disciplined in making contributions to long-term goals. Putting a budget down on paper lets you see how much money you're bringing in, how much is going out and what kind of progress you're making on your savings.\nWhen you list your monthly expenses, you might be surprised by the amount you're spending and the things you're spending your money on. Perhaps you're being charged for a recurring subscription or streaming service you don't use often. Maybe you spend more on groceries every month than you realized. Spotting these types of costs can make it easy to trim your budget and free up extra cash to put into savings.\nThe good news is, budgeting can be quite simple. There are many ways to budget, and you can track expenses in an app, spreadsheet or on a plain old piece of paper. Here's how to get started:\n1.  Figure out your monthly income. This includes your regular paycheck and any side gig income.\n2.  Add up your expenses. List everything you buy or pay for in a month, including rent, groceries, movies, games, bills, medicines—anything that comes up regularly.\n3.  Set savings goals. Look at how much you have left over after your expenses and see how you could set that aside for savings goals. Decide how much to put toward each savings category, and set it aside. If you don't think you'll be able to reach your goals, or you don't have any money left over, look at reducing your expenses or increasing your income.\n4.  Track your expenses and check your budget each month. Setting a budget is one thing, but it won't do you much good unless you stick to it. If you exceed your budget limits, adjust your spending or reassess your goals to make sure they're realistic. Also review your savings deposits and see whether you hit your goals. If need be, adjust your budget for the next four weeks, cutting unnecessary categories and putting more money toward debts or savings.\nIf you're looking for a framework to get started, you might consider budgeting using the 50\/30\/20 method. Here's what it looks like:\n*   50% of your income is set aside for essential expenses, such as rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries and debt payments.\n*   30% goes to discretionary expenses, such as take-away meals, streaming subscriptions and other entertainment.\n*   20% goes to your debt payments and savings for things like buying a home, retirement and building your emergency fund.\nYou can adjust the formula to suit your budget and your financial priorities. If you want to pay down high-interest credit card debt or student loans faster, you might cut down on entertainment spending to set more than 20% of your income aside for that. Or, you might not put as much into savings. It will take you longer to reach your goals, but you'll likely save money on interest by paying down your debts as quickly as possible. END