Making Savings a Priority in Your Budget

Did you know that if you make it a priority to save money, you will actually start to see your savings grow? A lot of people say they’d really like to save money, but they never start doing it. What keeps them from starting now? What is holding you back from making a monthly (or even weekly or daily) commitment to yourself to put money into your savings account?

Here at iMoneyCoach we like to share 2 surefire ways to make your money grow:

1. Put Money into Your Accounts Regularly
This seems like a no-brainer, but many people simply don’t do it and wonder why they can’t get a good cushion. You need to make adjustments to your budget, figure out what’s important to keep and what you can eliminate, so you have money to put into savings. Be sure to get out of debt first so you are not wasting money on interest and fees. Once you are debt-free you can use the money you were putting towards payments on your debt to put into your savings and investment accounts. Then you will see your money start to grow.

2. Give Your Money Time to Grow by Starting Now
If you start now, your money has more time to grow thanks to the magic of compound interest. My husband teaches an economics class and was sharing with his students how compound interest causes money to grow faster. At the end of class several students came up and asked him, “Is this real?” They could hardly believe that if they put $1,000 in the bank now and do nothing with it for the next 20 years it will grow a LOT. The longer you wait to put money in your savings and investment accounts, the harder you will have to work to put in the same amount you would earn by putting more in earlier.

Why save? If you are going to make changes to your budget to put money away, it is definitely more motivating and likely to last if you have a reason. Sit down and think about how you want your life to look in 5, 10, 20 years. Do you want to be able to take your kids on vacation? Do you want to be able to live in a certain type of home? Do you hope to someday retire? Knowing what your financial goals are will help you as you decide where to put that money. If you are putting it in a category only called “savings” that is fine, but if you can picture in your mind what that money is earmarked for, it will be much easier for you to give up whatever you are eliminating in your budget now so you can save.

If you need help making room in your budget for savings, be sure to let me know. iMoneyCoach is here to help people learn to budget successfully so they can enjoy life and reach their financial dreams. We’ve got some great online finance classes to help you do just that, or we can do coaching in the office or even via phone or Skype! We WANT to help you!

Tags: budget, interest, save money, savings