The Saving Attitude

"Planting rice is never fun. Bend from morning till set of sun. Cannot stand and cannot sit. Cannot rest for a little bit."

How many of you have heard that nursery jingle before? Well, my parents taught this catchy rhyme to me when I was just a child. And what did I learn from it? That it must be a heck of a lot of work & dreadful business planting rice, that's what! During mealtimes, every mouthful was a reminder by my mother of the hard work put in by farmers to give me this plate of rice. Did I grow up wanting to be a padi farmer? Definitely not! I just wanted to enjoy the fruits of their labour. =)

So, although seemingly out of topic, the point is this. Attitude matters.

You'll notice that when you're having fun, time seems to fly by without any realization but when you're dreading something, work for example, time somehow slows to a crawl. Similarly, when engrossed in a hobby, you'll find that nothing seems like work to you. Heck, you'll even complete more than necessary. But when compared to actual office work for example, how many times have you heard/seen/been in the situation where the bare minimum is all that gets done? Rhetorical question.

Therefore the question of the day is, what is your attitude towards saving money?

If you want to save and hold onto your savings, I'd recommend you start enjoying that you have money in the bank. Not only that. Every time you see this amount increase, even if it's by a couple of cents from the bank interest rates, you should congratulate yourself and look forward to the next increase. Clap your hands, pat your bank, shout out your joy if you feel like it. Such an attitude, though seemingly loony & obsessive at first, will help you grow your savings faster. By reprogramming your mind to enjoy having saved cash, this will lower your impulse to spend by making you think twice as you'll start feeling "heartache" when you do have to spend, thereby ensuring that you only spend on the necessary and not on the luxurious.

Personally, I use a tip I picked up from Blair Singer's Sales Dog Training program to help reinforce my want to save. Every time I reach my goal of an intended saved amount in the bank, I clench my hand into a fist, curl my elbow to 90 degrees, tuck it into my body rather quickly and go "Yes!". I find that helps as my positive reinforcement. On a flipside, don't complain about saving your cash. Don't bitch that you aren't able to buy such & such. That's a surefire way of spending everything you accomplished. Negative reinforcement you see. So think about it, and do whatever works for you too.

Yes!
~K

Save for a Reason

Big goals get big results. No goals gets no results or somebody else's results. ~ Mark Victor Hansen

I can't help but find the above quote extremely true. How many times have I started saving my hard-earned money in the bank only to have it "disappear" due to some "fantastic buy". Other times, they vanish because of a sales pitch that seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. That said, after the many years of working and trying to save, the realization that wanting to save is not as important as having a reason to save.

In fact, I had never ever accumulated anything more than $5,000 in my bank ever since I started working. Truth to tell, my savings constantly dwindled to a couple of hundreds and at times, I even had barely enough to get through the month, hoping for my next paycheck so I could pay off my outstanding debts.

Fortunately, as I have a contracted job, I am assured of a paycheck every single month. Many of you however, don't. I, myself, will lose this security in a couple of months when my contract expires. When I realized the impact of this, having an aim in mind truly changed my saving attitude & my attitude towards money. I began planning for my long-term portfolio first as these need much longer time to grow & mature. With this aim, wonders started happening. Only in the last couple of months did I see my bank account grow to more than double that amount. The accumulated amount was recently invested and from what I was told from my consultant, has begun to show slight profits. I am already aiming for my next investment in Jan '10.

So the experience & knowledge that I hope to pass on to you is simply to have an aim if you're intending to save. In every case of saving up some cash, it doesn't matter if the reason is financial freedom (which I hope it is), a new car, your children's education or your anniversary. You have to have a reason so as not to get distracted and to find your way back to the path when you get sidetracked. In our context of achieving financial freedom, setting your aim of perhaps accumulating $10,000, will provide the motivation for you to reduce expenditure & increase your income, two vital components in helping you accumulate your big sum of money faster.

In summary, if you want to save, aim to save and save with an aim.

Cheers,

~K

Increase Your Savings - Pay Yourself First

If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting ~ Benjamin Franklin

On a final note on increasing your savings, the single most important tip would be to pay yourself first. Although this was mentioned previously. I can't stress this enough. Many people usually pay everyone else first (like what was shown in the Profit & Loss statement post) and then save the balance.

What would be smarter to achieve your goals faster & more efficiently is to pay yourself first. Whenever you get your pay or total income, just immediately set aside 10 - 20%, or more if you can afford it, into your savings account. Then pay everyone else with the balance you have left. If you find that you're left with insufficient funds to pay them, then instead of touching your savings account, cut your expenses or increase your income as I explained previously. Do not touch your savings unless it really is an emergency case. Be discipline. Do not be discouraged or impatient at the speed of growth of your savings. This is only setting the foundations in place for more opportunities to emerge. The turtle eventually won the race compared to the hare, remember?

However at the end of the day, it comes down to what you really want. If you wish to be finally financially free or at least have more than pennies in your savings account then please start saving. If you want immediate gratification and have a need to spend lavishly then just know that you risk having pennies in your savings account at the end of the day and after years of working. It's your choice in the end. This is only a blog to share about what I've learnt from the various authors, searches & talks that I attended.

Happy saving and good journeying in your path towards financial freedom.

Till next time,

~K

Increase your Savings - Increase Your Income

A penny saved, is a dollar earned ~ Benjamin Franklin

The US Open Men's Semifinals is starting so I thought I'd blog a bit before the action starts. =)

So now that you've got an idea of sorting your expenses out and how you might be able to reduce them, the second way of increasing your savings, is to increase your income. Obvious isn't it? However, while it may seem the obvious thing to do, you'd be surprise to learn how many people don't seem to have enough no matter how much money comes into their pocket. Instead of more savings as a result of more income, what occurs is an increase in expenditure! This is because with an increased income, the person normally feels that now he/she can afford that much coveted item to satisfy his or her desire. From eons of studies & examples, human nature is such that there's no such thing as satisfying a desire. As soon as one desire is satisfied, human nature finds another desire to be satisfied. As such, disciplining yourself into parking your extra income may be a challenging thing to do.

What then would be a good approach? Well, I think that if you're earning extra income, be it from your year-end bonus or an extra job, that you should reward yourself. Since you are working harder for that money it would seem criminal not to feel good about yourself for receiving some much deserved extras. So go out, enjoy yourself, pamper yourself a bit, have a beer or buy that bag you much longed for or what else you want...BUT all in total of a certain percentage of the extra income. What do I mean by this? Means if you earn an extra of $1000 for the month, that you should portion out about 20% to be spend on leisure items & activities while saving the balance 80%. This way, you get to feel that satisfaction and still not resent saving.

These are some ideas to increase your income:

1. Get a second job - dog walking, babysitting, tuition, etc.

2. Start an internet business

3. Do paid online surveys - CashCrate.com, OnlinePaidSurveys.net etc.

4. Join affiliate programs & market their products. - Amazon.com, ClickBank.com etc.

5. Go into consultation with regards to your expertise

6. Publish and sell your ebook or if you're driven enough, aim to publish a book proper

7. Do freelance work.

8. Provide financial planning services part-time - Prudential, IPP etc.

9. Sell yours or other peoples old unwanted stuff - Ebay.com, garage sales, push carts

10. Provide a service - offer to clean your mum's or neighbour's house for a fee

11. Rent out a room

12. Rent out a service - web designing, computer fixing/servicing, paint a friend's house, help someone to move, etc.

Well, personally I know how tedious these tasks can be. Myself, I have only just begun in my search increasing my income. I was previously concentrating a lot on investment vehicles which I will share in future posts. Currently, am looking into starting an internet business but have not decided my niche as yet. Things like this will take time, be it starting an internet business, writing an ebook & getting it sold, renting out a room etc. All this takes time to build. The important thing is to get yourself started. With persistence, once you start moving, the momentum you gain will propel you on to bigger things.

Hope this helps.

Till next time,

~K