Financial advisers and bloggers talk about the importance of having an emergency fund and investing money. But what if you have no money? That’s actually the situation with many millions of households across America. In fact, a study conducted in 2011 found that nearly two-thirds of US households have less than $1,000 in liquid savings.

Are you one of them?

Don’t fret about it – do something about it! That something is building your basic grubstake – that money that will enable you to both build an emergency fund in the Foundation Phase and create a budding investment portfolio in the Accumulating Wealth Phase.

There are a whole lot of reasons why so many people have so little savings. We can hash out the details, but the better approach is to go forward from where we are.

There are two basic ways to begin building savings: cutting living costs and generating new income sources. Ideally, you’ll use a combination both, that way neither will be too painful.
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