Saving Strategy Guest Post: How can you save more money? Spend more time!

Post by Michael B. Rubin, CPA, CFP®, author of Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck, the number one customer-ranked book on Amazon.com’s “Money Management for Young People” list.

Last Wednesday morning I read to my 17-month old daughter for 45 minutes.

You: Slow day at work, eh?

No, she wakes up really early and my wife was at the gym.

You: Still, 45 minutes? That’s a lot of books for someone so young.

Actually, we only read two books.

You: For 45 minutes? Did you read “War and Peace?”

First, that’s one book. Second, no, we read a 24-page book called Stop, Train, Stop and some book about a dog named Carl. We read the first book at least 10 times.

You: Classics, both.

Not really, but she was really into them, particularly the pages with pictures of cows in the countryside. Whenever we got to a page with a cow on it, she would look right at me, quite seriously, and with her big blue eyes wide open would make a rather loud “Emmmmm” sound.

You: Cows go “Moo.”

I know that. You know that. Heck, even my daughter knows that. But “emmmm” is as close as she can get to saying, “Moo.” Not surprisingly, the big “emmmm”s were the highlight of my morning.

The more I think of it, the more I’m convinced that some of the best memories come from children – and they’re free.

You: Free?

Well, the memories are free. The kids are less so. Of course, you have to feed them and in my case that’s a pretty penny, given the ravenous nature of both of my girls. But as far as free entertainment, they’re like a non-stop no-cover charge party.

Strategy number 4 of my Top Ten Savings Strategies is to Enjoy Free Stuff. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that you must spend money to have a good time. But that’s only a myth of adulthood. Talk to a couple of teenagers. Their moods may be complex and occasionally unpredictable, but little of their highs and lows are influenced by the amount of money they have in their wallets. (They usually don’t have much and neither do their peers.)

At any age, your attitudes and feelings about you relationships and activities drives your level of happiness or dissatisfaction.

If you have kids, enjoy them. Don’t assume that you have to give them every last thing in order for them to be happy. You don’t. What they really want is every last minute of you. So spend more of your time and less of your money.

If you don’t have kids, think about all that money you’re saving on blueberries and circle-shaped cereal. Then, increase your emergency fund and do something for free, like go for a long hike or read a good book.

You: War and Peace?

Whatever floats your train.

You: What?

Emmmmm!

Michael B. Rubin is the founder of Total Candor, a financial planning education company. Michael is a frequent speaker at ING DIRECT cafes across the country and has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, SmartMoney.com, Women’s Health, The Chicago Tribune as well as on numerous TV and radio station programs. For a copy of Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck, visit the ING DIRECT Shop. For more of Michael’s writing, visit the Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck blog or follow him on Twitter.