Financial awareness is a kind of a trend nowadays. People are learning how to invest money successfully using very innovative tools for that. However, the very first step to a right behavior with money is knowing how to save them and doing it on a daily basis. It is not as easy as asking a math homework doer for help, - to count your budget, you need to take it more seriously. The US employers encourage their employees to set an option of saving a certain amount monthly or investing it in pension accounts. There are some projects that help people to set their saving goals and achieve them. If you experience issues with keeping your balance positive during the month and making serious purchases (more expensive than $500), this essay is what you need to read right now.
Small and Regular: This Is How It Works
Once you have set a goal to save a certain amount of money or just would like to develop a habit of saving, remember the following rules:
- Start with small amounts. Do not let saving become a stress for you (like hiding a half of your month income and eating only rice a whole month long). Within some time, you can increase the amounts which you accumulate.
- Do it regularly! Just get it started, continue weekly or monthly – and you will get used to it. Soon your savings will increase automatically.
It’s All in Your Head
“Do I need to spend it today or will I need it later”? We are prone to satisfy our most urgent needs like buying new sneakers or an iPhone and not always can we make a positive decision on saving instead of spending. We buy emotions and new beautiful and comfortable sneakers will definitely bring you more positive emotions than some more cash in your pocket or a bigger amount on your banking account.
In fact, it is all in our brain. When you need to make a decision, different types of neurons take part in this process. Let’s call the first type “The Spender” and “The Pinchpenny”. As soon as you start thinking on making some purchase, both of them will give their tips. The Spender will describe how good you will feel after buying a new dress, how many compliments you will receive and how men will fall in love with you right after taking the first look. The Pinchpenny will tell your brain that you will be feeling happy after buying the new dress for no longer than a week, but if you keep on saving for a new car, you will definitely have more benefits once you get it. The battle between the neurons happen and the strongest one wins. So how come that some neurons become stronger than others? It is mainly about the habits you have. The more you work out your saving neuron, the more powerful it will become, so it will be a more effective influencer that the other one.
SMART Saving Goals
Let us be honest with you – nobody is able to gather a big amount of money just for the sake of gathering and without knowing how they are going to spend it. It is quite hard emotionally and almost impossible to reach. This is why it is essential to set a saving goal. The best way to do it – using the SMART system:
- S – your goal should be Specific (think what exactly you would like to purchase – not just an apartment, but think how many rooms you would like to have, where it should be situated, the view, the furniture you would like to put in there)
- M – Measure it! Check the exact price, learn how much you need to spend on each item.
- A – make sure that you can Attain it. You should dream big, but not too big in order not to be disappointed when you come to the moment for your dreams to come true.
- R – keep it Realistic. Inventing a time machine is a great idea and for sure requires much funding, but you will be happier as a result if you set a different, more achievable goal.
- T – assure that you set the Time limits for your saving purpose. You can save for a new camera for six months or six years: which one is better for you?
Find more tips on how to overcome saving barriers in our next post!