Hands off: How to ‘hack’ your money

    “When I say hack, I’m not talking about trotting horses around fields or breaching computer security. A ‘hack’ is a way to streamline a painful process, get around obstacles and trick yourself into success,” explains Erica Quin-Easter of Women, Work and Community.
    So, how do you hack your money?
    “I used to work with a woman who claimed she could practice patience by placing chocolate on the edge of her desk and not eating it. But torture doesn’t work for me. If I’m trying to resist chocolate, I need to put it out of sight and out of reach,” she said.
    Quin-Easter said you can do the same with your money. Say you have a big expense coming up — property taxes, a new appliance, car repairs  or a family trip. How can you keep your grubby hands out of your wallet so you have the cash in hand when you need it?
    “A little secret: Most of us have one checking account and one savings account. But you can easily have two, three, four or more accounts. Having a separate place to park the money you need for specific goals raises your likelihood of success in saving. 
    You can open targeted sub-accounts at your current bank or credit union, or you can raise the barrier higher by parking your money at an entirely different institution, making it a little harder to just transfer money back and forth on a whim. Either way, re-routing your money to a special account just for that purpose will help you keep your hands off while you watch your funds grow to meet your goal.
    Money hacks take the pain out of saving.
    Quin-Easter offers advice on how you hack:
• Decide how much you need to save to reach your goal. If I need $600 for car repairs by the time my inspection is due in February, I need to save about $50 a week starting now;
• Open a separate account for your goal. Almost every institution has free accounts available; and
•  Make your saving process as easy as possible. If you get a weekly paycheck, set up a direct deposit to your new account so you don’t even see the funds in your net pay. If your Social Security or other monthly payment comes on a particular date, set up an automatic transfer from your regular account to your new account on that day each month. If your cash flow is variable, commit to putting money in your targeted account on a regular basis — once a week or every time you buy groceries, for instance.
    What’s your hack for 2013? Take your new year’s resolutions and put a price tag and a time frame on any financial goals. Set up an account for each goal and figure out how much you need to divert each week, each pay period or each month. Then forget about it — and voila! Your goal will be waiting for you.    
    For more information, call WWC at 764-0050 or visit Maine Centers for Women, Work, and Community on Facebook, follow on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn.