Good Morning Dinks. Today we are discussing how much money we are saving on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. It seems like over the past 30-days I have spent a lot of money.
I travelled to New York City for the women’s blogging conference BlogHer’12 and I finally booked my airplane ticket and hotel room for the financial blogger conference FinCon’12. Lately it seems like everywhere I turn I am paying a bill in some form or another.
Let me ask you a question Dinks…How much money did you spend yesterday? Now ask yourself how much of that money could you have saved?
Many people feel that they should save a certain percentage of their after-tax income; a general rule of thumb is that we should be saving 20-per cent of our annual after-tax income. If this is your personal savings strategy it doesn’t really matter whether you choose to save on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. All that matters is how much money you have saved at the end of the year. What percentage of your income do you save each year?
Some people don’t include their personal savings into their monthly budget because some people can’t afford to save money on a regular basis. If your budget is tight and you are earning just enough money to make sure that your bills are paid on time saving money on a regular basis may just not fit your lifestyle. Some people choose not to save money on a regular basis throughout the year, but instead they save their annual bonus once a year. If you received an annual bonus last year did you spend or save it?
I don’t know about you but sometimes my daily personal spending can get very out of control. I am the queen of impulse purchases. Sometimes I will buy a snack just because I feel like it, not because I am actually hungry. Sometimes I buy my lunch because I am craving a particular food, even though I brought my lunch to work that day. Sometimes I stop by a bookstore and I buy a magazine or a new book just because I am in the mood to go shopping. Every Friday I add up all of my personal spending purchases and although I would love to say that I always stay within my budget of $20 per week, I honestly can’t say that it happens a lot. I guess it’s time for some self control. What was your last impulse purchase?
Some people don’t save a pre-determined amount of money; some people just save whatever money they have left over after all of their bills are paid. As a financial professional this particular savings strategy makes me cringe, but on the other hand I always say that some savings are better than no savings at all. The problem with saving leftover money is that there is always something else we can buy; therefore people who chose to spend their leftover money from each pay check can often find themselves with nothing left over. Do you have money left over after each pay check? If so, what dodo you do with it?
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Kristina Tahnyak
Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.
Some months we’re better at limiting the impulse purchases than other months, but we do have money leftover every month. For the past 10 months and for one more month all of that leftover cash has went toward savings for the downpayment and closing costs on our first home. Once we get settled into the new house all of our extra money will go back to paying off student loan debt.
My wife and I draw cash for our impulse purchases. That way, when it’s done it’s done. The short answer is: we can always save more. However, the truth is there’s a balance there we can’t lose sight of. We’ve heard of miserly millionaires who die in apparent poverty, only to leave millions to squabbling kids. Why?
Last night we had friends over to celebrate their 42nd anniversary. We could have saved there, but we didn’t. We had steaks and stuff, and we bought them nice flowers. We had it planned, so it wasn’t an irresponsible thing.
But it was a balance thing. Yes, we can save more, but sometimes life is more rewarding when we share, rather than save.
By the way – hope to meet you at Fincon12! :)
Despite all the spending (it never ends!!! There’s always a purchase around the corner!), I think we are saving about 30-40% of our income. We will have to see at the end of the year what the actual figure is.
I can relate to this. Sometimes its really hard for me to save more of my money. Glad i found this blogs. Thanks to those questions it made me think that I need to spend less and save more.
I think that there is at least some point every day or some point every month when we all could have saved money rather than spent it. The key is to realizing it before the money has been spent.
@William – Yes, we should definitely try and meet up at FinCon12. I arrive in Denver Friday morning. Did you check out the workshop schedule on the website?
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