We all know that we’re supposed to save money — for emergencies, so we can make big purchases without credit cards, and for “the future” in general.
But saving money doesn’t usually feel fun or glamorous. Usually it means forgoing glamorous experiences so instead you can feel adult and responsible.
It’s time to flip that thinking. Here are five ways to make saving money fun, empowering and, yes, even a little glam!
App It Up
I’m sure you’ve heard the stock advice to “pay yourself first” — that is, have money automatically tucked into a savings account before you ever see it.
That’s fine advice, but I feel like I could enjoy the process more. While a notebook and a pen always worked just fine, there are tons of great (and free!) budgeting apps on the market right now that can actually make saving money fun. (Here are a few of our favorite budgeting apps if you’ve never experimented with one before and want a recommendation.)
These apps can help you set up an automatic savings plan, or even round up your purchases and put the difference into savings. Or, you can use them to move money into a savings account automatically, or manually. Your choice. Even if you don’t have much to save right now — maybe it’s just $30 a week — that’s great!
Set Some Arbitrary Goals
Think of Your Money as Security and Power — and Don’t Let It Go
For instance, sometimes you go on an awful date. If you let someone treat you and take you out to a place you can’t really afford, you might feel kind of, well, “stuck there” to suffer through, which is not a good dynamic. But if you’ve got cash reserves on hand, you can end a bad date with panache — throw down more than enough cash, and just walk out. Like a boss.
Of course, we hope that doesn’t happen often. The point is that keeping a cushion of cash for security is a way to truly be able to money and reduce our day-to-day financial stress. After all, having $100 in the bank lets you feel less stress during every this–could-cost-$100 potential crisis, and that’s a wonderful feeling.
Strategically Stock Up on Necessary Goods
Essentially, the goal here is that you set up your future self with things you know she’s going to need. Because no one likes making a midnight run for tampons… especially when you know you could have paid half the price if you’d planned ahead.
Vision Board What You Want… On Social Media
Do you covet a genuine Chanel handbag? Yes, it could set you back thousands of dollars, but if you really want it, it might be something you want to invest in one day.
But rather than buying it on impulse (or worse, going into debt for it) start a Pinterest board or an Instagram collection called “My Savings,” or “The Bag.” Anytime you see a picture of this bag, add the photo to the gallery. And keep saving.
Once you have the money saved up, ask yourself you really want to buy the bag after all… Probably not that much, right? Because a lot of the value of the bag is knowing that you’re the kind of person who could buy a Chanel handbag if she wanted to. And you could! But over the years that you’ve been saving, you now find that you’ve grown wise, and instead of actually buying it, you’re instead going to make an actual investment in your future, and maybe open a $16 bottle of champagne.
Eventually, you’ll have, say, $20,000 in that account, and then you can look back at social media and see all of the luxury goods you could afford with that money… Except you still have the $20,000.
What’s next? We say it’s time to turn that money into $1M for your future. Which can absolutely be done, with a little coaching. You got this!
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