Am I the only one who's "late into the game" to start saving? I only recently hit $1,200 in my savings. I do not have any credit card debt. I do have student loans though. But I like expensive hobbies. It's not necessarily that I like to shop, just the things I enjoy, they cost BIG money. Such as collecting expensive dolls from foreign countries and playing videogames, I also love technology (computers, smart phones, tablets, etc). I know the importance of savings, I know now that I'm 30 - and I should have started when I was 20 - that I need to be prepared for retirement. I live within my means, without any credit cards, mortgage, or debt which is better than some young people do... if you can call me young still hahaha... but I know I need to save. It's not enough just to "live within my means" because my "means" aka, my job, won't be there when I'm 70. Recently, I've become very "excited" about savings -- For me, the turning point was when I got very close to 1,000 in my account. Before I was trying to put $100 a month into my savings, but now I put $150 from each paycheck in there (paid twice a month)... It's not much, but it's better than having nothing in there. I still sometimes struggle with the concept. I don't have cable tv or other unnecessary expenses, and I save when I can. I also stopped buying videogames, unless it's one I really want - In other words, I'll buy 3 or 4 games a year, instead of buying a game every time I get paid. I'm not like most girls that love to shop for clothes and makeup and other frivilous things. But... by the same token... I want to enjoy my life and have fun.... Who even knows if I'll be alive to spend my savings. I have no children or anyone else that I need to account for or worry about, just myself. So for me, the biggest obstacle in saving is "motivation". I have to find reasons to save, I know logically, need to save for the future.... but i get so much happiness and enjoyment from my hobbies. They are a HUGE part of my life. My life would not be the same without them, etc. Even I feel like I love my hobbies so much that they are what makes me, ME as a person. I self identify as a Geek, and a Gamer, etc. And it's not that I can't AFFORD the hobby per say, as I said, I'm not going into debt over it. But I just want to know, how do you motivate yourself to save, ASIDE from the logical reasoning that we all know that we NEED to save? I'm getting better but still have a long ways to go. My goal is to grow my savings to $2,000 before my next birthday (3 months away). Am I the only one in my 30s with so little money in her savings? I feel like a failure sometimes when I think about where I should be financially.
Imagine yourself in your 50s or 60s and without money... and you have to work hard to get it. the thought of it should make you realize that while you are still young.. it is important to save. what will happen to you if the people you love doesnt want to take care of you.. and you do not have money... aaargh! the thought of it motivates me to save... i mean.. save a lot!!!
As I said, I do realize the need to save. But thank you for your comments. I also think though that for people in my generation retiring in our 50s or 60s is not practical. Already the minimum age needed for social security is 62 and that only gives you 74% of the full benefits. To collect full benefits the minimum age is 66 and they increase that age every year. Also, many financial experts expect that by time my generation reaches retirement that there will be no more social security left due to the baby boomer generation before us. I know that social security itself is not enough to retire on (at least not enough if you want to remain above poverty levels.) My work does have some type of something similar to a 401k. I don't really know what it is called, but basically my work puts money in, but I can not contribute myself. They put in 20% of my salary (in addition to giving me my full salary each year). And then if I work there for 10 years, I can take the money with me. My previous employer did have 401k and I was investing out of my own expenses up to the 8% match or whatever it was that they offered. But now because I no longer have a 401k, I just put the money into savings, which is better than nothing, but it's not going to grow at a rate that will allow me to retire in my 50s, and probably not even by my 60s. I think many people in my generation will be working well into their 70s. I also know that I could enter the stock market on my own, but it's risky unless you have enough money to play it smart. You can't diversify your assets with only a few hundred dollars in each stock due to the high broker trade fees and if you don't diversify your assets and one of the stocks sinks, you're sunk right along with it. Ideally you need about 5 or 10 thousand to enter the stock market, and pick 5 or 6 different stocks in different industries. I barely have 2,000 right now, so the stock market isn't right for me just yet.
There's lots of people out there who doesn't have a single dime to their name and they're nearing retirement already. Kudos to you because you managed to save money that you can use in the future whenever you want to invest or start your own business. I motivate myself by looking at picture of things that I wanna buy when I get rich such as the latest sports car, a nice home, beautiful places I wanna travel to, etc. That's why I'm a firm believer of delayed gratification because I know that as long as I continue doing what I'm doing, I'm going to live a happy and fulfilling life in the future.
Hi Xenokitten.. you can also research and read a lot about personal finance. I found a very good concept called the CDRW. very easy to remember. it means, C for cash flow management. D for debt management. R for risk management and W for wealth management. If you really wanted to save a lot and be ready for your retire.. you can follow that scheme. if you are earning a regular income, make sure you save a portion of it as savings. if you are unable to get enough out of your regular income then it means, you have to improve your cash flow... which mean finding extra job or partime work, or even online job.. anything will do for as long as it will bring you some extra cash from a different stream of income. ok assuming you have that. the next thing to do is to make sure you are debt free, if you are, you can skip the D part of the scheme. Else, you have to manage your debt by paying it as soon as you can. specially those that add some more to it because of high interest (i.e. credit cards, etc). then, make sure you have to build up an emergency fund. this is different from your regular savings fund because the savings fund will not be spent on emergency, obviously. the emergency fund should be able to cover you for at least 6-12 months without work.. i know.. i know.. very difficult.. but trust me, this will be easy if you put your heart on savings and building this fund. if you have extra cash from your (different) streams of income.. assuming you mastered the cash flow management thing.. you can secure yourself (and your family) against any risks.. make sure you get yourself a life insurance. there are now insurance that are linked to an investment.. and I recommend this product for you. now what? let's review.. you are able to manage your cash flow - CHECKED!, you paid all your debt - CHECKED!, you now have a medical/insurance coverage (for you and family) - CHECKED!.. and still your cash are continuously coming to you.. BRAVO!! excellent cash management.. so.. the last thing to do now is to involve yourself into some wealth management.. this time, you can now put your extra money on investment. you can buy shares of stocks, mutual funds, bonds, forex, gold, whatever you want.. you can even start your own business if you know how.. and make sure you put (on investment) only the money you can afford to lose.. because you know.. investment is also risky.. so I hope I am able to share some info. if you want more details.. just googled it.. the keywords are generously given on the text I wrote above. Good luck you.. happy savings!!
Better to start at 30 than 40, or later. I started saving at 25 and paid off all debts. The funny thing is once you start gaining traction in your saving routine, it actually becomes easier with time. You almost have to train yourself not to buy too many expensive things. Shame and guilt will eat away at you if you over-spend, and ideally you will learn to avoid that cycle again.
I find that people who start investing are often more excited because they can see the money doing something at that point. It might go up or it may drop from time to time, but it's not simply sitting there. You can check in on it and move it around, etc, and be more "active" with it instead of feeling like the money is just sitting there, untouchable.
Firstly well done for cultivating saving habit and saving a good chunk of money every month. The money you save today will give you big confidence in times of strife and financial instability. You never know, when there is a plummet in the economic world. You better be prepared for any eventuality and savings is your best bet. Also, try to take a comprehensive insurance, if you don't already have one. It thus stops draining your savings in case of any eventuality.
Age really doesn't have anything to do with. In fact, for me, it's of little consequence. Some people mature faster than others. Some have more responsibilities to contend with. Hence, the reason why they couldn't save that much. You did well for realizing you need to save while there's more than enough time. 30 is not that old anyway. However, as soon as the opportunity presents itself, everyone should make the most out of their finances. We should also start thinking about the future.
