Remember when you were a child and you’d save every red cent you had in a piggy bank? Those piggy banks were pretty cool. My own was a rodeo clown barrel with Bozo the Clown on it. A white and blue striped barrel with a simple metal plug on the business end. The savings were simple in those days, money in… money out…. save today… buy the stuff you want later. All it took was pocket change collected around the house, out of ashtrays and car seats, from lemonaid stand sales and the sweat of my brow. Many a mowed lawn earnings went into that piggy bank. Then, you grow up, you get a job and an adult life, and some of the old childish wisdom you had when you were a kid gets lost.

I’m here to tell you that there’s gold in them there pockets.  Since times are tight, there’s no shame in putting those coins that seem to collect in your washer and dryer to work for you. Save them for a rainy day. Save them for a vacation. Save them for your kid’s education. Save them.

• First: Open a pocket change account that’s completely separate for your other accounts. Depending on if you need ready access to the savings, you can earn a lot more interest on it if you deposit the money into accounts like a CD or a Money Market savings account. I was able to find a stepped deposit CD with a local bank that earns a fixed rate of 4.15% after an initial deposit, and it allows you to continue to deposit into the CD until the CD matures. That means I can continue to deposit pocket change into the CD and have those deposits earn the same 4.15% until maturity. Score. Another option would be to open a money market account and rolling the money over into CD’s once you meet the CD’s minimum deposit requirements.
• Second: Get some coin rolls. Roll up your spare change often and deposit it into your pocket change account once a week. I was able to find an automatic change sorter at a JCPennies after christmas sale that automatically sorts and counts the coins and stores them in change tubes for easy wrapping for about $3. It was a used open box item, but it was nice executive desktop model in wood finish. Score.
• Third: Get a money bag. Ask at your bank, more than likely they will give you one for free. Any bag will do, really. Put your spare change into it.

POWER SAVING TIP: Now, here is the secret to power saving your wealth and growing that pocket change into riches quickly. My father taught me this tip. At the end of every day, take all of the small bills out of your wallet and put them into your money bag. Anything below $10 goes into the money bag. Do this at the end of every single day. Any $1.00 or $5.00 bills in your wallet go into the pocket change money bag for deposit along with the rolled coins.

If you take this advice to heart, you can grow a pocket change account into some real wealth. All it takes is time and the willingness to turn spare change into riches.