A Simple Gal's Way To saving a Little for the Future

I am an educated woman, a woman with plenty of great Job experience. I work hard and get paid not quite as much as I would like to. I have to deal with running a household, gas prices and all the other expenses that come from adult life. As you can probably guess this leaves almost nada for savings. Especially when it seems that as soon as I get even just a measly 200.00 saved some horrible emergency comes up and it's gone. This brings me some concern as to my future. After all at 38 there is still the uncertainty that I will ever see Social Security. My 401k from banking is literally a joke and I guess it makes me quite scared!

I don't know much about investing, stocks are an education I am not well versed in. What I do know is that I needed to find something, even if it were a small something to back me up in the future, and the knowledge of that something I needed came from both an accident and a windfall.

A few months back I had a simple repair done on my car. My windshield wipers were not working and I had to have the motor replaced. Unbeknownst to me, the mechanic seriously messed up the job. I did not find that out until the nest evening when I was traveling down the express way and flames started to skip up my windshield from where the new wiper motor had been installed. Luckily for me I was able to pull over and jump out, but by the time I turned around to see my car it was already engulfed in flames. I was lucky and thankful for my life!

Once I was able to deal with that issue I had a new and harder one to face. Replacing the car. A battle with the mechanic could take months as any insurance battle does, but I needed a car now. I had been in banking for a bout a year and had gotten in to the habit of buying old money that came in. I did it as a hobby. An all silver quarter came in I would exchange it for a new one, same with all silver Kennedy half dollars, or the really big dollar coins that had Eisenhower on them. I bought rolls of the new nickels unopened as they came out. For 2.00 for each roll it was nothing. I bought the old paper money called silver certificates. I did all of this just little by little never exchanging more than 10.00 at a time for everything.

So here I was car less and not enough saved in the bank when my Fiancé` suggested seeing what my little collection might bring to a coin dealer. I figured it would be nothing. I mean little more than face value at the most. Imagine the shock on my face when it was appraised at almost 5000.00! I couldn't believe it; my silly hobby was actually worth something. Especially the silver, with silver prices at an all time high I really cashed in! And these were coins that I encountered every day in and out of banking! Needless to say I was able to obtain a new vehicle and I also got some great information from the coin dealer.

It wasn't just Old money that I made money off of; it was the new money as well! I had 2 rolls of the 2004 nickels come in. They were unopened and I just thought they were neat. They were from when the images on the back of the nickels were going to change to a boat on one and on the other the other shaking hands. They were to commemorate the expedition of expedition of explorers Lewis and Clark. What I did not realize was that their value came from the fact that while they had new back images, they were the last with the old image of Jefferson on the front. Little did I know that the value on these had gone up in just 2 years to 1098%!

Coin prices are unpredictable, but as it is currency you're investing in you know that at least you have it's face value plus a bit more. So I decided to visit the www.usmint.gov and start making purchases of rolls and silver sets, all very inexpensive. I started stocking from buying there what I did not have come in the bank and just putting them aside. I also visited the US Treasury Department's site and started having small deductions (5.00) a week taken out of my account toward 50.00 bonds. When I get to 25.00, that's purchases a 50.00 bond that I have to hold on to and is not redeemable for a year. After a year, if I need to cash it in, I not only get back the 25.00 but a few cents interest on top of that! The fact that I only deduct 5.00 a week to this means I don't miss it and the fact that they cannot be redeemed for a year means I don't spend it! Same with the coins, I am not going to take my rolls of coins in to a mall and shop with them; it's almost out of sight out of mind!

I am also a yard sale and thrift shop woman. I like treasure hunting. One of the things I always collected and usually got for under a dollar were sterling silver pieces of silverware. I would find a knife here and a fork there. This little collection also helped to bring in much needed cash with silver prices being up there! So as you can see for those of us not well versed in investments or scared of them, these are safe easy ways to have money, Bonds, coins and metals. OK, silver prices probably won't stay up, but they will always be profitable and easily obtainable for the person who trains he or herself to look for these things.

I guess any collecting you enjoy can be an investment and you should look at it that way. Many of my little cheapie yard sale antiques that I paid less than 5.00 for are worth hundreds! So my advice Gals, is check your pocket change, visit the Treasury and Mints websites and research the things you collect. You may have more of a treasure than you thought and with that a small investment in your future!