Signs You’re Bad At Saving Money
It doesn’t matter what you earn, saving money is something that everybody should try to do for their own financial future. Saving money isn’t a skill you should be born with. You can learn all the skills you need to build your wealth. The first step is to acknowledge that you aren’t great at saving.
Here are some warnings signs that you’re bad at saving money and could be at risk of bankruptcy. If you are worried, it could help to talk to a bankruptcy chapter 7 lawyer. Consult an experienced attorney when dealing with any legal issue.
You Don’t Know How Much You Spend
Do you know how much you spend? If you’re good at saving, you probably do. If you don’t know how much you spend, you won’t be able to tell if you’re saving as much as you should be.
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It doesn’t need to difficult to track your spending. Use a budget or saving app, or track it manually on your phone or in a notebook. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you do.
You’ll Tell Yourself You’ll Save More When You Earn More
Everyone thinks they’ll save more if they earn more, but this often doesn’t go as planned. For example, studies have shown that lottery winners lose their money as fast as they earned it, because they haven’t learned how to save.
The sooner you can start saving, the better. You can learn good habits for putting money into savings or investments. Even just saving loose change will help you to develop the skills for being good with money. When you do earn more, your savings will grow as you’ll know how to save.
Your Vices Eat Away At Your Savings
Are your habits costing your money? Perhaps you like to have a glass of wine in the evening, or perhaps you’re a smoker? The issue with vices like these is that they can have a negative impact on your health, and on your wallet.
Many households spend a large portion of their money on things like alcohol, without realizing it. Smoking is already an expensive habit, but it could become an even more expensive habit in the future, as some regulatory bodies consider raising taxes on cigarettes and alcohol in order to discourage citizens from doing these things.
Obviously, the easiest way to not let vices like these eat away at your savings is not to take part in them at all. However, if you really can’t give it up, and do want to enjoy the occasional glass of wine or cigarette, you should make sure you know exactly how much it’s costing you.
For example, imagine you have two drinks three evenings a week, costing an average of $10 a drink. This adds up to mean you’re spending $60 a week, which ends up being $3,120 spent on alcohol a year. This ends up being a lot! If you cut back to only drinking twice a week, you would save a massive $1,040 a year, which you could put straight into your savings.
Use these tips to increase your rate of savings, and gain peace of mind.
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Good luck!
Ken Boyd
Author: Cost Accounting for Dummies, Accounting All-In-One for Dummies, The CPA Exam for Dummies and 1,001 Accounting Questions for Dummies
(email) ken@stltest.net
(website and blog) https://www.accountingaccidentally.com/