Let’s face it. It’s a pretty good feeling to see a healthy amount accumulating in your savings account. It gives you that extra piece of mind that if you needed money for an emergency, you’ve got it. It also relieves financial stress as you feel more comfortable financially and it gives you room to dream of future plans rather than just focusing on getting by with your week to week pay.
Our money saving tips will help ensure you have the right approach to your savings and build healthy behaviours that make it easier to stick to your savings plan and thus, reach your savings goals, whatever they may be.
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Be clear about your savings goals
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What are you saving for? Have an end goal in mind to give you some thing to aim towards. You don’t need to be saving for some thing in particular. One approach is to ask yourself what it would mean to you to have say $10,000 sitting in your savings account. You’ll quickly find yourself imagining what you’d use the money for or how much more financially secure you’ll feel if that’s your objective. You should now have a motivation to change your savings habits.
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Be realistic about how much you can save
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The first thing you should do is work out a budget so you have an understanding of where you spend your money and what’s left over. You might find there are some areas you can cut back on but at the very least, you’ll have a better understanding of how much you think you can save.
Next, the idea is not to put away as much as you can, but to put aside an amount you think you won’t miss. If you think you can save $400 a month, start with just $150 a month. You’ll probably find after six months that you didn’t miss that money, and then you can increase the amount you save.
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Limit access to your savings
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You should always keep your savings separate to your spending - your savings can be quickly depleted if you have easy access to them. There will always be “some kind of emergency” to take money out at the ATM.
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Easy Street’s savings accounts are accessed online only which means you can’t pull your savings out of an ATM or branch when you’re out and about. You should re-direct some of your regular income to go directly to your savings account, before it hits your everyday spending account.
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Structure your accounts properly
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The first bill you pay should be to yourself - into your savings. Whether your goal is to save $400 a fortnight or $50 a month, do that first before you pay your bills. What’s left over after savings and bills is for your lifestyle. If saving is the final destination for your pay - after bills and lifestyle - you are likely to spend your entire income before putting any money aside. This is the way you should have approached your finances from when you first started earning money. If you didn’t, you have some changes to make to how you approach allocating your finances.
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Set up a regular savings plan
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Set up an automatic regular savings plan so you can set and forget. Before long, you’ll be so use to it you won’t miss the money going out, and you can relax knowing you’re growing your savings without lifting a finger. If you need an incentive to save to get you motivated, consider choosing a savings account that rewards you when you make regular contributions, like the Bonus Saver Account.
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Avoid putting things on credit
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Finally, don’t reverse all your hard earned savings efforts by racking up credit card debts because you feel you have less to live on. If you are finding saving a bit difficult, go back to starting small with your savings and review your budget to work out where you could free up some extra cash.
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