For lots of us how to save money is a real concern, especially when most people feel as if they are stretched thin and living paycheck to paycheck as it is.
One of the problems is if you think about how much you need to retire, put together a college fund, or even just try to reduce your debt, it feels impossible. Thinking about being able to save up $750,000 for retirement when it feels like you can’t pay your bills on time makes you instantly feel defeated and you end up doing nothing.
The important thing to remember is that you’re not trying to do it all at once, and starting small is more powerful than you may think. Even if money is tight and you cannot figure out how to save money fast, how difficult would it be to come up with $25 a week from somewhere?
It may seem like a tall order if you are constantly scrambling at the end of the month, but the reality is most of the time you can adjust your day-to-day spending enough to come up with it, here are a few money saving tips for you to look at: Bring lunch from home a day or two, skip the movies, skip that morning stop for coffee, etc. Eat at home, restaurant eating is a budget buster. This isn’t to say you should be depriving yourself of things you enjoy, but it shows that if you’re serious about improving your finances you can make a few small sacrifices that make a big difference.
Now, you’re probably thinking so what, $25 a week won’t amount to anything and it isn’t even worth it. It’s true, it isn’t a lot of money, but it’s still $1,300 a year. Start up an emergency fund by creating an automatic $100 monthly deposit into a savings account. After the first week or two you’ll completely forget about having $25 less in your wallet each week. You won’t even notice it. Then guess what? A year from now you’ve got over $1,300 in the bank and it was a completely painless and automatic process. The real point here is that taking a seemingly insignificant amount of money each week or month actually amounts to something over time.
Sure, at the time coming up with 25 dollars a week may have seemed a bit tough, but after a few weeks of doing it your spending has naturally adjusted to this new available money.
The bottom line is to not get discouraged by the numbers that it takes to reach your goals. It’s far too easy to think about how much you need to save for retirement, the money needed to pay off those credit cards early, or build an adequate emergency fund. When you do this, you may be like most people and throw your arms up and figure why even try since there seems to be no way to ever get there. Don’t feel defeated, and instead start small to take the first step in getting there. Understand that you won’t hit your goals overnight, but doing something, even if small, is still far better than doing nothing.
