Setting aside 20%

For the last 2 post I have discuss with you about doing a daily savings. For this post I would share with you another saving tips. This time round the amount you will save will be bigger and we will be doing it on monthly basis. The tips is useful for everyone especially those who are in the working force regardless full time or part time. Students are strongly encourage to follow this tips when they going to start their career or part time jobs in the near future.

Every month when we receive our monthly paycheck from our employer, we tend to spend first then we save with the remaining amount. The worst part is we have nothing to save. The problem lies are we are not discipline and we didn't fix the amount to save on monthly basis.

To solve these problems we have to:

1. Discipline ourselves. Change our mindset from spending first and save later to save first and spend later.
2. Decide and fix the amount you want to save on monthly basis.

Now the question is how much are we going to save on monthly basis?

For a start, this is what I always recommend to all my clients to set aside 20% of their salary for their savings. Below is a simple calculations on how much you will save within 1 year.

Monthly salary = $2500

20% of salary = $500

Annual savings $500 x 12 months = $6000 per year.

You may be question yourself what if you can't set aside 20%? You can start maybe 10% or at the very least start with 5%. However as time goes by, you can increase by 5% or 10%.

The main thing you need to be aware is you must be consistent in your monthly savings. At times you can decrease your savings due to some emergency situation but that decrease should be temporary and get back to the normal amount you have been saved after that situation has been resolved.

More tips will be shared in the upcoming post. Do check for more interesting post.

Regards,

Sam Salleh

Never underestimate the power of cents

Hi everyone.

I hope my previous post about saving on daily basis has becoming fun for you because you see your savings keep growing base on your daily record.

In this post, I will share another tips on saving. Before I start, I strongly encourage you to consider to have another record keeping for this. You can have this record on the same book or excel sheet. How you want to organise it, it is entirely up to you.

Usually we spend on daily basis such as buying lunch, taking public transport or anything. After we have spend for the day, we always found remaining coins in our wallet or purse. Typically we will put it somewhere. We do so because we don't see much value in it. Therefore we don't save the coins.

This is not true. Regardless the size or number on that coins, it does carry a value in it. Lets look into this example.

In your wallet, there are few coins found in it.

3 10 cents coins
2 20 cents coins
1 5 cents coins
5 1 cents coins
1 50 cents coins

How much do you have? The answer is $1.30 in total. The value may look small to you but if we save it on daily basis instead of dump it aside, then we see that we have save quite an amount. Let use the example above for a simple calculations.

$1.30 x 30 days = $39

So in 1 month you have save a total of $39 from those coins. How about in 1 year time if we keep practising it on daily basis?

$1.30 x 365 days = $474.50

In 1 year time you will save a total $474.50.

Now do we still want to dump all those coins we have in our wallet? Well what are you waiting for? Start to hunt all your lost coins in your house. If you were walking down the street and saw a coin lying on the floor, pick it up and add to your saving collection too. Happy collecting and saving.

Regards,

Sam Salleh

No money No honey

From the previous post I mention to get 3 things in place for you which is the petty cash box, record book and also discipline. I assume that you have all these 3 things with you now. Since you have everything in place for you, we will get started in our savings quest.

When talk about savings, I only identify 2 categories. First category are thrifty and second category are spendthrift. No matter which category you are, the fundamental is still the same which is you want to save money.

Lets start with the fundamental.

Before we could start the fundamental, we need to do 2 things first. 2 things are;

Financial Goals
Your financial goals could be anything such as buying a brand new PSP, buying a mp3 player or it could be anything. When setting your financial goals, do make it realistic and attainable.

Deadline
Every task need a deadline in order to achieve or complete. Same goes for our savings. We do need to set a deadline in order to achieve our financial goals so that we could keep track of our progress. At the same time we could make some adjustment if something went wrong along the way.

After you have set your financial goals and deadline, now we can start our savings quest. I always like to start off with something very fundamental so that it will be easier for everyone to follow. For a start let start to save $1 per day and aim to save $30 by end of the month. In this situation it best to start from the first day of the month.

You must be wondering why did I start off saving $1 per day and not more. The reason simply because I use it as a guideline for us to start. For some can save more than $1 per day and some can't. Whatever is the amount, use it as a benchmark. The lowest you can go is $1. Now once you have set your benchmark, it is time for you to start your daily savings. If any of the days whereby you can save more than the benchmark you set, go ahead to save. 1 thing you need to ensure which is be consistent.

Now what we are looking for a start is

$1 per day x 30 days = $30

We are not doing it for 1 month instead we be doing it every day. What we will be looking in 1 year is

$1 per day x 365 days =$365

Soon you will realise you are cultivating a habit of savings. That is why discipline is important. Consistent plays a part too. On top of that the goals that you set actually motivate you to do savings and in fact encourage you to save more. With that happy savings and will bring you more tips.

Regards,

Sam Salleh

Getting started

Welcome to doyoursavings.blogspot.com where you will be getting tips which are practical for you to practice on daily basis. I also would like to congratulate you for making a wise decision to start saving for yourself and for your future.

Before I start giving out the tips for you, I strongly encourage you to do 3 things for yourself as you need these for the long run.

List

1. Get a petty cash box that came with a lock. Do ensure the key to the lock is not with you as you have the tendency to take out the money very often. Put it somewhere or get one of your trusted family members to keep the key from you.
2. Get an empty book or prepare an excel worksheet. This is for record purposes. In your record you should have date, amount. Prepare it in such a way that looks like a calender. In the table do ensure you have a space to jot down the total for that month.
3. This is the most important thing. Discipline. You must discipline yourself to practice all the practical tips given to you. That also include putting your money to the petty cash box and record keeping. By doing so, you actually cultivate a good habit for yourself. If you don't discipline yourself, you won't be able to reach your financial goals such as buying a house or car.

Once you have all the necessary things in place for you, now you have to wait for the first tip which will be given to you. Do check it out soon.

Regards,
Sam Salleh