For several years I have been trying to help people plan and stay with a budget. In all that time, I've noticed that the hardest thing for pople to do is actually start saving. It seems that everyone wants to spend rather than save. This has been the downfall of many a budget plan.

People who actually have opened a regular savings account seem to save more than those who want to save but have no place to put their savings. The non-savers have good intentions, but they depend on having money left at the end of the month, and they intend to save that left-over money. Problem is, they never have any left-over money at the end of the month. Sound familiar? I wanted to find the key to helping people to save more.

So what is the key to having that left-over money? It is a two-part program. First you must save before spending any money. That means putting some of your pay into a savings account immediately after you are paid. Do not wait. Put the money in the savings account as the first step, before you spend any money at all. Don't wait until the end of the month. Put your savings away first, then only spend the remaining money. 5% to 10% of your pay into a good savings account first, is a good starting point. Your budget should start with this step. Remember, in order to spend less, you MUST save first.

The second part is having a savings account that is easy to put money into and take money out of. But not so easy that you take the money out the next day! It must be an account where you can "hide" your savings from yourself. It is too tempting to take money out of savings if all it takes is a trip to the drive-by window at the bank.

After searching for a good savings account all over the country, I found ING DIRECT. This is an on-line federal savings bank that is well-known and is federally insured. They charge no fees and have no minimum deposit requirements. They also pay the highest rate available for this type of account. You can transfer money into and out of this account through your existing checking account so it is very convenient. But not so convenient that you will want to take your money out immediately after putting it in. You can open the account on-line in less than 5 minutes.

So having a good savings account and actually saving first are the keys to becoming a better saver. And in turn, you will become a better manager of your own hard-earned money. The next step is to go to ING DIRECT and open your account now.

The next step is to take advantage of this free and anonymous debt analysis program. It will help you understand your debt and give you a specific strategy for reducing or eliminating all of your debt. It is totally free and your personal debt information cannot be identified once you enter it. It is a free service offered by credit unions. Once you have opened your ING DIRECT account, you can then go to Debt In Focus and access the free and anonymous debt analysis and management system.

So open your free ING DIRECTaccount first then go to Debt In Focus for your free comprehensive debt analysis.

BONUS FREEBIE #1 - There is a free downloadable software you can get for your PDA type of device. It is called HandWallet. It will keep track of your income and expenses on your PDA. After you open your ING DIRECT account for free, you can download the HandWallet Basic for free.

BONUS FREEBIE #2 - Do you take pictures using a digital camera? You can get free software from Google that will help you organize, edit and share your photos with your family over the internet. The account and software is free at Picasa . So open that savings account at ING DIRECT and then go to Picasa.

Start saving now. You will be glad you did a year from now. And we all know how fast a year goes by!