In Poland over 70% people don't plan to save or says that they don't have enough money at the end of each month for savings This is sad worrying reality. But saving money is a must for everyone. You never know when you will need some extra cash immediately. Most of them lack some basic knowledge about saving and just live from paycheck to paycheck.
As for myself, I couldn’t sleep well if I didn’t have some put-aside money. When I lost my job I managed to live with my savings for 6 months and paid everything by myself. It was a life saver for me. Right now I am rebuilding my financial buffer to have it last even longer. For me losing or changing a job is not a situation that within a month makes me homeless. Money gives you security that you can do whatever you want, which is so much better than just buying material things.
If you struggle to save money I suggest cutting down monthly expenses. Start with things that do not require much sacrifice. It is different for everyone. From my experience I know that we don’t think how much we spend on electricity or water. But you could cut down on those monthly expenses quite a lot by being simply less wasteful. Also, try not to buy things that can be used only once or come pre-packaged.
I know that’s easier said than done but you should start saving money when your income is high. Generating higher income doesn’t mean you will automatically start saving more money. Usually it is the other way around. The less money you have the more cautious you are with it. It is really easy to start spending more that you earn without realizing it and that can lead to big money problems.
Another way of saving more money is to create passive income. There are many ways of doing it It usually means to you put work once and then you collect the money generated from that work without putting the work again.
Do you have any savings or passive income? Are you saving up for retirement? Please share your thoughts with us.
Sources:
https://wethegreatones.com/life-hacks/3-ways-that-will-help-you-save-money/
There is a famous blog about saving money: jakoszczedzacpieniadze.pl, many people appreciate it and started saving after reading it. Saving is important for sure, but there is another side of it – having low costs. The less you need every day, the less you need to earn in critical situation.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading Michał's blog (and then 2 books) for a few years and I really need to say that he changed my way of looking on several things that I probably won't notice by myself. I've always treated such "coaches" as a someone who is mainly making money talking about how he made money, but in this particular case I've been surprised how useful his advises are. I really highly recommend to give it a try!
DeleteSaving money is very important to me. I can't imagine a situation to lose my job and stay with nothing. You never know what will happen in the future. I agree with the fact that a higher salary doesn't make saving any easier. „The appetite grows with eating” The more you earn the more you spend. That's why we have to learn to save. Starting with very small sacrifices.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started my first job I realised that I don't know much about saving money. I found blog jakoszczedzacpieniedze and I learned as much as I could from it but it took me some time to start using that knowledge properly.
ReplyDeleteOf course I wasted my first earned money even though I put them on a different bank account to save them - it took me several months to understand that my previous buying decisions was stupid and that I need to change that.
Now I am saving as much as I can. I have a monthly buget and I record all of my spendings in computer program to analyze them later.
I am also into saving money - although it may prove to be pretty difficult, considering the high inflation rate (and it is predicted to grow soon). Unfortunately, in Poland "financial awareness" is low and people do not even try to save some moneny for later.
ReplyDeleteCreating a money buffer which might be a life saver, just as in your case, is an important thing. However, I find myself not paying too much attention to prices, bills and so on and so forth. I know that this is not a proper way of money management and a consumption is my vice, no doubt. On the other hand I try to invest my money. I've created my buffer already and now I am looking to transform it into a real estate investment e.g. flat flipping, rental for rooms. This kind of passive income should help me to avoid any future money crisis. Keep your fingers crossed ;)
ReplyDeleteYou should really get familiar with the Michał Szafrański podcast from Poznań this year where he and Piotr Hryniewicz were talking about flat flipping, rental for rooms etc. for over 2 hours. They've mentiond few really interesting topics about investing money into real estate, so I hope you'll check it and get some useful piece of information!
DeleteAt the beginning of each month I divide my salary into different categories such as entertainment, savings or fixed expenses. This way I know exactly how much money I have and what I spend it on. This allows me to systematically build a financial buffer. I think that saving money is important but I try to keep a healthy balance because I don't want to fall into paranoia where I skimp on every penny. At the same time, I do not save money for 'retirement' but for the future. I don't want most of my savings to be only in cash and, in addition, lying on my account doing nothing. Diversification of wallet is an important part of saving money.
ReplyDeleteFor me, saving money is one of the most important things in my life, beacuse you never know what happens tomorrow. If you think your stable situation will be last forever you are wrong. In the life of every human there are ups and downs and you must be ready especially on a the downs. I think everyone, independently about his earning should save money. To do it the most important think is discipline. If you don't have discipline you will never save money. Only regularly throwing into a piggy bank will prepare you to hard times. But i think saving money isn't all. Nowadays money isn't save because of inflation. You should diversify your savings. For example you can buy gold which is more safe than money.
ReplyDeleteKlaudia, I couldn’t agree more. Having some savings is extremely important for everyone. Nowadays it’s not easy to do it regularly but if we want to have something what we can called “safety pillow” we should. I’m not a meticulous person which trying to save every single penny in every case - but, I think it’s enough If I’m a little bit consistent in saving. Long story short – good article, good presentation and very good idea general to have some savings!
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DeleteKlaudia, I couldn’t agree more. Having some savings is extremely important for everyone. Nowadays it’s not easy to do it regularly but if we want to have something what we can called “safety pillow” we should. I’m not a meticulous person which trying to save every single penny in every case - but, I think it’s enough If I’m a little bit consistent in saving. Long story short – good article, good presentation and very good idea general to have some savings!
Saving is extremely difficult for me. My family has been poor when I was growing up and through hard work and determination of my mother, we have managed to jump into the middle - class, possibly to the higher end of it. That being said, I remember feeling the lack of stuff and then I remember being able to afford a lot of stuff but I never truly understood the relation between having money and being able to afford things. Not sure if I make much sense at this moment, but what I am trying to say is that from my perspective money is superficial. It is there, when it is, it's not when it isn't. If that is true, I don't really care much for it. It does not present any other value than the buying value it has at this specific point in time. With that, it is hard for me to save up, honestly, the only thing I save my money for is my daughter. I am regularly saving up money for her when she grows up and have been doing so for 7 years already. I kind of wish, I would be able to do the same for myself, but on the other hand I don't really feel bad that I don't. The way I was brought up, I always thought that the solution to not having enough money is to work harder and earn more. I used to think that you have to be wealthy to save up, particularly in Poland. I am not so sure about it any more, but it has been something that stuck with me throughout the years. I have heard a lot of good things about the blog mentioned here a couple of times. I think that I will take a look and maybe try and take some pointers from there. Who knows, maybe I can change my approach? Will that make me happier though, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteReally wholesome post. I hope that your daughter will appreciate those efforts!
DeleteWhen it comes to saving money I think the best motivation was a childhood tale about an ant and a grasshopper.
ReplyDeleteAnd as I know that saving money is important there is a downside of it called inflation which devaluates our savings day by day. So real long term saving is not that easy as not to spend all your earnings and optimizing your expenditures it takes a lot more.
Well, hard topic for me :) I was never good at saving money, when I even save some, I save it for something so after some time I'm back at zero :) I'm lucky that even there is something in need of emergency then I have family that I can count on and that will help me out. But it's not that I'm not trying :) I have 3 bank accounts, the first one is where I have my card assigned, the second one is a saving account but with a very low interest rate, but with free withdraw transfers. The last one is a long-term account with higher interest, but with paid withdraw transfers. So when I get my salary I pay everything I have to on monthly-basis, then I split my cash to two parts and move to the 2nd account. When I get next salary, I move the money from 2nd account to the 3rd account, and the whole process repeats :) That's my method, and it works, but it really depends on the expenses. But for me a good rule of thumb is to pay everything you have, split money to two parts. One is for the living, second is for the breathing :D
ReplyDeleteSaving money is very important to me. In unforeseen cases, I am secured and I have no problem to solve all financial issues. I try to save a small amount of money every month to have an own financiel stability. In my opinion, investing in real estate is also a good option, because from year to year this type of investments are more valuable.
ReplyDeleteWhile we can all agree that money is important we should always remember that just keeping cash for future is not the best way to go about personal economy. Especially now, with world changing so rapidly its extremely important to invest and there's nothing better to invest in than yourself.
ReplyDeleteWhile doing so it's interesting to think about it as you would think about anu other investment. For example: ask yourself what would you want to see in a company that you have some shares in? Most likely you would want it to be healthy - make regular audits, reviews. You would want to know what plans are in place. What is the strategy like for a year and five years? What is its impact on its environment?
It's interesting - from time to time - to ask yourself those and many other questions and start saving for future by investing in the one sure thing in your life - yourself.
Most of the experts says that you should have saving for atleast 4 months of unemployment. I'm focusing on this now, hope to make it happen in one year, but for now I'm not having much. Ofcourse I don't believe in our national system of retirment, so I will try to get as many passive income sources as possible, but for now I'm not having any.
ReplyDeleteMy strategy is to invest in myself, in my skills and knowledge. I have some ideas how to earn money and I hope they will become reality in not far future. Of course I save money every month. I agree with you that everybody should have such a pillow to amortize potential fall. Althouth I have my money on a casual banking account with no percentile income from that, but I am thinking recently about setting up such an account. I must just do a research where to put my money to have the best profit. If I managed to gain a passive income it would be great and it is one of my aims :) But for now it is just a talking. We'll see how it'll be ^^
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