Best Ways To Save Your Money
Written by: Ashton J.
Money, whether you want to admit it or not, is the basis of everything for us citizens here in America. There is a greediness for money deep in all of us, no matter if it’s large or minimal, we all still have it in us. Although money doesn’t buy you happiness, it sure can buy you freedoms that others simply can’t have. So how do you make lots of money? Well first and foremost you need a job of some sort. Whether that’s a 9-5 job, being an entrepreneur, being your own boss, or doing some type of work that gets you a regular inflow of money. Now that you have a job with regular pay, how do you maximize that money? Sure investing is a great idea for most, but another alternative that is just as effective and sometimes better than investing is saving your money. Saving you money sounds simple but in reality is one of the hardest things to do for American citizens today. Despite it’s rather simple basis, it can be very hard to commit to saving your money, but if you want to see your money one day be able to buy you the freedom that you have longed for for so long, you might want to consider saving your money before it’s too late. In this article, I will be giving you four tips on how to effectively save your money and set yourself up for financial success for today, tomorrow and many more days to come.
1. Create a Budget
Unfortunately, many Americans don’t make budgets for themselves and their money even though this is arguably the most effective way to save your money. Budgets help you map out what you’re spending your money on which in turn ensures that whatever money comes out of your pocket, is actually supposed to be coming out of your pocket. In addition to this, budgets take care of the necessary expenses that you have such as your house, car, phone, food, etc. and then whatever is left over after those expenses are mapped out in your budget, is the money you can freely spend on vacations, new clothes, shoes, etc. that aren’t considered needs, and aren’t important to have. Budgets help you prioritize your money from most important expense to least important expense which in turn helps you save your money.
2. Find ways to cut your spending
Saving your money in simple terms is not spending as much money as you usually would. This goes hand in hand with tip #2. Finding ways to cut your spending is vital if you want to successfully save your money. The best way to do this is to prioritize your wants and needs. In other words, what do you need to have and what would be nice to have, but don’t completely need. An example of this would be insurance. In today’s world insurance is a need for most things. You need car insurance to be able to drive your car which is a vital part of almost everyone’s daily lives here in America. A want would be the latest shoes to come out from Nike. Would it be cool to show up at school with the new Lebron’s and impress all your friends? For sure, but do you need that? Absolutely not. Cutting down on purchases like these are vital to being able to effectively save money because the less you spend, the more you save.
3. Make saving automatic
Another effective way to save your money is to do it subconsciously without you ever seeing it or knowing that that’s where your money is going. This is possible through your bank, or wherever you store your money. One of the main things banks offer are savings accounts. These accounts do exactly what you would expect, in that they are a place you can put your money in order to effectively help you save your money. As a bonus to having a savings account, you can set your account up so that a specific percentage of your paycheck goes directly to your savings without you having to press a button or sending it there in the first place. Over time with a portion of every paycheck of yours going directly into your savings account, that amount will grow and grow and when you need to take it out due to emergency, last minute vacation or some other reason, the hope is that you won’t have to break a sweat about not having enough money to cover whatever expense you need covered because your savings account will have all the money you need.
4. Watch your savings grow
Although saving your money can definitely take a lot of work and dedication, it is a very doable thing and something that all Americans should seriously consider doing if they aren’t already doing so. I hope you found the four tips mentioned in this article helpful and insightful as you begin thinking more about how you can go about saving your money for the future. Money can’t buy you happiness, but it sure can buy you freedom and saving your money is one of, if not the best way to make that freedom a reality.
Works Cited
Better Money Habits. “How to Save Money - 8 Simple Ways to Start Saving Money.” Better Money Habits, Bank of America, 3 June 2020, bettermoneyhabits.bankofamerica.com/en/saving-budgeting/ways-to-save-money.
Jespersen, Courtney. “How to Save Money: 17 Tips.” NerdWallet, 10 Feb. 2021, www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/how-to-save-money.
Ramsey Solutions. “How to Save Money: 20 Simple Tips.” Daveramsey.com, Ramsey Solutions, 3 Sept. 2020, www.daveramsey.com/blog/the-secret-to-saving-money.
I rally agree with the point you made about the difficulty of spending money on unnecessary things today. You don't even realize it but the little coffee stops, nail appointments, small purchases; they all add up. But that's also why the point you made about creating a budget is so important as well, because having a solid foundation of knowing what amount of your money is going where will help you maintain a good balance of save spend.
ReplyDeleteI agree with making a budget. Being able to budget your money and spend your money on the right things that you need is really important. It will definitely help you save money. Finding ways to cut your spending is super important. Prevent yourself from going out to eat or pointless things that you really don't need wont help you save money. Saving money should be a habit or automatic. You need money in your future when you retire, so starting early is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteBudgets are great! It's important to know how much money from a paycheck you need to put towards everyday living expenses and how much money to put towards savings. Without a budget, one could bury themselves in financial stress.
ReplyDeleteMaking saving automatic. When you start making money you would want spread that money into your different assets. Over time you will be proud of yourself because of your profits. So when we are young and hungry, get the bag. Save your money and start spreading it around. CD's, saving accounts let the interest do the work. And over time you will be proud of yourself.
ReplyDeleteI chose to read this article because I am always looking for ways to save. I agree that budgeting is a very good tool when saving money as well as automatic saving. I have automatic transactions set up to save half my paycheck in my saving and the other half in checking and I can already see a difference in my money growth within the past month. I also like how organized the article was and how easy it was to read.
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ReplyDeleteThis was a great post. This was very helpful and learned more about budgeting and automatic savings. This brought these 2 things to the forefront of my mind and reminded me how important they are. Making sure that you take these things seriously and managing them well is a great thing to get into. Many things that people spend their money on are things that are going to come back and hurt them rather than help in the moment so overall great piece.
Good article, I find this super beneficial in a time where many kids our age are starting to save for college, or maybe a new car, and anyway that we can help that process will be a huge help in the end. I like the idea of having automatic savings. This makes it super easy to make sure that you are always saving and in some cases its like you never even knew the money was there so you won’t be prone to spend it. While there are many tools and apps out there to help you save, do you think that saving money is easier through online banking or not?
ReplyDeleteThese tips can be and are very helpful, many people will just throw their money into their savings account and think this is the only way you can save your make. When there are better ways to save your money.
ReplyDeleteI liked how this post broke down saving money into simple steps and allowed the reader to follow ways to save money. I also like how you included an intro that showed the importance of making money. This is a great piece for helping those that wish to have freedom to do whatever theyd like to do in the future, with the help of saving money.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to argue your statement that saving is just as good as investing. The thing about savings is that your money goes down in value as inflation occurs. With investing, such as in the stock market or in property, the things you are invested in become inflated too. While your money in savings is growing at a lower rate than inflation, your investments are generally going up in price with inflation.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, it is generally better to invest than save.
DeleteTo start, I thought that you did a great job with this by giving different ways that someone could begin saving money and I may use one of these methods one day. I thought that it was really interesting how a lot of Americans don't have a monthly budget because it seems like a great way to keep all of your finances in check. Another thing that I found interesting is how much more you can get out of a savings account if it is an online savings account because they don't have all of the expenses that a normal bank has. Overall, I thought that you did a great job with this piece by giving a lot of different ways and going in depth about all the different methods that could be used to save money.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you approach saving money from multiple perspectives, making it easier for those interested to take a first step into saving money. The pictures displayed actively contribute to the article, and help provide telling examples of why people should save and the impacts of doing so. Great post!
ReplyDeleteSaving is an important skill to learn, and the better you are when you young, the wealthier you are when you are older because of compound interest.
ReplyDeleteGreat work Ashton! As someone graduating high school and entering a phase of my life where I will be more independent and need to be far more responsible with my money, I read this piece as if it were professional advice and I really appreciated your almost step by step approach to achieving ones financial goals.
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