Save for the future? Yes!!!! Saving more money is one of those goals a lot of people have, but don’t know how to go about. You don’t have to be earning 7 figures or win the lottery to build a comfortable savings cushion.
With a few months left to the end of the year, there is no better time than now to get your savings target in order. If you’re looking at the calendar and are wondering how to achieve this, these simple tips will help.
Create a Visual Reminder of your Goal
The first step to saving successfully is to create a visual reminder of what you’re saving up for. When you rely on your willpower, you risk losing motivation or forgetting the big picture.
Having the discipline to save is great but you can make it a lot easier on yourself if you create things to motivate you and push you through.
Visual reminders are a fantastic way to do that. If you’re saving for a trip take a picture of the destination you are going to. If you’re trying to buy a house soon, then have your screensaver be a picture of what you’d love to buy.
Why? Your picture allows you to remember you’re not just saying no to a bunch of things. you’re instead saying yes to what matters to you.
Set Weekly Savings Goals
You may look at your huge savings goal and get intimidated and overwhelmed. This is normal, but if you break it down into smaller bits it’s much more manageable and you will be more motivated to follow through.
Break your goals by weeks and if you can maintain them, you can save a significant amount every month.
This method is also good because things may change weekly. And if you don’t achieve your goals this week, you don’t feel defeated because you know next week you’re going to save a little bit more.
Track and Review Your Money
The third step is to have a way to track and review your money. You can do this manually or via various apps. Never stop checking: How your savings are; what your cash flow is; what bills you need to pay or cut back on.
This allows you to save time and money on unnecessary things while you focus on the big picture instead.
Make Savings A Fun Game
Sometimes (okay most times) the idea of saving money isn’t exciting. This is why we highly recommend you try to gamify things.
Do a money challenge with your friends and loved ones. You can start small and then increase it as time goes on. Saving money can actually be fun if you make a game out of it, and there are lots of ways you can do that.
You could aim to see how long you can go without a grocery store trip by using up items in your pantry, for example, or have a contest with your spouse to see who can go the longest without buying anything nonessential. By making it fun to cut costs and save more, you can change your mindset so you don’t feel deprived when you work hard to spend less.
