Bryan C. Fleming

Well it’s hard to think that one year ago today I started the Million Dollar Savings Club.  That’s right I started with just $1.  You can read my journey here.

So how much have I saved? Not $300.00, $600.00, or even $900.00.  I’ve officially saved $2,125.86.  Some is in a pile of money in my bedroom, some is in my ING Direct Online Savings Account, and even more is my free online stock trading account.

Here’s a recap of my One Year Journey:

The first 139 days:

I saved $1 per day in 3 piles of money. 
$1 for saving
$1 for investing
$1 to give-away

Some things I learned:

It’s hard to remember to put a dollar away every night.  It’s amazing to see how fast the money builds up.  Everyone should start here and see if you can beat my record.  If you beat it, email me.  I’d love to share your story with everyone.  So I did this for 139 days.

Side Note:  As people you live with discover your piles of money they’ll start asking to “borrow it” or they may even take it.  Be careful in lending your money or you’ll find your pile dries up quickly.

Beyond 139 days:

Next, I opened an ING Direct Online Savings account.  I committed to saving $50 per week.  At the beginning of the year I formalized this with being a bronze, silver, or Gold saver.

Later I realized that even though ING direct is great, I needed a better return on some of my money.  I found a free online stock trading website and opened an account.  The amazing thing is you can open an account with under a hundred bucks.  I started with $500.00 and quickly grew it to $512.12 by trading shares of an index fund called IVV.  It’s been fun.  Much like Gambling.

So how much have you saved in the last year?  If you don’t like the answer, start with just $1 like I did one year ago.  Then you’ll see the money build up and make some bigger commitments.  Hopefully this time next year you’ll do better than me and have over $2,100 in the bank!

Until Next Time… Keep on saving.

Wow.  I don’t know what happened this week, but we had 64 submissions to the personal growth carnival.  That’s a new record I might add.

It seems some authors submitted a bunch of stories, so I only included what I thought was their best one.  This dropped the number of submissions a little, but there is still a LOT of articles this week.  Thank you to everyone who submitted.  Enjoy the carnival.

Personal Growth

Matthew Paulson presents How to Win People to Your Way of Thinking posted at Getting Green.

Ivan Rios presents How to Deal With Envy posted at artofleading.net.

Charles H. Green presents Apologies, Forgiving and Forgiveness posted at Trust Matters, saying, “A true apology doesn’t ask for forgiveness, it seeks to make right, and maybe, just maybe, the grace of forgiveness will follow, but if not remember always that an apology is about them, notyou.”

Phil B. presents How to Really Increase Your Self Confidence « Phil for Humanity posted at Phil for Humanity, saying, “Almost everyone needs a boost in their self confidence, yet few of us know how.” (more…)

Well we’re 31 weeks into the New Year.  Have you been saving money or spending it all? 

At the beginning of the year we made commitments to be a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Saver.  If you did that here’s where your online savings account balances should be:

Bronze: $775.00 ($25/wk)
Silver: $1550.00 ($50/wk)
Gold: $3,100 ($100/wk)

I’m a Silver saver (soon to be Gold). I can tell you I don’t have $1,550.00 in my ING Direct Savings account.  Why?  Because I had some unexpected things happen that I needed the money for.  That’s just life I suppose.

But, by having the money on hand I’ve saved hundreds of dollars in bounced check fees.  I’ve been able to sleep better at night knowing that when an unexpected medical bill or an exceedingly high utility bill shows up, I’ve got the money to cover it.  Hopefully you’re enjoying this feeling of security too.

It’s nice to just transfer over some cash and a big problem just disappears.

That’s what this electronic pile of money is for.

We’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of the Million Dollar Savings Club.  That’s right, a year ago we started with just $1. 

My how far we’ve come. 

Now we’ve got piles of money in online savings accounts and if you’ve been following along, you’ll know that I’m starting to trade stocks to get a higher return from my money (which is going very well I might add).

So hopefully you’re not just reading along.  Hopefully I’ve gotten to at least save some money.  Want to get started?  Why not read my journey from the very beginning?

Until next time keep on saving.