Saving money can be a struggle for many people. That little voice in our head can trick us into believing just about any excuse. I don’t make enough. I can save when I’m older. I’m just not good with numbers. I’m too busy to start a budget. Whatever the excuse is, it really just boils down to people making their finances much more complicated than they really are. The illusion that your personal finances are complicated is what prevents people from even getting started in the first place.

Sometimes all it takes is a little momentum to get people motivated to save money. Here is an extremely easy way to get that momentum without even hardly trying.

I would say a good majority of people with a salary job get paid bi-weekly. So your paycheck comes every other week. Who cares right? Well, that means you get paid 26 times a year. When you get paid 26 times a year, there will be 10 months in the year where you will get 2 paychecks and the other 2 months you will get 3 paychecks.

You’ve probably never even thought about this if you don’t track your finances month to month. However, if you think about it it’s very simple. 10 months of the year you have to find a way to live on 2 paychecks. If you can live on 2 paychecks for 10 months then surely you can live on 2 paychecks for 12 months, right? So in the months where you get 3 paychecks, 1 of those paychecks can go right into savings. That will allow you to save 2 paychecks a year without even trying. Even better, if your spouse works and gets paid the same way, then you can save 4 paychecks a year.

September is one of those extra paycheck months for me and my wife. We don’t have to change anything in our spending and we will each be able to put a full paycheck into our savings. Think about what you could do if you were able to save a full paycheck this month. Pay down debt? Invest towards retirement? Go on a long overdue vacation? Give to someone in need?

Saving 2 paychecks a year or even 4 paychecks a year isn’t going to be life changing by any means. However, it could be that jump start you need to get some traction towards your financial goals.