[Music] well hey you guys so I think most people can agree that they need some kind of savings cushion right so here at Ramsey we always recommend a starter emergency fund of $1,000 before you really do anything else but I also know that this is easier said than done because a lot of people just feel like they're stuck living paycheck to paycheck so if you are feeling this way and you need to make some progress when it comes to your savings we're going to chat about that today and specifically I want to talk about how you can save $4,000 fast and trust me it's not as daunting as you might think and if you stick around to the end of the episode I also want to share what you can do after you reach that Milestone so you don't lose momentum when it comes to taking control of your money all right first why $4,000 well according to the US Bureau of Labor and statistics the average annual salary Nationwide is 65,00 470 so if we took that number and subtracted the average income taxes then divided it by 12 for the number of months in a year then that means we are around $4,000 meaning $4,000 is what the average American is bringing home after taxes so it's essentially like having an entire month salary saved which is a huge goal and wonderful but even if you're bringing in more or less no matter what you make I think think everyone could agree that yeah an extra $4,000 can't hurt anyone and think about this once you've paid off all of your debts and you focus all of your energy then on getting a fully funded emergency fund of 3 to 6 months of expenses well aiming for $4,000 as your first goal of getting there feels more realistic and reachable right so that's what we're going to talk about how do you even get there first what I would say is to clamp down on your existing budget you need to be very aware of where every single dollar is going so tracking your budget is really key and I recommend using every dollar because this is a great budgeting tool to help you know hey this is where our money's going and you can adjust your spending and if you want to check it out I'll make sure to put a link in the description for you guys now take a close look at your spending habits and think okay where can we cut back because again some of this you guys is just the rhythm of life that when you get in over and over and over and mon month after month year after year you don't really realize oh my gosh where is our money going and maybe if I take something out or I lower a category we actually could be okay you know I even did this for myself I like kind of got in the habit of like oh yeah I'll splurge on a shirt you know that's $15 here $20 there it's in the budget it's fine and then I gave myself 30 days where I'm not going to buy clothes and it's amazing when you just say oh yeah I was kind of just kind of doing that and again I had some money budgeted so it was part of the plan but when you say well why is that a rhythm for me why don't I just stop and you stop you're like oh well there you go you know it's even like streaming services maybe you you got Apple you know Apple TV to watch a show and now it's over and you're like why are we still paying for Apple TV like let's cancel that right you kind of just end up in a rhythm and what a budget does is it stops your Rhythm to say hey take note of everything that you're spending money on and you might actually say oh yeah I don't really need that or well Starbucks is coming up a lot in the budget what if I cut some of that out right so it is amazing what happens that power and control that you have now I know that food costs and eating out is a big one for people so maybe you meal plan and say hey let's say you know that we're going to eat in 5 days throughout the week or six days and maybe you have one cheap meal where you go out but like overall you plan where your money's going you plan what kind of meal you're going to have and then you can say yeah let's do a cheap meal you know x amount of meals and maybe one meal we go a little bit nicer like whatever it is but you have a plan all right now to the next strategy boost your cash flow by taking a side hustle so side hustles again are they're everywhere and I feel like people talk about them a lot but honestly having a little bit of extra income coming in can make a really big difference so again this can be any small job an outside gig maybe what you do for your primary job you do on the side and do some freelance work and make some extra money that way too but you can drive for ride share apps you know you can do instacart you can do food delivery like all the things things there is ways to pick up some extra shifts or jobs to make an extra you know 10 20 $30 in your pocket I mean especially when it comes to house sitting dog sitting babysitting all of that are great options and people will pay a lot for those so side hustles like tutoring music lessons or even coaching for a local kids sports team or reing you know these are great ways to earn some extra money if you're interested so again getting some of that extra money towards that $4,000 it's for a short period of time you won't do it forever but you can earn some extra cash which is huge let's say you dedicate just 10 hours a week to driving it for a ride share app and you earn $20 an hour that's an extra $800 a month and it doesn't even include the money that you're saving by sticking to your budget and taking out some money that you're spending that you aren't going to spend anymore and that's going to go towards savings all of that it's amazing so we've talked about strategies to help you reach $4,000 savings goal but what if you're just starting out on your financial Journey with the baby steps and you're not quite there to save 4,000 so before I share more on that I want to tell you about today's sponsor Christian Healthcare Ministries when you go against what Society thinks is quote unquote normal even like avoiding debt for example it might seem weird at first but that is totally okay because we want you to be weird if that means that you're doing things intentionally including how you spend your Healthcare dollars and one way to be intentional is with Christian Healthcare Ministries chm isn't health insurance they're a health cost sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of health care costs without sacrificing their freedom so find out more and join chministries.org budget that's chministries.org SL budget okay now if you are starting off on your financial Journey make sure to check out our seven baby steps so baby step one is a $1,000 emergency fund baby step two is paying off all of your debt but your house and baby step three is a fully funded emergency fund 3 to 6 months of expenses so regardless of where you are and any of that some of these tips for saving $4,000 can help you when it comes to those baby steps all right you guys there you have it saving $4,000 might sound daunting but again with budget adjustments and a little bit of a side hustle and kind of looking at everything when it comes to your money you can really do this I mean it is an amazing thing now if you want even more strategies to help you hit the savings Milestone and take control of your money make sure to check out my video on how to to save your first $100,000 and I hope this video inspired you to put a little extra work in because it is worth it you guys to stay motivated and focused when it comes to your money and remember to take control of your money and create a life you love
