They say, ‘money slow to come, but very quick to go.’ You can have a million bucks today, and if you’re not good at managing finances, you can become broke the next day. This is why it is important to be a good money manager, and one of the attributes of a person who knows how to manage money is a strong saving habit.
Saving is good not just because you want to be able to meet up with set targets, but also for unforeseen contingencies. Tomorrow always comes, and you never know what tags along with it. However, as important as saving is, not everyone can manage to do it. So let us explore some of the things responsible for people’s inability to cultivate a saving habit.
1. BORROWING
Borrowing may seem harmless, but it actually does you more harm than good, in the sense that it prevents you from having some savings. Imagine a situation where a person earns $2,000 a month, and then, borrows half his salary to solve a ‘pressing’ need. At the end of the month when he gets his pay, he’d be left with just $1000 because he would have settled his debt. By the time he’s done allocating money for his daily (monthly) upkeep, he’d be left with absolutely nothing to save. Now, imagine he doesn’t succumb to the urge to borrow; at the end of the month, he’d have enough to service his needs, and something for the bank.
2. EXCESSIVE PARTYING
To successfully have a good party, you need to spare a large chunk of money on booze, women and smoke. Now, imagine you have to do that every week. You’d be spending money that you otherwise would have saved and used for some more important venture in the future. I’m not against partying and having fun, but ‘too much of everything is bad’, they say. Partying occasionally, and with good reason is more acceptable than spending every other night in a club.
3. EXCESSIVE SHOPPING
I understand the need to look good and fly often, but that should never be at the expense of having a good savings. Stop shopping things you do not need just because you want it. There is a difference between the two. A need is more pressing than a want. If you have a good and functional car, and you desire a second, it is not a need – it is a want. So you need to draw the line. Don’t spend money shopping for things that are not very important just to show off. When you do that, you limit your saving power.
4. OSTENTATIOUS BUYING
Similar to the point before, but different. Ostentatious buying involves buying stuff just to impress, irrespective of price. Some of us are so into designer outfits, we wouldn’t mind spending a ton on them, just to impress our friends and colleagues. Ostentatious buying also occurs when you ignore a cheap, nearby store for a bigger, more expensive one, when you clearly can get quality stuff at the former. It makes no sense, and it is wasteful. You wouldn’t save a lot if you continue to live like that.
5. KEEPING MULTIPLE RELATIONSHIP PARTNERS
This is mostly true for men. It’s hard enough to keep a girlfriend, so why complicate things for yourself. The more women you have in your life, the more money you’re likely to spend to keep them happy. The dates, the shopping, etc. and all the money would come from your monthly income. How much do you think you’d save if you threaded that path?
6. LACK OF A GOOD SPENDING PLAN
It is very necessary to have a good plan in place for how you intend to allocate your monthly resources because it helps one to know how much they have to spend every month, and how much they’re left with. It allows you to know your most pressing needs, and meet them first before anything else. And when you do that, you’d be able to save something for the future because you know what you need, and what you don’t. A good spending plan would ensure you never have to borrow. But in the absence of a plan like this, you wouldn’t be able to spend your money wisely because you’d spend impulsively.
Learn how to save money for the future because it ensures you never have to be financially stranded.
Drama
Thank you, very nice idea