Saving money and saving money effectively are two entirely different things. Consistency has to be present in order to ensure that savings goals are met. When there is consistency you make savings a regular habit which increases the chances of making the things you were putting that money away for a reality.
Having a plan for savings is the first step in ensuring that the goals are met. Starting with a large goal is fine but you’ll have to break it into smaller steps to meet it. For instance if you want to pay off a house that’s a large goal. You can take the amount and break it down into however many years you want to buy the house in. $50,000 for a home in ten years requires a savings of $10,000 a year. The first thing here is to increase your earnings enough to have that much to save each year.
Consistency often means starting smaller to make your savings goals a reality. When you only bring home $800 a month you can’t actually save $800 a month but chances are thinks to credit cards you easily spend more than that without ever knowing it. It is realistic to think that you can reduce expenses enough to save $100 a month; that’s only $25 a week.
Whether you save $100 all at once or just $25 a week you have to do it every week or at the same time each month. This will help to ensure that you make it a habit and don’t forget. At the end of the year a total of $100 a month is $1200 a year. In five years that’s $6,000. As your income increases you can increase your savings.
Making sure that you always increase your savings even if it’s just a little bit when your income increases. The consistent increase in savings will mean that both short term and long term goals are met. This is where breaking your goals into steps comes in.
Budgeting has to be done to make room for the savings. The goals that you set are important. They have to be realistic or you won’t bother with the efforts required to meet them. When saving is done sporadically it can lead to problems. The goals that you set will take longer to meet when savings is not done regularly and you can become discouraged with each deadline that passes.
Saving money effectively can only be done with consistency. It is by being consistent that we develop life long habits which have positive effects on both our lives and our bank account.