How much do you focus on saving for the future? Are you like a majority of people who believe that something will come their way in the future that will have a significant impact on their financial well-being? If so, you're not alone. There are literally hundreds of ways for our financial outlook to change very quickly.
People inherit money from deceased parents every day. Businesses take off and yield profits that are the envy of other entrepreneurs. And even luck has a way of shaping people's futures. Do you think that lotteries, Las Vegas and race tracks would stay in business very long without rewarding at least some of their devotees?
But if these sound a little too risky to depend on for your future needs, then you would be wise to think about how you can boost your savings so that the money you'll need will be there in the latter stages of life.
Unfortunately, saving money isn't very exciting. In fact, when we put money aside we tend to focus on what we're missing out on in order to pursue a distant goal. One of the main things that I suggest is to change this time perception of saving money so that we can almost trick ourselves into getting excited about saving. The best advice I can give you on doing this is to convert those big, distant goals into smaller, more immediate ones.
Let me give you an example. Let's say that I want to save for 1o years worth of travel after I retire. If I've decided that I want to spend $7,000 per year on travel, then my total travel budget would equal $70,000. Well, that may seem like a lot of money to amass over the next 20 years when I look at the final goals -- $70,000 in 20 years. But how different would it seem if I divided the amount by the years? Suddenly, I'm looking at putting aside $3,500 per year, or a little less than $300 per month.
Now the fun begins. I can immediately start linking the savings that I find by skipping three of those $10 lunches each week to $120 that can go toward my $300 Ultimate Travel Budget. I can keep an index card handy to track all of the ways I'm able to squeeze an additional $50 here and $75 there. Before you know it, that $300 gets put aside like clockwork.
When you think about your savings goals in these more immediate terms they'll begin to take on more importance, and you'll take more interest in meeting your goals. It all boils down to how you look at things. When you start weighing that hamburger against a few weeks on a Greek island, you'll see how fun saving for the future can be.
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John Davis is a regular contributor of personal financial planning articles and profitable investing strategies on several personal finance websites. You can find his writings at www.freds-finance.com.
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