Boost Your STICKING TO SAVINGS With These Tips
We all need a little boost to help us grow and manage our money. Sometimes the hardest part is knowing how much we are saving and sticking to a plan. Some people love to track all their transactions on a spreadsheet and have little room for movement; others just wing it and kind of know what they should or shouldn’t be spending each week. There is a number of tools to help you with your budget including apps to track everything down to that latte you had or that must-have item you purchased online last week.
But how far do you need to go to get somewhere with your finances?
This gets down to you and what you need to help you track your progress openly and honestly. With so many options, tools, and strategies available, it comes down to personal preference and motivation. I think, like with anything in life, the level of motivation or commitment you dedicate to your savings will determine your outcome. If you don’t commit to your savings plan, your spending plan will take over.
The first step starts with knowing how much it costs to run your life.
This is the scariest and most confronting step of all. Knowing where your money goes, what’s the biggest drain on your cash flow and where you’re overspending is a necessity. From here you can then look at reviewing some of these costs. Contact all your providers of regular necessities like your water, gas, electricity, insurance, etc and see what deals or discounts they can give you and look for alternatives. Make a call to your financial planner to get them to review your personal insurance premiums and see if you can get a lower premium for the same, similar, or even better benefits.
Then it’s time to Start Saving!
There’s no such thing as the right time to start because expenses will always pop up, but with the right momentum and commitment just take a leap and jump in.
Here are a few tips we recommend helping to boost your sticking to savings commitment:
- Separate Accounts – establish a separate savings account (ideally not attached to your internet or phone banking so you can’t see the balance). High-interest accounts are usually the best way to go. Compounding interest will help you build your balance faster.
- Automate it – have either your employer split your salary payment each cycle or when your salary is paid in the bank, have an automatic transfer in place to move funds to your savings account. The less involvement you have, the easier it is to stick to.
- Increase with pay rises – you are currently living off your income so any pay increase you receive in the future should be directed straight to your savings plan. This way you won’t miss it and your savings will build up faster (it’s okay to treat yourself initially with something nice to reward yourself for a job well done).
- Always ask “Do I need it” – when buying something out of your normal routine, ask yourself, ‘do I need it?’ before you buy. Just stopping for that one second can really make the difference. Sometimes we buy things on autopilot because it’s something we have always done. But now you’re on a savings plan to buy that house, that car, that holiday, etc so do I need this or the car/ house/ holiday more?
- Allocate some money to spend – We can’t save all the time but allocating some spending on a regular basis stops you from spending it all when you’ve saved up a nice lump sum.
- Don’t call it a budget – A budget is generally seen as a restriction on your spending but if you think of it as a Savings Plan then it is more about your end result than what you can’t have now. It’s the difference between saying you’re going on a new eating plan (sounds like you get to eat lots of new and different things) rather than a diet (which just screams restrictions).
Don’t get carried away…we don’t want you to become that person that buys a bulk supply of toilet paper to last the next 5 years because it works out to just 2 cents a wipe. We just want you to get where you want to go. You know and we know the key ingredient in all of this is… your commitment!
Do you remember when you were earning some cash from your first job and your parents said that you should save some of it? If you had thought about it at the time, it would probably have been a good idea but in reality, we don’t tend to listen at the time but realise later in life we should have listened. Here’s your chance now to get it right!
By sticking to your plan and implementing even just some of these tips, you might surprise yourself and that new car, TV or holiday might come around sooner than you think!
If you are struggling to get your savings plan in place, the JBS Financial team are here to help you get your savings (and spending) under control.
Jenny Brown, May 2022.