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Saving money is one of those things that we resolve to do by end of year as we make our New Year resolutions. The impetus to save ranges from the need to buy a (better) car or the need to move into a better house or even build a home. Some people desire to save up so that they enroll in school at various levels while others save for emergency or investments purposes. Then there are those who have no choice but to save because their income greatly exceeds their expenditure.
There is a significant amount of money that passes through our hands in say, a year and we spend most of it or pass it on to others. Whether we get to cross saving off our list or not, we can hardly save what we do not have and a saving culture is partly supported by increased employment rates and incomes as well as reduced costs of living. If none of that happens, we may have to exercise self discipline in order to reduce our expenditure.
I started saving in homemade penny bank when I was very young. I did not have any income or allowances so I would to set aside part of the money I received as gifts. I had no means of accessing the money in the penny bank unless I had it broken so it kept me on track. The idea was to accumulate enough money for me to open my own savings account which I did later and I was able to buy my first phone among other items from the accumulated fund. It has however become harder to save over the years even with alternative sources of income.
Saving is never easy. Even in economics our wants many times exceed our resources and if we can hardly get satisfaction then we cannot even think about saving. One of the rules that would help is if we set aside any money that we receive that we did not expect to. It could be from gifts or appreciation tokens. We can also save part of any allowances that we get in addition to the basic pay. Some basic expenses like rent and food have to be catered for periodically but cutting on expenses on other items may help us save too.
Saving is a practice that has to be cultivated over time and the culture should be instilled even in children. Where to save is a crucial detail- we are better off saving in a place where we have minimal access to our money. We could opt to have a normal savings account and a fixed deposit account to ensure that we can access part of our money when we need it yet the rest continues to grow in value. We could also invest money in the securities market and the options can be made known to us by commercial or investment banks.
Deciding to save is a major step towards the goal. Knowing what proportion of income or allowances to save is equally important and so is knowing where. You can make great saving and investment decisions by discussing your goals with your banker or financial advisor.