Staying motivated to save money can involve simple habits like building a better budget and automating your finances. If you find your focus on setting aside cash is losing steam, these and other easy moves can help you boost your financial reserves without feeling too much of a pinch.
Whether you’re saving to realize the dream of booking a beach house next summer or putting away enough for your baby’s future education, you’ll see that there’s no mystery to being a smarter saver.
Key Points
• To stay motivated to save money, identify and pursue financial and personal goals that enhance security and peace of mind.
• Track and categorize all expenses to build a motivating budget and maximize savings.
• Automate savings through recurring transfers to a dedicated account.
• Reevaluate financial plans regularly, such as at the start of each year.
• Use technology and financial apps to visually track and monitor savings progress.
1. Finding the “Why”
Saving just to save may not be enough for some to stay motivated. Instead, it could be helpful to figure out your own personal “why.” Why are you saving, what are you saving for, and how long do you need to save to get it?
It can be easy to start saving and lose motivation when life gets in the way: The bills stack up, emergencies happen, the car won’t start, and on and on and on. However, if a person has a reason for saving, or a money goal, in the back of their mind it may be easier to stay the course.
By the way, a person’s savings motivation can be for literally anything their heart desires. Sure, it can be to save for retirement, to buy a house, or to start a family, but it can also be to go on vacation, renovate the kitchen, buy the latest mobile device, or to just have enough in the bank so they can have peace of mind. Make it whatever you want.
When finding money motivation, it can be useful to try to think about financial priorities. A person needs to pay for food, shelter, and clothing, but do they need to have a new phone? Or a new car? A new designer watch or the latest gadget? Before setting a budget and starting a new savings journey, it’s important to think about personal priorities.
2. Building a Budget
To help clarify savings goals, try building a personal budget around the priorities mentioned above. A personal budget makes a great road map for the future and can help keep you motivated to save because you know exactly where your money is going, and how it can help you get the things you want.
• To create a budget, first, start tracking all personal spending. To do so, gather all account information and sift through a few month’s worth of expenses. Don’t forget about commonly forgotten expenses, such as birthday gifts for friends and family or insurance premiums.
• Next, determine how to categorize expenses. Getting too granular can make it challenging to track. Consider keeping it generic with categories like “groceries,” “shopping,” “entertainment,” “health,” “home,” “bills,” “medical,” “car payment,” etc. Try to make sure every dollar spent has a home somewhere.
• Then, plot out the next few months of anticipated expenses and see how much cash is left over. This can go into some type of savings account, such as a high-yield savings account.
• If you want to save more, you can take a critical eye to your purchases and see where you can cut back on spending. For example, not using that gym membership? Cut it. Every little bit can help.
You can experiment with different budgeting methods. One popular one is the 50/30/20 budget rule, in which you allocate 50% of your after-tax pay to needs, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings and/or additional debt payments.
Recommended: 50/30/20 Budget Calculator
3. Saving Little by Little
Once your priorities are in focus and your budget is set, it’s time to actually start saving. Yes, it can be thrilling to drop a whole heap of cash into a savings account, but the thrill can wear off after a while. Instead, try saving little by little. This way, you won’t feel the pinch and it won’t feel like you are missing out on the fun stuff just to save for a hypothetical future.
One strategy is to automate your finances and set up recurring transfers, so that money is saved without much effort. This can help a savings account add up without feeling like an effort, which could have major effects on your motivation.
4. Try Walking Away From Impulse Spending
There are a lot of spending triggers in this world. Sales, pretty items, shiny objects, nights out, the list goes on and on. Sometimes, the best thing people can do is walk away before purchasing or saying “yes.” Take a night out with friends as one example. Before immediately responding “Sure,” you could say, “Can I get back to you?” and then really think about whether you really want to attend or if it’s just a habit. Set an alarm for 30 minutes, and decide when the timer is up. Allowing yourself a minute to step back, can help you be intentional with your spending.
For bigger purchases, people can try the 30-day rule. It’s a financial strategy that can help people regain control over impulse shopping. Basically, if you see something you want to buy but don’t necessarily need, you just stop and walk away. Not just for a minute, but for a full 30 days.
Next, write down the item you want to buy and where you can find it, along with the price. Put it away and set a calendar reminder 30 days from that date.
At the end of that timeframe, if you really still want the item, you could return and purchase it. However, after a month has passed, you may no longer feel the urge to buy or may have forgotten the item altogether. As a bonus, if you get to the end of the 30-day block and decide you no longer need the item, you could put the amount you didn’t spend into a savings account to use the money toward your priority list instead.
5. Setting Short-Term Savings Goals
Saving for long-term goals, like retirement, is important, but don’t overlook the small stuff. Setting a savings goal can help people know there is an end in sight.
One place to start is establishing an emergency fund. Having an emergency fund can provide stability should you run into, well, an emergency.
Other shorter-term goals might include things like new furniture, a vacation, or a renovation. Having these smaller goals can make saving for something as grandiose as retirement seem less intimidating.
Recommended: Guide to What Is and Isn’t a Financial Emergency
Whatever it is, find a number and stick to it. Then, once you hit that goal, you can set another and start the entire process over again.
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6. Remembering to Reevaluate Every Now and Then
After setting a priority, budget, and goal, it’s important to also set reminders to reevaluate those markers from time to time too. One way to do this could be making it a New Year’s resolution to look at money goals and see if they are still in line with your personal goals.
Life changes and finances may need to change with it. It’s okay to reallocate the money already saved and put it in a new bucket.
Perhaps you began saving for a vacation but had a baby along the way and want to start saving for their college education instead. Or maybe someone switched jobs within the last year and is making more money now. They can readjust their budgets and savings plans to fit their new financial outlook. The same goes for those who may have lost work too. Reevaluating, reprioritizing, and reallocating can help make financial change more manageable.
7. Telling Others About Savings Goals
Sometimes, the best thing one can do to stay motivated is to let others know about their plans. You can let your inner circle in on your savings goals and priorities and ask those trusted few to help you stay on track.
By letting people in on plans, you can also avoid any tricky situations, like having to say “no” to events, parties, or nights out because people already know you are trying to save. The inner circle could also help keep you on the straight and narrow when it comes to wants vs. needs and help to keep financial goals in sight.
Recommended: How to Reward Yourself Without Breaking the Budget
8. Organizing Your Savings
Being able to see your savings grow is perhaps the best money motivator out there. There are a number of financial apps that can help you see your finances all in one place. Some even offer visual representations, such as bar charts and graphs, so you can see just how much your savings have grown over time. That can be very motivating!
The Takeaway
It can be easy to lose motivation when saving money, but with a little effort, you can adopt new habits to help you through. Those might include building or tweaking a budget, trying the 30-day rule, setting short-term goals, and sharing your financial goals with a few trusted friends or relatives. Using the tech tools your financial institution provides to see your money grow may also be a valuable boost.
Interested in opening an online bank account? When you sign up for a SoFi Checking and Savings account with direct deposit, you’ll get a competitive annual percentage yield (APY), pay zero account fees, and enjoy an array of rewards, such as access to the Allpoint Network of 55,000+ fee-free ATMs globally. Qualifying accounts can even access their paycheck up to two days early.
FAQ
How can I motivate myself to save money?
Some ways to motivate yourself to save money include budgeting wisely, setting clear savings goals, tracking your spending, and automating your savings. Talking about your savings plan with trusted friends and relatives can be a wise move, too, along with giving yourself regular small rewards.
What is the 30-day rule to save money?
The 30-day rule says that, before making a significant impulse purchase, write down the item and the location in your calendar for 30 days in the future and then walk away. If, after 30 days you still want the item and can afford it, go ahead and buy it. If that “gotta have it” feeling has passed, you’ve avoided an impulse buy.
What is the basic motivation for saving?
Saving money is motivated by the desire to achieve financial and personal goals and have security. For example, you might want to save for an emergency fund, or you might be accumulating money for the down payment on a house or your child’s educational expenses.
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