Andy Hough

It’s a given that saving money is easier done a bit at a time, rather than large amounts. A ten-spot? Fifty cents a day a month, with a few days to fudge on. A hundred dollars a month, on the same principle, is a little less than $3.50 daily — skip your morning coffee, or choose a cheaper entree at lunch, and you’re part of the way there, nearly painlessly.

Tuck the accumulating money in a higher-interest online account, like Ally Bank. Sure, interest isn’t high right now — a $1200 deposit (i.e., 12 months of $100 monthly) will only earn you a little more than $10.00, at the current rate of .84%. But that’s ten bucks you earned with no effort.

Your best asset in this process is time. Interest rates won’t be low forever; even if they hang on the tip end of nowhere for a while, your growing savings will qualify you for a higher-interest CD, instead. (Check out the best current deal at Bankrate.com.)

Other things in life benefit from compounding. Take food. Instead of a steak tonight (around $7.00/lb as of this writing), choose a steakburger or pork loin ($3/lb or less). Use the extra money saved to buy steak when it’s on sale. (Holidays like Valentine’s Day, Memorial Day and the Fourth, or Labor Day often feature fancy cuts for much less.) Or put it into fruit you crave — apples, pears and oranges are a lot cheaper in a ten-pound bag, than by the piece or pound. (Save that extra to invest in higher-quality coffee, travel mug and a coffeepot with a timer — fresh coffee when you wake every morning, and no stops for bitter coffee in a paper cup.)

Don’t forget to compound your time, too. Shovel your walk soon after the snow stops, so the sun can finish the job. (Smugly read the paper while watching your neighbor scrape ice off his porch — priceless.) Putting away tools after use means they’re ready again when you need them — and you won’t be buying unnecessary extras because you can’t find one. (Not that I’ve ever done this!)

Clean, put away clothes mean less urge to go out and buy new ones. And a little water swirled in pots and pans right after cooking (unless they’re cast iron) means less scrubbing time afterwards. It may not seem like much at the time — but it is, with these helpful tips:

*Save a bit at a time…more as you can afford it.

*Every minute counts — even if it goes to something relaxing.

Let the positive power of compounding change your life, a bit at a time.

This post is by staff writer Cindy Brick. Cindy is a quilting expert with several published books on the subject and has also had many published articles on a variety of subjects. You can visit her business website at CindyBrick.com or visit her personal blog.

I have seen the sentiment that people nowadays are worse off than previous generations. I don’t agree, I think people in the United States are currently enjoying a better standard of living than previous generations.

My mother was born in a rural farmhouse with no running water. They got their water from a cistern until she was in her teens. Going to a restaurant was a once or twice a year treat. She actually did have to walk two miles in the snow to school, although it was only uphill one way. They didn’t have a television until she was well into her teens. She didn’t think it was that bad when she was growing up because that was all she knew. She enjoyed her childhood but she doesn’t have any nostalgia about that time. She is quite happy with her current standard of living.

Things have changed quite a bit even since my childhood. Cable TV wasn’t available in our town until I was a teenager. The full cable lineup was 13 channels and it didn’t include MTV. Our TV didn’t have a remote, which wasn’t uncommon at that time. Us kids served as the remote. I was into computers as a kid and had an Atari 400 computer which had a fraction of the computing power that a cell phone has now. There was no internet. Long distance calls were expensive. Our house didn’t have central air conditioning and neither did any of the other houses on our street even though they were all relatively new. We didn’t have a microwave. Going out to eat was a special occasion. I looked forward to when we would travel to a large city since we might get to eat at a McDonald’s.

Let’s compare then to now. Our current basic cable TV lineup has about 60 channels. You can’t buy a TV without a remote. A personal computer is incredibly more powerful now and the cost is about the same. Most people have cell phones now and long distance calls are just another phone call. The internet is commonplace now with the average American spending 13 hours a week online. If you didn’t grow up without internet you may not realize just how great a resource it is. Having central air conditioning in a new house is the norm now. Back in the mid 70s only 36% of the entire U.S. population had air conditioning at all. The large majority of households have microwaves now. Going out to eat isn’t a special treat anymore. Overall, 7 percent of the U.S. population visits McDonald’s each day, and 20 to 25 percent eat in some kind of fast-food restaurant. Some studies suggest that, on average, Americans actually eat one out of every four meals and snacks outside of the home.

You could argue that some of these advances are actually detrimental to quality of life but I think it is clear that we enjoy a much higher standard of living now than ever before. There are some areas where the current generation isn’t as well off such as the high cost of higher education. On the other hand college attendance rates are a lot higher than they used to be. Overall, I think kids today are better off than their parents.

The current generation may eventually see their quality of living decrease due to peak oil, a debt default, or some other major happening but for now they have it pretty good.