SAVINGS: BENEFITS AND TIPS ON HOW TO REACH YOUR SAVINGS GOALS.

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I hear some people say, I can’t keep money
or even save, once money enters my hands the next minute, I just spend it.

Whenever I hear such statements I begin to wonder if they really know the future financial crisis they are putting themselves into.

As food is important for man so also is saving
money. The benefits of savings cannot be over emphasized.

Anyone who always have a cash inflow can save irrespective of their earnings, age, status, educational level.

What Savings Is

Savings is referred to the amount of money that an individual or organization earmark pending when it will be used

It is one of the very vital aspects of raising funds for business, project and /or building wealth for a secure financial future.
Savings, just like its name, is a life saver. It helps one overcome certain challenges and unplanned outcomes in life. It is important that one learns to have a savings culture.

Why Is Savings Important?
Savings is so important that it cannot be neglected as it used to achieve a great lot of things.
Some of them are;

• It serves as an avenue of raising capital for business
  Starting up a business is usually a long term goal. Through savings one can raise capital to start-up his or her dream business or other related business as it is not really advisable to borrow money for that.

• It helps in planning for short term goals.
  Not only is savings needed to take care of long term goals, it helps in short term goals too.
  For instance, one can plan to save money for traveling expenses, to buy a laptop, home equipment, house rent, school levies, take professional exam, etc within a short period of time. With this one will remain focused on achieving the goal.

• Raise fund for a project
  One can raise money for projects like building of houses, acquisition of landed property, etc through savings. This is the best practice.

• It helps one have rest of mind
  This is so true. One who has the habit of saving money usually experience rest of mind because the person is assured that whatever financial challenges or unplanned needs will be easily taken care of with the savings. This is a great way to lead a life free of stress and worry, nothing can be compared with it.

• It helps one have a secured future.
  Everyone desire to have a better and secured future and savings helps one achieve that dreams.
  Through savings, one can accumulate funds to build or buy a house, purchase a vehicle, retirement, and other things which will help in living a comfortable and secured life in the future.

• In helps in times of emergencies.
  In the case of unexpected events like medical emergencies, natural disaster, loss of job or properties, etc, one will not have difficulty in taking care of such emergencies because of course, he or she has saved up some money.
  For a someone who lost a job, the savings can help him and his family, if he has one, go by until he is able to get another job. Alternatively, he can decide to start a little business with the savings pending when he gets another job.

• It impacts positively on the economy of a society
  In a society where the people save money usually have a good and stable economy because is enough capital which businesses can use to invest in new projects thereby creating jobs opportunities for the people.

• It helps to plan for children’s education
  Parents can take care of their children's education to any level or in any school of choice through the money saved up for such purposes.
  The best way to do this is to have a savings scheme where certain amount of money are put either weekly, monthly.

• It also help curb the over dependence on credit and debit, which, most times, causes financial instability.

How Can One Save?
Anyone can save money and there are so many ways to go about it. One's savings pattern is usually dependant on the reason for saving.

One who wants to buy a car may not have same saving pattern as one who is planning to buy a land.
For one to save successfully, it requires discipline, commitment, focus and a long term or short term perspective.

Basically, these are ways one can save;

• Know how to budget and understand your finances
  This is the most important tip for anyone who wish to start saving.
  This means knowing your daily, weekly or monthly cash inflow (income) and outflow (expenses), including debts repayment, target savings contributions, monthly bills etc.
  When you understand and keep track of all these, it will make it easier for you to know which area to adjust for a better savings goal.

• Pay off all outstanding debts
  It's unwise for one to start a saving process when he already have a huge debt hanging on his neck, it will be impossible for it to go through because the more you delay to pay off the debt, the more interest it accrue leading to an increase in the total debt.
  First things first, find a way to be free from that debt before starting off to save.

• Open a separate savings account
  Having a designated account other than the normal account you have is the best way to have your savings goals met. That way you won't have access to it till the time for the purpose of the savings comes.

• Limit spending on your card

Setting a limit to the amount of money to spend on the credit card and the debit cards is a great way save fast.
This helps you monitor your expenditures and equally cut down on excess spendings.

• Pay yourself first.
  You may be surprised by this but this is a wise thing to do. You make the money so you should be able to pay yourself from it and the money can serve as your savings. The best way to do this is to set up an automated transfer on your checking account whereby at each pay day, a certain amount is deducted and credited to the "pay yourself savings account".

• Fix a no-spend day.
  You can pick a day, in a week or month where, except for the compulsory expenses, you will spend no other money.
  On that day you can cancel going to the grocery store, instead you manage the ingredients you have at home prepare your meals.

• Buy things in bulk.
  This is another good practice to save money. Bulk buying, especially when there is a discount offer helps you cut down on extra cash you would have spent on buying in bits.
  Although there may be an upfront cost when doing so, on the long run, you will be able to save more money.
  This practice is very good for food items,
  toiletries, children's school books, pens, pencils etc.
  This is one of the best things I learnt from my parents and I'm teaching my kids too.

• Engage in DIY
  If you want to save more, you have to learn to do some things by yourself.
  You can learn how to fix the bulbs, the tires, paint or even barb hair so that the money you would have spent paying for those services will be channeled to savings.

• Get rid of unused items
  There are so many unused items lying around the house. They can be clothes, shoes, bags, electronic gadgets, kitchen utensils, just anything, and they are just there occupying space, as if they are matter 😂.
  What do you do? Sell them off and channel the money realized to savings.

• Make a list of things to buy.
  You don't just walk into a store or mall and start buying things without listing them out, no, you don't wanna do that.
  This will help you cut off impulse buying and overspending.

Carry a lunch pack
Taking food from home helps you save extra cash you would have spent eating out on lunchtime.
Except when I travel outside my work area, I always carry my lunch pack. Not only does it help me save some money, I also eat healthy food.

Get a piggy bank
There are times one may have loose change from purchases, they can be saved in a piggy bank. Overtime these monies will serve a great need. So instead of always telling the attendants to keep the change, collect the change and keep it yourself.

• Getting a pension scheme is another way of saving money which will be useful after retirement or after certain years as stipulated in the terms and conditions.
• Investing in financial instruments like stocks, bonds, mutual funds are another great ways to save for the future.

Conclusion

Anyone who fails to save is planning for financial crisis in the future
No matter how little the amount might see, start now to save. It will save you in times to come.