Our partners at nudge list their top six tips to become an effective saver.
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We all know two things. Firstly, that if at all possible, saving is important and secondly, that once something becomes habit rather than a chore, you no longer even think about doing it. Before you know it, once you begin using regular routines and strategies, achieving your goals suddenly seems a lot more achievable than you might have first thought.
You’ll need to find a strategy to suit you as everyone is different and what works for one person might not work for another, but crucial to forming habits is repeating a behavior, so it’s the key is to find something that's workable, suits you and supports your circumstances.
A few firm favorites are…
- Treat your savings like any other essential outgoing like bills, rent or mortgage payments and add it to your monthly budget.
- Sweep up any ‘leftovers’ at the end of the month, week or day, though this only works if you have unspent money remaining from your budget.
- Pay yourself an allowance for daily or weekly spending money, so that you’re not tempted to spend mindlessly what you could be saving.
- Set yourself challenges, for example putting away £1 every day or £10 a week. Or, £1 in the first week £2 in the second, £3 in the third etc. The latter would build up £1,378 after a year.
- Buckets or pots can help you clearly separate money into what you have available to spend and what you have to save or even help you save for different things – a wedding, a holiday, a home. There are banking apps that can help you do this, or you could try it in real life....
- Budget boot camp – Try having a no-spend month or week where your only outgoings go on necessities to see what you can really live on.
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From our partners at personal financial solutions experts Nudge www.nudge-global.com