Suze Orman Has These 3 Words on How to Grow Your Savings

It really is great advice.

You never know when an unplanned bill might land in your lap. You could pull out of your driveway only to get a flat tire -- and get stuck paying $100 or more to replace it. Or, you could wake up one morning to find that there's no hot water in your house -- and that you're looking at thousands of dollars to replace the water heater you rely on daily.

That's why it's so important to have a decent chunk of cash in your savings account. In fact, as a general rule, you should make a point to have enough money in an emergency fund to cover at least three months' worth of essential bills. The logic there is that if you lose your job, those cash reserves could make it possible to keep up with your bills while you look for work.

But many people struggle to build savings, and understandably so. If you don't earn a very high salary, it can be difficult to carve out money for savings when other expenses eat up your income. And even if your wages are higher, you might still have a host of bills and obligations to grapple with that make saving money difficult.

But if you're serious about boosting your savings, it pays to follow a few words of wisdom from financial expert Suze Orman. In fact, she has one simple suggestion that could make your savings efforts far more successful.

Make it automatic

A big reason so many people struggle to save is that they don't prioritize it. Rather, what they do is see what their bills amount to each month, and then, if there's room left over to save money, so be it.

But that approach to savings may not get you very far. And that's why Orman insists that automating the savings process is a much better bet.

Many people participate in employer-sponsored 401(k) plans. How these plans work is that they deduct a portion of your earnings (which you agree to ahead of time) for retirement savings purposes so that by the time you get your paycheck, you've already saved something.

Orman thinks it pays to adopt the same approach to building near-term savings. Many bank accounts allow you to set up an automatic transfer from a checking account to a savings account. What you can do is arrange for a portion of your paycheck to get moved to your savings account at the start of the month, before you get a chance to spend it. That way, you'll get used to living on a smaller paycheck, and you'll be free to spend your remaining earnings entirely knowing that you've already contributed to your savings.

A solid approach

The great thing about putting your savings on autopilot is that you put savings first. And so if you've been struggling to grow your savings, it could pay to automate the process.

That doesn't have to mean parting with $300 a month off the bat. If you don't think you can afford that, start with an automatic $50 transfer and see how that goes. The key is to move some money into your savings consistently so you can meet your goals and have enough money to protect yourself from financial emergencies that arise in the future.