Money Saver Monday: Pay yourself and your family first

With such turbulent economic times it's hard to think about "squirreling away" for the future. Many of us have felt the hit of the stock fall (aka, my retirement plan has plummeted by over 50%), but that doesn't mean mattresses are the way to save now. I'm a fan of the mix: invest, high interest savings, checking account. I still invest because when the upturn starts I don't want to miss the spike.

Every paycheck I have money go into 6 different accounts before I even see the check - the beauty of direct deposit. Because the money comes out directly, I don't see it and have gotten used to living with less.

The breakdown is as follows:

• Grad school loan
• 401k through work
  
• Roth IRA through Fidelity - I've diversified here, even though the market is lagging, I'm hoping an upswing will hit soon
  
• Savings - this is our "rainy day" fund; this year we're using it for taxes but moving forward it's house savings
  
• Baby savings - I opened this account as soon as we found out we were expecting, now I have $100 ($50/baby) go into a high interest savings account every paycheck, at first this'll pay hospital bills and then it'll turn into a college account
  
• Checking - I love ING - it's the highest interest and is super easy; we use checking for rent, groceries, eating out, running shoes, races, etc.