Money Matters: It’s More Fun To Save Money

It's more fun to save money

A lot of people think they can’t save because they need every penny. Wrong. Remember a penny saved is a penny earned. By and by, you’ll be surprised how those small expenditures have racked up into huge amount over time. Try this: Write down everything you spend—for your Starbucks coffee, eat-out at McDonald’s or even your cellphone load. Do this for two months and you’ll see where all of your hard-earned cash is going. Then, you will start to realize you have actually spent more on the things that you don’t need. You’ll also realize that you can stash away money at the extras and put that money into savings.

It may seem difficult to save money, especially if it's your first time to be very serious with this habit. But remember that how you save money has so much to do with how you determine your financial stability.

Anytime you plan to spend money, but you’ve second thought that you really don’t need to or found ways to get the things you want without ever spending a dime (buying brownbagging lunch instead of buying at the cafeteria or borrowing a book at a library rather than buying one), set that money aside for savings. Once you’ve accumulated, say, P5,000, you can already invest this via stocks and mutual funds. Yes, you can invest in stocks and mutual funds with at least P5,000 at hand. Click here to see some of the best dividend yielding stocks in the market.

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Every week, before you decide to hit the grocery, list down all the things that you intend to buy so you’ll find it easier and faster to shop. Buy only what’s on your list and buy only store brands to save more.

For smarter banking, look over your bank statement for the last three months and check for service fees. If you find that you’re getting charged for checking your account using other banks’ ATM machine, you might as well make sure that next time, you do the balance check on your bank’s own ATM machine. Or better yet, enroll at your bank’s online or mobile banking schemes so you can monitor your account balance even when you’re at home. BPI offers excellent online and mobile banking systems and I usually pay my bills right at the click of my laptop.

If you want to encourage your kids to save, here’s a fun way to do that. For every peso that your kids save from his school allowance, pay him 50 cents. That will encourage him to save more. When he has accumulated enough money on the piggy bank, ask him to open a savings account. It’s amazing how enthusiastic they’ll be when they see their money growing. And, again, if their money reaches around P5,000, you can invest this money for their future. COL Financial, the country’s leading online stock brokerage firm, actually allows parents to open accounts under their kids’ name.

Delayed gratification is the key to successful saving. If you see something nice and think you want to buy it, don’t. Wait for a day or two. Evaluate whether it’s something that you really need , how often you intend to use it, and equate the money you plan to spend to the number of hours you have to work for it. Or better yet, equate the cost of that item to the number of stocks that you can already buy. You’d be surprise to find out that this “must-have” turns into a “maybe-not” once you’ve considered all the facts. 

It takes determination and goal setting to make saving money a part of your personality, but it will all pay. Start saving now and sooner or later, you’ll reap the benefits of a financially trouble-free life. 

It's really fun to save money and then invest it at high-dividend paying stocks. Click hereand find out some of the best dividend yielding stocks that you might interested to invest in.