Piggy banks have been around for not just years, but centuries.  The term began as a reference to regular old jars, made out of a type of clay called pygg, that people used to save their pennies.

Today, you can find piggy banks in all shapes and sizes, made of ceramic, metal, porcelain, plastic – you name it.  Some even have an electronic or battery feature that will count your coins as you insert them, tallying up your total so you know how much you’ve saved toward your goal.  In my family, growing up, we had a big red bull bank – but we called it The Pig.

Still, it’s clearly not the most effective way to save.  Not only is it too easy to access your cash, it’s also too easy to spend your bills before they ever make it in the slot.  Then there’s the little issue of interest – if you’re not earning some return on your money, you’re actually losing cash to inflation.

Whether you’re saving for this summer’s family vacation, or getting a jump on the holidays, these days there are tools that will help you save automatically, and programs that speed your progress. Many are focused on saving for college, but others are multi-purpose. Here’s a run-down of the ones I’m liking right now:

Upromise.  Upromise is one of many programs that works by depositing money in your college savings plan when you shop at certain retailers or buy certain products.  You register your credit or debit card with the company, and then they track your usage, giving you a small kickback when you make a qualifying purchase.  Does that mean you should buy a new couch so you’ll get the cash back for college?  No.  But if you need – and can afford – a new couch, and you have a choice between a retailer that works with Upromise and one that doesn’t, you might want to spend your money at the participating retailer.  The program is free, and you can invite friends and family to join as well and donate their rewards to you.  Upromise partners with 600 online retailers, 8,000 restaurants and over 21,000 grocery stores.

BabyMint.  This program is much like Upromise in that you shop within a network of retailers (the BabyMint network currently includes 500 merchants, who offer cash back of 1 – 26%). You can have your cash sent to you via check, deposited into a college savings account like a 529, or put toward your student loans. You can also have family members and friends join the network and contribute their savings to your children’s accounts. To shop, you either use a BabyMint College Savings credit card, or you log in through the site and shop online. Another perk of the program is that about 175 private colleges will match your BabyMint savings dollar for dollar if your child chooses to attend their school.

SmartyPig.  SmartyPig is an online savings account with some perks to help you reach your goals faster. You set a goal – say, next summer’s vacation, your husband’s birthday present, or that new couch – a timeframe, and an amount you need to reach that goal, and SmartyPig does the math to tell you how much you should contribute on a monthly basis. That amount will automatically be deducted from your checking account each month and placed in an FDIC-insured savings account until you reach your goal.  You can set multiple goals at a time, a perk in my book because when you save for everything in one big pot, it’s too easy to spend the money earmarked for your emergency fund on your vacation instead. Once you’ve reached your goal, you have the option of receiving the cash plus your interest (accounts are now earning 2.01% APY) on a retailer gift card (a good option if you know exactly where you’re buying that couch, not so good if you don’t) or as a transfer back into your checking account.  Often, retailers will kick in a bonus for putting your cash on their gift card –  Kohl’s, for example, will give you an additional 5%.

ING Direct.  This is another online savings account, no bells and whistles, save for one thing – it allows you to set up multiple accounts that act as sub-accounts, or pots, so you can prioritize your savings goals and keep your money separate.  Each account is free, and you can set up automatic transfers from your checking account each month or even week.  So say you want to save $50 a month for next year’s vacation and $25 a month for a new television – that money will be automatically withdrawn from your checking and placed in the appropriate sub account.  You can track all of your accounts on the same screen and transfer money between sub accounts as needed.  ING Direct is  currently offering a 1.25% variable APY.

I bring up this segment again because I love some of the tips Redbook collected from its readers, and I wanted to share:

“I buy sets of things and break them up. Last year on QVC, Valerie Parr Hill was selling sets of holiday candles that came with gift bags, tissue, and tags. I bought a set of five and broke them up into five individual gifts.”  —Denise Gaylord, 55, New Bern, NC

“Board games make great family gifts: one gift for four people! I once gave Scrabble to a family, and they loved it because they began spending a lot more time together. Monopoly is another classic.”  —La’Tonya Hocker, 34, Bowling Green, KY

You can read the rest of the Redbook piece here.

Happy Holidays!!

-Jennifer, New York

ANSWER: Summers off, lots of vacation time, a nice benefits package…being a teacher definitely has its perks. In fact, according to MetLife’s annual Survey of the American Teacher, 62% of teachers surveyed said they were very satisfied with their careers.

The downside to teaching?  Once the summer rolls around the paychecks stop appearing in your mailbox, making budgeting—at least for a few months—a bit of a headache.

According to Danny Kofke, author of “How to Survive (and Perhaps Even Thrive) on a Teacher’s Salary,” “paying yourself” is the key to staying afloat during the summer months.

In your particular example, in order to pay yourself, you’ll to divide your take home pay, $24,000, by 12.  You’ll get $2,000, and this is the amount you’ll want to “pay yourself” every month. The goal is to pay yourself this amount even when you’re not getting a paycheck from your school system.

How can you do this?  Set aside a little bit of money each time you’re paid.  Put it in a separate savings account so you’re not tempted to touch it. In your case, you should aim to put away $300 per paycheck to ensure you’ll get paid the $2,000 during the months you’re not working. “Every time you get paid, you should put $300 of your check into your savings account and, voila, you will never have to scrimp once the dog days of August roll around,” says Kofke.

If you don’t think you can swing setting aside $300 per month, you might have to consider doing something else during your summer vacation to support yourself.  Here are some of the best ways for teachers to earn some extra cash during both the summer and throughout the school year.

• Teach outside the classroom. According to Kofke, one of the easiest ways to earn extra money is by tutoring. “I tutored one of my students a few years ago and charged $50 an hour for my services. By the time summer rolled around, I had over $1,000 saved by just tutoring one hour a week,” he says.

• Do a little moonlighting. Kofke also suggests looking into working at your school after hours.  “A lot of schools offer an after-school recreation program for their students. Working one of these programs can generate enough extra money for you to put away for the summer months,” says Kofke.

• Get certified. Another way for teachers to bulk up their bank account is by becoming nationally certified.  It can be a challenging and lengthy process, but according to Kofke, it’s well worth the effort.  “You will not only professionally benefit from this experience, but financially as well. Once you obtain this certification, you are eligible to receive an additional 20% of the median teacher’s salary every year for up to ten years,” says Kofke.  But before you look into becoming certified check with your county about the monetary awards for completing the process–they vary from state to state.

I have a 22 year-old daughter who begins work as a nurse in July. I have recommended the asset allocation (early career in your book The Difference) after she saves up 8 months in expenses in cash or money market fund. Do you have a better recommendation or did I miss the mark?

Answer: In a perfect world, we would all have 8 months in living expenses in the bank. The reality is however, that putting that much in the bank, especially when you’re starting out, can be a daunting task.

Yesterday Karen Blumenthal stopped by my radio show to discuss her new book “The Wall Street Journal Guide to Starting Your Financial Life.” Starting small, Blumenthal says, is a key thing for workforce newbies to remember. “The first paycheck you might have immediate living needs…you don’t want to run up debt. You need to commit some of each paycheck to build that fund. Start with even $25 and then increase it. In every paycheck you should aim for as much as 10%. If you can’t do that right off the bat start with what you can do,” said Blumenthal.

But where should that money go once you’ve set it aside? Your daughter is going to want something where she can easily move her money around and access it in case of an emergency. To meet both of these needs, online savings accounts are a good place to stash your cash. Places like DollarSavingsDirect, HSBC Direct, and ING Direct offer these types of accounts. “With these it’s very easy to move money around…and the interest rates are a lot better than you’ll get with a money market account or a regular savings account. There are no catches, for the most part, and fairly low or no minimum balances,” said Blumenthal. An added bonus: These accounts are FDIC insured.

“I want to refinance my wife’s car and her current interest rate is 7.4%. I am the cosigner for her. If we refinance her car, will that lower our credit score? We only owe $15,000 which is less than the car is worth. The reason I am asking is that we plan to purchase our first new home this year.”

I said yes. A car refi is a a no brainer of a transaction. It costs about 15 dollars and takes about the same amount of minutes. I also checked with the credit bureaus to make sure that this swap would not affect JP’s credit – something I would not want to happen in light of his desire to go mortgage shopping soon. They assured me it would not as long as he did the shopping within 30 days and replaced the loan with another the same size.

The others on the panel? They disagreed with me. It’s only $7, David said and Carmen agreed.

They’re entitled. But let me explain why they’re wrong.

It’s $7 in month one. But:
Pay off that car over 36 months and its $252.
Pay it off over 48 months and it’s $336.
And pay it off over 60 months – as many people do with their cars – and it’s $420.
In other words, it’s a car payment in and of itself.

By my calculations spending an hour to earn or save $7 may indeed be a waste. But spending it to save hundreds? Not so much.

And then there’s the principle of the thing. Either you are a saver or you’re not. Why is it worth it to spend your time clipping coupons to save $1 on Tide, or shopping around to see which gas station along your drive to work is the cheapest, or teaching your kids to put the time and energy into putting some of their birthday money in the bank when you’re not willing to do it yourself?

I’m pretty convinced I’m right. Readers, what do you think?

What’s influencing your decision to keep or not keep your cash at home?

Over the years, I have talked about trying again.  I’ve signed up.  I’ve started training.  For one reason or another — it’s difficult to get those really long training runs in when you have kids, my confidence was shot, I was tired! — I never made it. 

So this year, I set a different goal.  A smaller goal.  A half marathon.

My friend Diane and I were already running a few days a week, completing roughly 4 to 6 miles at a shot.  She agreed to do it with me.  For a long time, we didn’t tell anyone.  Instead, we just started adding a mile here and there.  One Saturday we did 7 miles.  Two Saturdays later, we did 9.  Eventually, we ran 11 and started admitting to people that we were — in fact — in training.

And today, in the 85 degree heat (so hot, the race organizers cancelled the marathon that was supposed to run parallel with the half) we — and some 9000 other runners — competed in the More and Fitness Magazine half marathon.   We didn’t break any records.  The “elite” runners in the race finished their second loop around central park before we finished our first.   But we did it!  13.2 miles in 2 hours and 20 minutes.  We felt great.

And for me finishing was a reminder of the importance of not trying to overreach — when it comes to any goal, even a financial one.  Researchers at Old Dominion University recently published a study noting that one big reason why middle class Americans don’t save money is that they set the bar too high.  They aim to save thousands rather than hundreds, for instance.  And because they can’t hit their original mark — like my full marathon — they quit having accomplished nothing.  Savers who aim lower — for the hundreds, for instance — end up saving more actual dollars in the end.  And, more importantly, being able to revel in the fact that they did it.  They finished it.  They accomplished it.  They could cross it off their list, take the satisfaction in that accomplishment, and move onto the next goal.

It is an important life lesson for me — and busy people everywhere who are often tempted to bite off more than we can comfortably chew.  So for me, no full marathon next year.  But perhaps another half.  Two hours and 10 minutes, this time?

And for you?  What do you want to cross off next?