This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks & Prudential. All opinions and stories are 100% my own.

Let’s talk about saving for retirement. Wait, what?? Exactly. Are you saving for retirement? Have you even thought about it?? At one point, when I was a W-2 employee and not a W-9 contractor, I was avidly saving for retirement. I did NOT want to be left out in the cold when it came to my retirement age. And then I became a creative entrepreneur and hung my “employee” days. And then I stopped saving for retirement. Why?? Because I was putting all my money into building businesses and completely OVERLOOKED planning for my future. Or my hubs future for that matter. And now I’m in my mid-30s and retirement age seems to be getting closer and I don’t exactly have a plan in place. But that is about to change!! And I’m sharing 4 money saving tips for creative entrepreneurs. Partly for your benefit and a whole lot for my benefit. So we’ll own our futures together, shall we??

One of the first things that I can say I do well, before we get into those money saving tips, is the fact that my hubs and I have invested in real estate as part of our retirement. I purchased my first income producing property (a duplex) when I was 24 years old. I don’t even know how we scraped up the money to do it, but we did and it was one of the smartest decisions we’ve made. We moved into one side of the duplex and basically lived for free from the rental income from our tenant. Fast-forward to today and we have 7 more years of payments on that duplex (which we are currently living in again to save some money) and then it’s ours free and clear. Buying income property – something that would help us out in retirement – was a smart decision for us. We went on to buy 4 more income producing properties, 2 of which we have since sold to invest in other businesses. So we are currently at 3 total income-producing properties. But we have no other retirement plans. Just real estate. And that makes me nervous. It’s never smart to have all of your savings plans in one bucket. So we are changing that up and going to begin diversifying – with the help of a Prudential Financial Professional (which I’m SUPER excited to share my journey with you!!). Now let’s look at the money saving tips…because we both have to start somewhere right??

4 Money Saving Tips for Creative Entrepreneurs

TIP 1 // Budget in your Savings.
You would think this would be an automatic “oh yeah – I budget for everything else, why not budget in my savings plans” except it isn’t. Especially as a creative. I’m worried about paying for bills currently and growing my business currently – and budgeting in my savings hasn’t been an automatic process. But that is changing – and it should change for you too. When you are making your monthly budget, make sure there is a line item in for how much you will actually save, no matter what you spend. Don’t scrimp on this!

TIP 2 // Open up Investment Accounts
I just learned that there are a lot of different ways that creative entrepreneurs can save for retirement – even if we aren’t employees with an employee matched 401k! Who knew?!? I’m excited to explore with my Prudential Financial Professional what’s going to work best for me, but here are some of the ways you can begin exploring (and googling) for yourself. Simple IRAs, SEP IRAs, Solo 401(k)s or Contributory IRAs (Roth or Traditional). Stay tuned to the blog as I begin to explore some of these offerings for myself – so you can learn alongside with me!!

TIP 3 // Use Automation
Turn on automatic withdrawals from your accounts so that you don’t need to “remember” to move that budgeted money over to your savings account (or wherever you are putting it). You will be more successful at saving money if it’s automatically setup to transfer to your savings accounts for you.

TIP 4 // Sit back and Watch Your Money Grow
I once read that NOT investing/saving is actually more risky than choosing to invest/save for your retirement. Read that statement again. Exactly. If you don’t make plans to begin saving for your future, you won’t have a future or any way to pay for your future when it comes time to retire. Work with a Financial Professional to see what is smart for you in the here and now for your future. And then sit back and watch it grow. Diversify your savings. Don’t put it all into one retirement basket. And then make sure that you don’t touch it. If you need a rainy day fund, make sure you have one so that your future savings can stay put!

Stay tuned to Part 2 of my own Financial Savings Journey!! I can’t wait to share about how I first started saving for retirement (when I was a W-2 Employee) and how my hubs factored into the equation. You will NOT believe what he did!! Would you believe that women don’t invest to the same degree as men??¹ My story will prove this fact so stay tuned for Part 2!! Boss Girls we need to bridge this Investment Gap!!! Plus I’m going to share my experience with a Prudential Financial Professional + how I’m setting myself up to #OwnMyFuture.

Want to get started on your own financial journey towards owning your future? Prudential wants to help us Boss Girls educate ourselves about the various challenges surrounding our financial futures, so that we can prepare and protect ourselves. Prudential aims to empower us with financial solutions so we can be confident we are making the right decisions for ourselves and our families. Click here to jumpstart owning your financial future! You MUST start some time so why not start now?? Own YOUR Future!

Source:
1. http://fortune.com/2016/05/11/sallie-krawcheck- ellevest-launch

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