Bank of America's "Keep the Change" program is about to blow out its first birthday candle. The idea is simple; they round up your purchase to the nearest dollar and stash the difference from your checking to your savings account. Problem is, you can't have the bank or your momma do the saving, baby. Saving is up to you.

You need to do it right and you need to do it well, jack. Don't save dough in 17-cent blocks in some rinky-dink savings account that returns 0.5 percent and expect to have the moolah for emergencies and retirement. That ain't gonna cut it, baby, so quit using that knife. Pile up cash with gazelle-intensity for an emergency fund and get it in a money market.

Do like Dave Ramsey. If you're gonna go, go all out and leave the half-donkey effort at the curb. It's real simple, simon. You already work and earn the money; so just keep some of it with you.

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