Budgeting with Goals

There are a lot of great money blogs out there that try to give you advice on how to budget your money, but they don't really tell you what they do. They tell you:
- To have an emergency fund
- Monitoring your money isn't the same as budgeting your money
- To have a budget and track everything you spend

Even though they are all great tokens of advice, if you are looking to save, I recommend
1. using ONE CREDIT CARD and PAY IT OFF ONLINE and
2. having TWO SEPARATE BANK ACCOUNTS, one you spend money on, one you save money on.

Why is this smart?
If you use one credit card, you can easily track all your spending, some even categorize your purchases so you can see what you spend most on (i.e. gasoline, dining, shopping, travel, etc.), you can earn money through the points credit cards offer today, and you can make one easy payment online without having to pay for postage stamp. The trick: PAY your bill IN FULL, AND ON TIME

If you have one account or even two accounts with the same bank, you don't separate your spending money from your savings easily. I recommend having two separate banks if you know you'll be tempted to transfer money from your savings account to your checking account. Having two accounts with two separate banks makes it easier for you to not see the money you are saving. The trick: If it's "out of sight, it's out of mind" and you wont be tempted to spend it, it also makes it harder to go online and transfer money from your savings account to your checking account.

Recommended Credit Cards:
Chase Freedom - No Annual Fee, 3% Bonus Cash Back
Capital One No Hassle Miles Rewards- No Annual Fee, 1 mile/ dollar for first $1000 a month, 2 miles / dollar above $1000 spent a month
Chase Sapphire - No Annual Fee, 10,000 Bonus Points after 1st use, 1point/dollar spent