Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash
We have to understand that saving is also a habit that needs to be built. We often think of the end goal of having an xxx amount of the year, but forget that it all takes a good system first for us to achieve our financial goal.
I always believe that building a good habit will significantly allow you to keep on track in achieving your financial goals. Every actions were are taking forms part of the habit, which will become foundational for each of our goals (which in this case “saving”)
COMMON EXCUSES WHY PEOPLE CAN’T SAVE
- “Too many expenses”
- “My pay is not enough”
- “Money is meant to be spent”
- “My bills are too high”
- “YOLO”
- “I need to pay all my debt first”
The above are only few of the million excuses that people say why they can’t save and what I’ve noticed is that this is mainly due to the lack of literacy about our personal finances. We also think that saving is something in excess after all expenses. However, this shouldn’t be the case as it has to be our priority before spending anything.
MONEY HABITS YOU CAN BUILD TO SAVE MORE MONEY
1. Transfer your savings to a different account every paycheck – One of the most effective way to save is making it as a “priority”. Taking off your savings and placing it into an account separate from what you usually open forces you to only use the remaining amount left and keeps you from over spending.
2. Tacking your spending – The reality is we often buy stuff unknowingly and without tracking your spending you will fall in the trap that you still have money to spend. Tracking your spendings allows you to see which expenses are important and which are those that are just eating your money. It also helps you become aware on expenses that you tend to splurge on.
3. Regularly computing your net worth – Your net worth says a lot about your financial status, this can be used as a gauge whether you are going or moving away towards your financial goals. Being aware of your net worth gives a sense of which spending are considered as beneficial or harmful to your net worth. Check it here on how to compute your net worth.
4. Reading finance books and blogs – This might be unusual among the common tips that you read but I can considered this as one of the most important. Exposing yourself on ideas about personal finance through reading finance books and reading some finance blogs can significantly shift your mindset not just in terms of saving but also how you invest and spend your money. This helps you gain the wisdom and knowledge towards handling your overall finances properly.
Whatever your beliefs are can affect your values which will ultimately have an impact towards your actions.
5. Start small in savings – As mentioned earlier, saving is a form of habit that we create for ourselves and if you wanted to build the habit of saving. You have to start small in order for your to properly build it. This gives you momentum and small victories that pushes you to continuously save money. Have a look at this post on how to build good habits.
Final Thoughts
We need to understand that saving is a habit or a skill that we need to build. It all takes practice, repetition and system in order to be able to have it as our lifestyle. We can’t just see it as an action that should just occur but we have to understand it is a skill that needs to be honed and requires practice in order to master it.
Vir Glarea 