The season of New Year's resolutions is ahead of us. Most of us make them but only few succeed. Often we promise to ourselves that in the New Year we will take care of home budget and finally start to save. From the research carried out by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation it follows that only 16 percent of Poles save regularly, while 43 percent admit that they manage to put something aside from time to time only. But how to make saving become a habit?
The biggest obstacle in making the decision on saving is not at all the lack of financial resources. The report "Poles' Attitudes Towards Saving", which has been prepared by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation for eight years in a row, reveals that regularity of saving is the thing which underlies the problem.
How to overcome this difficulty? Learn 5 simple steps which will help you be successful in saving:
1. Regularity as the key to success
Stop talking, start acting. Do not plan savings but simply start to do so. First, set a particular amount to be put aside every month, immediately after receiving your remuneration. Let it be low, what counts here is unrelenting regularity. You will certainly manage to increase it over time. If you fear lack of consistency, open a saving sub-account at your bank and order an automatic direct debit from the account to which your remuneration is credited.
2. Plan your expenses in a long term
The research of The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation shows that 9 percent of us plan expenses in one week perspective only. This makes it considerably difficult to achieve long-term saving goals. As few as 6 percent of respondents can make financial arrangements in a perspective exceeding half a year. What should I do? Think about your holidays and the amount you would like to spend on it already today and start to put funds aside regularly right now. It is easier to save smaller amounts every month than dig out, for instance, half of your remuneration at once. And after you return home? Start putting aside for another trip immediately.
3. Take control over your wallet
As many as 17 percent of respondents admit that they do not control their expenses at all. How to change this? The easiest way is to meticulously write down every amount spent throughout, for instance, a week. After analyzing our bills we will notice that not all that we have bought is what we have actually needed. With a little bit of common sense, we will be able to put aside quite an amount every month. It is the so-called latte effect - if we deny ourselves a morning coffee at a coffee chain, after a month we will find PLN 200-240 left, and after a year - as much as PLN 2400-2880.
4. Name your dreams and set a goal
29 percent of Poles admit to have no particular goal to save for. Indeed, defining a goal we wish to devote our saved money to (car, education of our child etc.) is only half of the story. Visualization of your goal enhances your motivation to accomplish it even more. Browse catalogues of travel agents, read about the country you have always wanted to visit - maybe getting closer to the goal we will also find ourselves closer to its accomplishment.
5. Check the estimated amount of your retirement pension
Maybe the divergence between your current earnings and your possible financial status in a dozen or more years will motivate you to save up. This year's research of The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation shows that few of us think seriously about their financial situation in the autumn of their life. Only 21 percent of professionally active Poles save for their retirement, while 13 percent do not care about the amount of their pension, so the future may bring them a nasty surprise.
