pre-bringing home your check saving

saving is a hard mindset to get into. it's even more difficult when every day, week, month, or whenever you get paid, you bring home your paycheck (or it's deposited in the bank for you). the easiest way to save, i think is to set things up automatically so that you don't feel like you've lost any income. there may be an adjustment period, but once you get used to your new paycheck it's very easy to save.

for instance, my wife and i each have 10% of our pre-tax earnings invested in our respective companies 401k plans. additionally, my wife has 15% of her (post-tax) earnings invested in her employee stock purchase plan. that right there has us saving an automatic 35% (not excatly because of taxes and matching contributions). additionally, we have various splits that put money into our primary checking, savings, and spending accounts.

at the end of the day, the deposits into our checking account don't look quite as full, but the balances in our 401ks, stock plans, and other accounts are looking healthy, and we hardly notice the ding to our disposable income.