So often we realize that no matter what we do, we are never able to save ‘enough’. Why is it so? Why we can’t save enough?
All of us work hard for a good life. Healthy life that can take care of medicals, bills, kids, their education, a car; later on in life a house and ultimately to have a secure retirement. We all try to make money, in fact often adopt the best way to save money, or so we think or at least try. But still saving money looks difficult, far-fetched, and next to impossible at times. Why so? Why we feel whatever we are saving for retirement won’t be enough; or we will never have enough money in general. No, no, no, it has nothing do with inflation and investments and nothing fancy that I usually talk about here. It is something basic and simple and rooted in all of us. Yes, all of us, me included.
A friend used to always say, “yaar… I want to save, I want to invest, but don’t know where to start or how to save”. All I told him was, well, where to start- start with you. How to do it- spend less, earn more, talk less and start doing it. It may sound rude, but it’s a fact. Most of us are just ‘talkers’ at some point in our lives for some thing or the other. For instance, some of us are doers when it comes to making great out of the box presentations for our projects to pitch to our boss at work, but those same ones are the ones who would often harp on the fact that they will quit this job and get into their own venture. However often they turn out to be mere talkers when it comes to actually quitting their jobs to start a business.
When it comes to ‘talkers and doers’ for more simpler and basic things in life, surprisingly there are more talkers and very few doers. Things like wanting to lose weight, quit smoking, cut down on alcohol, spend more time with family and loved ones, follow a hobby, etc, are pretty simple to achieve but often neglected for eternity and beyond. Saving money is just one such thing. We will find a lot of talkers and very few doers. Often you will come across people who would say, “enough is enough, I have to save, I can’t keep paying such high bills on such a salary…”; but as the new month arrives, the salary is deposited, the savings bit is pushed back. If you ask them, what happened about their plan to save? They may argue, “Well, I am just 27, I am enjoying my life for now, but in the next 2-3 years as I am in my 30’s, I’ll start saving money and also plan and start saving for retirement.” This argument is fair enough, since you are young and you have time. The only problem is, those ‘2-3 years later…’ never arrives. You keep pushing it, until it is too late. Just think of it.
I remember my friend talking about his marriage when he was around 23-24. He used to say, he’ll get married in the next 2 years. Ask him about marriage and it was his reply – 2 years later. Great, only thing, he kept saying 2 years for the next 3 years. He is 27, still says – 2 years for marriage. Whether he marries or not is his prerogative, but the point is, he did not have a fixed target in mind. His ‘2 years’ were a generic way to push back something. This exact phenomenon happens to us when we plan on saving money. We always have generic targets like next month, next year onwards and so on. This makes sure we never actually start saving when the time comes. That illusive next month, next year never comes. It’s always pushed back to the ‘next month’ and ‘next year’. And hence by the time you realize that, many next months and next years have passed; it is a bit too late in life.
This human tendency to push things, procrastinate is the main cause why we can’t save enough. The moment we overcome this, a lot of things fall in place. We will never have broken new-year resolutions, we will start to lose weight, and we will start to save and for all we know, we will save ‘Enough’. Also the other aspect is we keep delving into ‘how to save‘. Well, it is savings, not rocket science. Just cut down some expenses and start some compulsory savings like the ones here to be able to have enough savings and also have a something decent for retirement. Stop procrastinating and start acting, stop pushing things around, and start saving. You will save enough.
As I always say, you don’t need to be a Millionaire to lead a good life, you just need to plan well and fortunately, or unfortunately, with all things finance and money; they start with SAVINGS. So start to save. When is a good time to start so you have enough savings? Right NOW.
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