For many people saving money is difficult because they want to surround themselves with more possessions to feel wealthier, not necessarily be wealthier.
They focus on urgent desires rather than future priorities. They find changing bad money-saving habits too difficult as it takes time and effort to improve. Or, they simply do not know much about personal finance which is not a difficult area of knowledge after all.
Seeing other people struggling with saving money is often difficult, sad and depressing. Many people also get into serious debt because of irresponsible financial decisions.
That is why in order to help with learning how to make saving money easier, I have put together a few ideas which will ease your pain.
1. Control urgent expenses.
Giving up morning coffee might be difficult for the first few days. But, after a couple of weeks, you will get use to this new routine. Try to avoid places where shopping craze intensifies, for example, going to shopping malls on the weekends or browsing online shops. If you really have to buy a new thing, remember to wait a day or two to make sure that you really need that item.
2. Enjoy saving money.
Incorporate the idea of saving money into your lifestyle and make putting aside money as an attractive part of your life. You can tell yourself that from now on you are only going to buy the highest-quality products which last longer and say ‘No’ to low-quality mass production (if you can afford to pay higher price for higher quality goods). You can also keep your daily expenses in a nicely designed Excel spreadsheet or notebook to keep accurate records. In the next couple of days, I am going to write a few articles about money-saving ideas in different aspects of life.
3. Educate yourself about financial knowledge.
Steven Covey who writes books about habits, once said that it takes 21 days to create a habit, learn a new thing or skill. Try to read free money-saving resources on the Internet (lots of free valuable stuff out there on the Internet!), including personal finance websites and blogs, eBooks, webinars. Visit a local library for free books about saving. Ask your relative or friends how they save money (ask why if they do not). Then, make conclusions. Gaining financial knowledge will surely help you with launching your ‘money-saving career’. Do not waste time watching too much TV in the search for money-saving TV programs. Books and websites are better!
4. Practice changing money-saving habits.
One way to start cultivating good money-saving behaviors is to set up a system which will automatically send a part of your paycheck to your saving bank account. It will enable you to have a healthy saving rate when you lack of saving habits. You can start with some small amounts and after a while, if you feel comfortable, you can increase the percentage.
Another way is to set up weekly or monthly reminders. For example, start working on a shopping list one hour before going shopping for groceries: check your fridge and pantry to decide which products need to be resupplied. It was actually proven by Sendhil Mullainathan, an Economics professor at Harvard University, who confirmed that people save more when they get regular reminders of products which they have to purchase, even better when those reminders are in the form of pictures. Mullainathan also found that people solve problems more accurately when they are are better off rather than short on cash. You can learn more about this phenomenon is his study ‘Getting to the Top of Mind: How Reminders Increase Saving‘.
5. Give yourself time to achieve financial freedom.
Take your time to get to know yourself first. Watch your daily routine throughout a week or two. Learn how you behave when you are about to make urgent expenses. You can even write down everything you do every day to observe what activities you perform at a certain time of the day. Then, think about your saving goals. Remember that no matter what your financial goals are, it will always take days, weeks, months or years to achieve them. Everything will require persistence too, so do not give up!
Saving money can give you a huge headache. Saving money can even cause many arguments with your boyfriend or girlfriend, wife or husband, because you may have different expectations from each other. But, step slowly. Enjoy the process, contemplate.
And, you will succeed.
