Business / Technology

Make 2012 the year to get money right.

For those who have been procrastinating or worrying, and maybe both, the key is to get started.

Dartmouth College studies show that most of us blunder through our finances — not because we don't have enough money, but because we wait and hope, rather than taking the modest steps that will ultimately free us from worry, regret and losses.

If you do nothing else, saving a little more than you now do for emergencies and retirement is a start.

Paying a little more each month than the minimum on your credit cards will help a lot if you don't add new charges. Here are some other tips:

Don't fool yourself: If you think you will save later for retirement, consider what people actually do: "Later" tends to never arrive, and near retirement, people panic.

Living on Social Security checks averaging less than $1,200 a month isn't pleasant, and people in their 70s can't easily find jobs.

Do the "ballpark estimate" at choosetosave.org to see what you will need for retirement and how to get there.

Nothing left to save? If you find that you are spending more than 50 percent on necessities now and can't save for your future, start looking for cuts.

You need a home, but maybe not the one you intend to buy.

If you are renting, maybe you can bring in a roommate.

If you are locked into a mortgage, you could consider renting out a room.

Or if you see no way to cut back on housing costs, where can you cut?

You need transportation, but not the car of your dreams.

Make your plan happen: To keep yourself from spending the savings, set up automatic deposits that take money from your pay and route it directly to your bank, 401(k) at work, or a mutual-fund company or broker in the case of an IRA. You won't spend what you don't touch on payday.

Don't just save — invest: Once you've gone through the effort of saving, make sure every penny counts.

Keep emergency money in a bank account.

But to make retirement savings grow, choose a combination of mutual funds that expose your money to stocks and bonds in a 401(k) or IRA.

A balanced fund puts roughly 60 percent of your money in stocks and 40 percent in bonds.

You will lose money temporarily in a bad period like 2008, but historically money in such a fund has grown about 8 percent annually.

If you are in your mid-30s and have $10,000 in retirement savings in a bank savings account, you will be lucky if it's $11,000 by retirement.

In a balanced fund, that same $10,000 would likely grow to six figures.