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When standing at the doorway between a life of ease and one of uncertainty, it is important for you to protect what savings you have as if it was water and you were preparing to cross a desert.

When you are faced with not knowing where future money will come from the single best course of action you can take is to be as precious and protective of what cash you currently have on hand. If your income has been cut, your paycheck is shrinking and your future looks uncertain then your savings account can be a life raft in troubled waters.

However, unless you take action to make all expense cuts you can you may find yourself with a deflating raft in rough seas with no ship in sight.

Facing Reality Sucks

I hate it, you hate it, we all hate it. Reality just sucks at times but if you want to protect your savings account and money in the bank, there is no substitute. You have to be honest with yourself about the reality of your situation. What do I mean?

It is natural to feel lost, alone, afraid, scared and stressed when money supplies run low. Damn, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to print cash like the governments do? But we can’t otherwise we’ll get a free trip to Club Fed.

So what do we do? Well the best course of action is to become frugal and protective about every bit of the money in our savings account. One way to do that is to use free money, coupons.

Used wisely, coupons can be a source of significant savings, used without thinking, coupons can be a stimulus to spend money on things that you never would have considered.

Without much effort, coupons can get double or triple savings. Not that long ago I wrote about how to maximize your savings using grocery coupons. It is good advice and worth another look.

Unlink Your Savings Account

If your savings account is linked to your other bank accounts and provides for automatic overdraft in case your bank account is overdrawn, unlink it. The last thing we need right now is a surprise debit dipping into the savings account you are trying to protect. Sure a bounced check is bad, but money suddenly missing out of your limited cargo of dollars is worse.

Don’t Tap Into Your Savings Account at the ATM

It is just too easy to be tempted to take a little out here and a little out there from your savings account at the cash machine. Treat your savings account as a repository of funds and not one you draw on for a little of this and a little of that. Rather, move money from it into your checking account in chunks and then try to leave what money is remaining in your savings account as precious and off limits.

Don’t Make Repayment Promises That Are Not Sustainable

It is far too easy to make payment promises to get creditors or debt collectors off your back, or even to want to avoid dealing with them in the first place. But if you have over-promised payments you can’t afford and are having to dip into your savings account to make those payments, the only thing that will happen is that before you know it, your savings account will be empty but the demand for payments you can’t afford will continue.

Your Savings Account is Like Mushy Peas in a Tube

Maybe it would be better to think about your money in the bank as the limited food supply that astronauts have available when they are in the space station. If those brave people locked in a can in space had a drunken party and ate all their freeze-dried food, there is no additional supply. There is no grocery store in space. If times are tough, there is no expectation that you are going to be able to replenish your emergency money, so you’ll have to ration it and budget your money in savings also.

Strong Demands For Your Money

There will be strong demands for your money in troubled times and it will feel as if every demand is urgent and must be solved with precious funds. Rather than leap to pay those demands, evaluate them. Figure out which demands of payment and bills are essential and which are just nice. Pay the essential ones and leave the others to the side for now. It is better to be a bit late than flat broke.

What Tips Do You Have?

If you’ve lived through difficult financial times or have some tips on how to protect money in the bank, share them here. I’d love to read your comments and suggestions also.

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Steve

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