Well let me tell you, I definitely don’t put them where my mouth is. Because I buy enough food as it is. Recently – I discovered that I am bad for “saving” without actually “saving”. What I mean by this is that I will keep as much money in my chequings account as possible at the end of each month. But why?

I do it for 3 reasons

1) It makes me feel like I have a lot more money than I do.

2) It is technically my “emergency savings”

3) I have no idea where else to put it

Until February (when I started working at a credit counselling agency), I had no idea how poor my financial management was, my debt levels were, and more importantly – I had no idea where to start.

I learned quickly because, on my first day I had to sit through an extremely terrifying phone call, in which a client told her debt woes and made me almost burst into tears because I realized that if I wasn’t careful – that could be me!

I immediately started to smarten up by reviewing my finances, educating myself at work, and creating a budget to help me clear my debts.

Up until 1 month ago, I had no savings to my name. Now – I have four accounts! One is an RRSP through work, a CPP through work, a high interest savings account with my bank, and lastly, a TFSA on my own. (Not to mention, my four mason jars for leftover change and cash)!

But the problem is – where do I put my savings? I obviously have automatic payments made bi-weekly to the CPP and RRSP, but what about the rest? Should I be putting it into my savings or my TFSA?

Starting in July I will be putting half of what’s leftover the night before pay day into my TFSA and the other half into my savings account. In 6 months’ time, I will reevaluate the pros and cons and learn from my mistakes.

Money doesn’t have to be complicated – only if you let it be.