Are You Ready to Start Saving Money?

Saving money doesn’t happen by accident. It doesn’t happen because you want it to happen. Saving money takes some thought, planning, and action on your part. As they say: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If aren’t saving and would like to, you need to find a new approach.

Bubble Gum Money vs Savings

Raising my kids, I gave them an allowance at a young age so they could learn about money. You can read more about teaching children financial skills in our article Saving Your Bubble Gum Money. In my house, bubble gum money was money the kids could spend immediately on anything they wanted. (My youngest used it mostly for buying bubble gum when she was under 5 years old.) But they also saved some of their allowances. They couldn’t touch “savings” unless there was something they were “saving” for. In a four-year old’s world “saving for the future” meant they had to wait at least a week before they were allowed to make the planned purchase.

If you see something and buy it, you should be using your bubble gum money. Otherwise, you should put money aside to save up to make important, large purchases that you’ve thought through carefully.

If all your money is bubble gum money, you’ll never accumulate assets that are needed for things like taking a year off work, buying a house, having kids, retiring.

You may not even have enough to pay for a simple vacation. Once you have learned the difference between bubble gum money purchases and planned expenses and transitions, you’ve taken your first step toward financial success.

Never fall in the trap of borrowing in order to “spend less than you make.” Any consumer purchase (furniture, a phone, a car, anything that does not increase in value) should be purchased with money from your savings. Borrowing (payment plans, leasing, etc.) to consume allows you to feel like you’re spending less than you’re making, but you aren’t. The credit card companies, banks, and stores love to convince you that “you can afford this low monthly payment.” Those “low monthly payments” can add up to big debt very quickly. Don’t fall for their trap.

Make Saving a Habit

How much should you save? There is no one answer to this question. It depends on your expenses, your income, your future plans, what’s going on in your life right now, etc. The rule of thumb is 10%-25% of your income should go to savings (and paying down debt). If you’re a single mom making $30,000 living in Los Angeles, CA, you are not likely to be able to save 10%. But save what you can. Save something. Anything. Even $10 weekly is better than nothing.

Saving is a habit. The first step is to integrate the habit into your life. When you get your pay check, put some into your saving account. It doesn’t matter how much–just do it. You can set it up to have it go automatically into savings without any thought.

When you get non-paycheck money, make it a habit to transfer a certain percentage to savings, such as $10 for every $100 you receive. When you get your tax refund, you’ll be in the habit and will put whatever percentage into savings. When you get a bonus at your job, you automatically save a percentage. Better yet, put is all in saving and give yourself some to splurge. Put the $100 in your saving account and give yourself $10 to blow on whatever you want. You weren’t expecting that money anyway.

A habit is a trigger, an action, and a reward. The trigger is “you receive money.” The action is “you put money into savings.” It’s important to have a reward to make the habit stick. You might check your saving account balance and have a happy feeling. You may see how close you are to reaching your goal. You may invest your cash every time you hit $1,000 (another good habit). A simple act like saying “ka-ching” like a cash register adding up the total, can be a reward. Find what works for you.

As you watch your saving account grow, or not, you should be motivated to save more. When you get to the point where the money comes in and the first thing you think is “put my savings away,” you’ve developed the habit. Congratulations!

Make a Savings Plan

There are three levels of savings: emergencies, opportunities, and asset accumulation. Your emergency fund allows you to have money on hand to take care of unexpected or anticipated, but not planned problems. Your opportunity fund allows you to have fun or take advantage of opportunities that come up. And asset accumulation allows your money to pay yourself at some point in the future.

We all find ourselves in a position that an unexpected expense pops up from time to time. Plan for it. If you want to stay away from the high cost of credit cards and pay day lenders, have an emergency fund to fill that need. If you want to have fun and not feel like you’re living paycheck to paycheck, have an opportunity fund. And if you want to one day have a choice to retire or cut back on working full-time, think about accumulating some wealth so you can pay your own paycheck.

If all of this sounds easier said than done, schedule a FREE 15 minute call with us. We are here to help!