Happy America Saves Week! American Saves promotes saving money and reducing debt all year 'round but this week is a special celebration. Saving money sounds like a good idea. But, how do you save a dollar when you feel like you don't have a dime to spare?

You need a goal that is important to you to work towards. You need to believe that small changes in behavior can make a big difference in savings. And, you need to take action to change your spending.

What do you want to be doing in 5 years? Where do you want to live in 10 years? Do you want a financially secure future in 25 years? Now is the time, to start working towards these goals by saving money.

Does saving enough for a goal seem too difficult? It's easy to put off starting to save. But, what if we think about how much money we can save each week and then see how it can grow over time? $20 a week can make a significant difference in your savings. Think about it -- $20 a week is $1040 a year. You could start a retirement savings account with this money.

If you saved $80 a month in an investment that had a rate of return of 5%, in 15 years you'd have over $21,000. What a wonderful gift to a college-bound child when they graduate from high school. When you realize that a $21,000 goal requires $80 a month, then you can change your spending to find the $80.

For many practical ideas on how to save money, read Strategies for Spending Less at the Getting Through Tough Financial Times website.

Are you ready to take charge of your financial future? America Saves is here to help. America Saves is a nationwide effort to encourage non-saving Americans to save. Enrolled savers receive the American Saver newsletter which offers information on a wide variety of savings topics and introduces you to other Savers who are achieving their financial goals. If you'd like to join America Saves go to www.americasaves.org.

Would you like to share your thougths and tips about saving money? Click on my name below and send me an email; I'll be glad to add it to this blog post!

In the past week or so, I've had conversations with two people who discovered that their credit or debit card had been cancelled because it had been "compromised." The first person was alarmed, the second was angry. And neither really understood what was going on. Thus, the topic for today's post.

What's going on? This is the most likely story: You made a purchase somewhere and as a result, your card number was stored on a computer. Maybe a hacker got into the computer. Maybe those files were transferred to a laptop that was lost or stolen. Your card number, along with thousands of others, is now potentially in the hands of a criminal who will either use the number himself or sell it to other criminals. So the bank that issued the card takes action. They cancel your credit card or debit card and replace it with a new one that has a different number. In many cases, the first indication you have that anything has happened is when you get a new card in the mail with a note that your old card will no longer work.

Maybe your card number would never have been used fraudulently. But if it were, you could suffer a lot of inconvenience, and the bank would suffer financial losses. By cancelling your card, the bank is ensuring that fraudulent charges cannot be made.

Our Plan Well, Retire Well team recently ran a series of teleconferences for the average investor and saver titled "Saving and Investing in Turbulent Times." In the teleconference I spoke about the risk and how the market's volatility increases as we go into a period of adjustment and market decline. I used a graph of the standard deviation (a statistical measure of variation or dispersion) by month of the daily close of the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the time period of January 1, 2000 through December 10, 2008.

In this graph, the standard deviation is simply a measure of how dispersed the market close of the DJIA is over a month. The month 480 on the x-axis refers to January 2000.

To me there are several take away lessons and messages from this graph. First, in previous investment downturns (such as the early 2000s in the graph) we have seen levels of volatility that are similar to what we have experienced in the past year. Second, it raises the question of what level of risk do people have in mind when they are planning and allocating their investments. When a person does his or her investment allocation does he or she expect to see the historic highs in terms of market variability? If we are making allocation decisions in a period of relatively low market variability do we tend to assume things will continue this way going forward? A third question is whether the markets are now fundamentally more risky than they were previously. The graph doesn't answer this specific question but it shows the high levels of market fluctuations we have experienced in the last year.

Two other lessons come out from the graph with implications for savers and investors. First, making sure your investment allocation can handle a period of significant market fluctuations (and the implied drops) is important. Many investors find a tool like a ladder of bonds that will mature at different dates to be a good way to build in some of this cushion so that they do not need to drawn down their equities while the market is down. Second, taking a long-term view of the markets and their capability for fluctuations is important and reinforces the need for rebalancing portfolios periodically (for many of us about once a year).

We'll be doing another teleconference in April of 2009. Please keep an eye for more information related to venues where you can participate in the teleconference workshop.

Paying bills on time might seem like a simple thing but it is something that many people struggle with. Sometimes the problem is being disorganized, but sometimes the problem is that there is not enough money to pay all the bills.

Things can happen in our lives that we don't expect (whether it's reduced income or unexpected emergency expenses) that can make it difficult to pay bills on times. If this happens to you, it's important to figure out a plan of action and contact your creditors BEFORE you're late on a bill.

Before you call your creditors take time to look at your income and essential living expenses, and make a plan. Who can you pay and how much can you pay? For more help with this process, visit the website Getting Through Tough Financial Times and read Talking with Creditors. Don't forget to talk to all your creditors -- credit card companies, landlords, utility companies, etc.

The key points when you talk to a creditor are:

• Be organized – know what you can pay
• Be prepared to explain why you cannot pay
• Make a plan – what you can pay now – how you will catch-up on the payment
• Document agreements in writing

What should you ask for from your creditor? It depends on your financial situation and how long you expect to be short of money. However, consider asking your creditor if you can:

• reduce the monthly payment,
• refinance to a lower interest rate,
• skip a payment,
• reduce, eliminate or only pay the interest, or
• give back an item.

Remember, once you have a plan and agreement from your creditor then you are expected to follow this new plan. So, be sure it's something that will work for you.

Do you have other tips to share with people about working with creditors? Click on my name below and let me know your ideas. I will share them in this blog.