Become a savings superstar: Five ways to encourage your family to save

NEW YORK -- While current economic difficulties make most financial matters anything but fun right now, it still helps to take a lighter approach to challenges when you can.

A recent promotion by FNBO Direct, a division of the First National Bank of Omaha, brought this idea home. The Pay Yourself First Challenge is turning the classic American savings idea of "pay yourself first" into an entertaining and potentially lucrative enterprise. See the Web site.

Here's the deal: You submit a one-minute video - like a YouTube vignette - of what you're saving for over the next six months. Submit by July 31, and you'll be eligible for prizes of up to $25,000 in matched savings, a spa vacation, a $500 cash prize, or if you're one of the first 500 to submit, a $10 gift card from Amazon. See full story.

O.K., contests are contests and, heck, I never win anything, so why bother, right? And I'm not so good with a video camera, either. But as a firm believer in the pay-yourself-first idea, I applaud FNBO's efforts.

Taking money off the top of your paycheck and routing it directly into savings works great. You never see the money in your pocket or checking account. No more cash burning holes in your jeans. It just goes towards an expanding, and compounding, number. A number that makes you feel not only good but also accomplished. Not like ice cream and double cappuccinos that make you feel good -- but hardly accomplished.

The financial dynamics I've experienced and seen in most families strongly suggest a reward system to make the savings "medicine" go down easier.

Beyond FNBO's contest, the following ideas for rewarding your family will put some fun into the idea of pay yourself first.

• Hand out gift cards. Make a pact that if, say, by year's end, your savings goal is achieved, everyone in the family gets the gift card of their choice for a predetermined amount.
• Holiday payback. Holidays can be a time for rewards, too. If you achieve a savings goal, then expand the size of this year's holiday budget. That motivates savings, but also provides the gift-giving funds that are otherwise hard to come by.
• Travel treasure chest. One family stuffed $10 or $20 a week into a lockbox and kept it in a desk. Come May the family opened the box to see what was inside. A good pile of currency, and vacation fun to follow.
• EBay at the end of the day. Similar to the gift card idea, achieve a goal and everyone gets a PayPal deposit to spend on something really cool -- and second- hand to stretch the reward a little further.
• Home improvement one square foot at a time. Maybe it's unanimous - the house would look so much better with new carpet or hardwood or some other feature everyone could enjoy. Set the savings plan and mark off the square feet you've achieved as a team to date.

Of course, you don't want to spend all of your hard-earned savings on rewards. But I've seen these ideas work first hand. You and your family members get what they want, and the true value of money -- and of your hard work -- come to life.