Saving Money

If your employer offers a 401(k) plan and you qualify, run -- don't walk -- to sign up."If anybody is saving money or would like to be saving money, it's probably one of the best first steps they can make because every dollar you save is pre-tax," said Hal Cumberland, a stockbroker with American Discount Securities in Wichita, Kan.When evaluating a company's 401(k) plan, whether you are deciding on a job offer or are already employed, check these aspects of the plan:* The level of the company's matching contribution.

Sure, Brandon Eckard plans to be the next Michael Jordan when he grows up. But he wants to go to college before joining the NBA -- in case he has to fall back on being a lawyer or businessman -- and if he doesn't get a basketball scholarship, that means hefty tuition payments.That's why he's saving now. Brandon, a 9-year-old at Elmer A. Wolfe Elementary in Union Bridge, won a fourth-grade essay contest yesterday on the importance of saving money."Another reason why I should save for the future is because I need to buy a house and pay taxes," he wrote in his essay.

MORE Americans are saving money, but too few have a strategy in place to help them meet their financial goals. People who have a financial plan save about twice as much as savers who don't, a survey by the Consumer Federation of America and NationsBank Corp. shows. How helpful is a plan? What should your goal be for saving for the future?Mary A. MalgoirePrincipal, Malgoire Drucker Inc., BethesdaThe simplest rule of thumb is you should be saving 10 to 20 percent of your wages. I don't think you can go wrong doing that.

Michelle Potter has always been passionate about the environment. And growing up in a single-parent household, she was always aware of a need to be thrifty. But it wasn't until 1987 that she made a connection between saving the Earth and saving money."When I started to garden organically, doing things like composting and using cayenne pepper and garlic spray to deter pests, I realized that not only were those methods effective and safe for the environment, but also that it was much cheaper than buying chemicals," says Potter, 37, who lives near Guilford.

THERE WAS a big sigh of relief in the land when Congress passed its mammoth budget cuts. Americans love budget reductions and thrive on slashing the deficit.The first week went smoothly, and everyone commented how well a cost-effective government was working.But during the second week the entire city of Cincinnati was poisoned by a mysterious slug in the drinking water."How could this possibly happen?" the newspaper editorials huffed and puffed."Where were the Centers for Disease Control?"

Welfare reform was high on Gov. William Donald Schaefer's list of priorities this year. But the welfare reform bill that passed the General Assembly is sitting on his desk, facing a possible veto because it does not contain a "family cap," a provision that would deny an increase in benefits to a woman who has an additional child after being placed on the welfare rolls.The cap appeals to fairness, but the governor's attachment to it is somewhat puzzling. He asserts that it would save money, but that is a dubious proposition since it would affect only a minority of women on welfare.

Saving money on groceries can be a family affair. Whether it's enlisting your 5-year-old to clip coupons from the Sunday paper or your 10-year-old to load the cart and calculate the savings, there's something for everyone. Here are some simple money-saving strategies that have worked for our family of five.* Teach 4- and 5-year-olds how to clip and sort coupons for foods and products your family uses. Set out several business-size envelopes and label each one with the various categories of products such as soup, yogurt or juice.

In the 1990s, saving money is in style.This is why when I read a recent interview in the Wall Street Journal with a tightwad, I decided to take some of the advice in her newsletter.Rinse out your coffee filters, let them dry, and then re-use them, she said. So I did, and didn't tell my fiancee before she made herself a cup. She took one sip, spat it out, and yowled, "This coffee has freezer burn."So I learned there is such a thing as going too far to save money. Still, that doesn't mean that saving money is a bad idea.

New York -- Young people are growing up today in a world radically different from the one their parents knew.Instead of prosperity, which shaped the expectations of earlier generations, they see debt, recession, layoffs, struggle and fear. They already understand that huge social burdens, like the retirement of the baby boomers, will drop on their unready shoulders. They know they are the generation born to pay.The kids of the '60s bounced from job to job to find out what would satisfy them the most.

Looking great doesn't always have to cost a lot of money.Some of the best-looking people around town probably spend a lot less money than you'd think and exercise a great deal more imagination putting themselves together.Each Thursday we're going to bring you fashionable money-saving tips for all members of the family, and we want to hear your ideas.Perhaps you know of a super source for stylish bargains, a brand of pantyhose that never runs or a thrifty beauty tip you'd like to share.You can call us by using SUNDIAL.

I know a longtime real estate agent who is one of the most conservative men in the whole wide world - and I don't mean the typical dittohead who listens to Rush Limbaugh's smug, sarcastic rhetoric and repeats it, with variations, at the slightest provocation. I'm talking old-school conservative: a businessman who lives by a creed of realism, rational caution and common sense. He's well-informed but doesn't express strident political views. He's smart with the dollar, which is why he has a few million of them.

Sometimes the standard prescription for trimming a budget doesn't produce the desired results. So what do you do if you're still broke after fewer lattes and no more Chinese takeout? It's a question that a lot of young professionals seem to be asking themselves. A recent survey from brokerage house Charles Schwab Corp. found that people born between about 1960 and 1985 are struggling with both paying down debt and saving for deep-pocket goals, such as a first home and retirement. With banks becoming stricter about how much money they will lend homebuyers, and fewer employers offering pension plans, it is all the more important to be able to tackle both sets of goals.

NEW YORK -- There are two kinds of nonsavers, according to certified financial planner and investment adviser Bill DeShurko: people who don't earn enough money to put anything away and people who think they don't. If you're making a reasonable salary and still find yourself living paycheck to paycheck, the problem almost certainly isn't your income - it's your attitude. So says DeShurko, author of a book scheduled to be published next month, The Naked Truth About Your Money. The undressed truth about saving money is that we simply have to seize every single opportunity to sock it away.

Like many thirtysomethings, Sarah Francis is hearing the call of homeownership. With a recent price softening in some markets, the 32-year-old Chicagoan thinks it may be a great time to jump into a condo. She worries about borrowing - she has no credit-card or student-loan debt - and she's managed to accumulate about $40,000 in cash from her income as a nurse practitioner over the past several years, saving money by renting a room at a friend's house. She's also socked away almost $68,000 for retirement.

As Kathryn Moosbrugger plans her September wedding, she has found two effective ways to save money: Keep a firm budget in mind and meet with people face to face. These tenets helped her cut costs when she hired a band last year. She and her fiance, Nick Laganza, met with the production company in its office and told the agent that her budget was $6,000. The band asked for $6,500 for a seven-piece orchestra to play at their reception. After an hour of chatting about music and the wedding, they settled on $6,200.

Attitude can go a long way toward spending money smarter. And a defeatist attitude will almost certainly mean you end up underachieving with money. Advertisers reinforce easy-but-insidious ideas to get you to spend your money now. It seems to be working, considering consumers' credit card debt levels - an average of nearly $9,200 per household with credit cards last year, according to CardTrak.com - and pitiful savings rates. Below are excuses people use every day for doing dumb things with their money and suggestions for an attitude adjustment.

From the time she was a little girl, Dorian Rehfield understood the importance of saving money. She has always made sure to set aside enough funds to cover a year's expenses just in case of an emergency. She just never thought she'd actually need to tap into that account, as she is doing now. Rehfield, 42, lost her job as director of marketing services when her Glen Cove, N.Y., company shut down in August. So she's now forced to live off her savings and unemployment, which is paying her about 14 percent of her salary, until it runs out in about three months.

They might not be old enough to open their own savings accounts without help from Mom or Dad, but Worthington Elementary School pupils already have learned the important lesson of saving money. That's because, for the past 10 years, the school has had a partnership with Columbia Bank that enables the children to learn about saving with real accounts and meetings with bank representatives. "This just shows them how important it is to save," said Jane Sims, assistant principal at the school, who oversees the program at Worthington with school counselor Milene Pettit.

June McComas of Solomons isn't angry with Alan Greenspan, she just wishes the Federal Reserve chairman understood what a series of interest rate cuts this year means to people like her. "I just think somebody ought to clue him in," said McComas, a 63-year-old retiree who keeps the bulk of her money in certificates of deposit. When one that had been earning more than 7 percent matured this year, McComas found she couldn't reinvest the money at anywhere near the same rate unless she tied it up in another CD for more years than she wanted.

Seven-year-old Harish Lall put a dollar in his account the other day and vowed to keep depositing money until he saved enough to buy a $2,000 laptop computer. Getting to the bank, at least, will be easy: It's at school. Every Friday before class, Harish and other pupils at Swansfield Elementary in Columbia deposit their coins, bills and checks in the school's bank -- an honest-to-goodness, FDIC-insured place to hand over their money. That's because Farmers and Mechanics National Bank is backing the project, and the deposits are transferred to its vaults.