SAVINGS SHOULD BE A HABIT!

I remember having a Kolo*(small wooden piece mostly used for saving money)*. My nanny and I usually kept the money I got from selling my snacks to my classmates in a primary school in this Kolo. This was how I started learning to save. I calculated every money I got, every penny was important. It made me conscious of my spending.

This habit continued even when I was in Secondary School but in a different way. My pocket money was not to be spent lavishly. I knew students would spend their money in the first two weeks of school resumption because money was in abundance. But the third week before Visiting Day, most of the students went broke. All I did was turn my pocket-money to a Microfinance bank. I would lend you money to pay back on visiting day with interest of around 30%. This repeats itself just before the mid-term break. With this, I was able to save up a lot of money which I used to open my first bank account after Secondary School.

When I was in university, one of the books I read was “The richest man in Babylon”. From this book, I learned the rule of paying yourself first no matter how little. I opened a second bank account without an ATM card attached to it, with that I would not be able to touch any cash I put in there. When my dad sends the monthly stipend, I would first write down my expenses for the month and my savings being the first while every other thing follows suit.

Struggling with giving an account of your income?

What I mostly do is this, before my money comes, I have a spreadsheet where I list out my expenses for the month. It sometimes looks like this;

  • Savings
  • Feeding
  • Transport
  • Data & airtime
  • Personal effect(Soap, deodorant, etc)
  • Hair
  • Flexing money😎
  • Miscellaneous
  • Money to the family(it’s okay if your money does not cover this)

I always make sure that these allocations do not get tampered with things I do not need. This keeps me in check, and with this, your savings grow either weekly, monthly or daily depending on how your income flows in.

Save & Invest

The next thing is to send your savings to work, no money is too little. One of the importance of saving and investing is basically to multiply what you currently have.

If you have that entrepreneurial spirit you can always start something little with this money you have saved. It is VERY fine not to be an entrepreneur. You can still send your money to work. Different kinds of savings yield interest these days like Schoolable, PiggyVest, CowryWise, Zenith bank mutual funds, treasury bill, high-interest savings account with your bank, etc.

I know talk is cheap but there are some steps I can point out that might help you. It is not going to be easy, especially if you are already used to “just spend as it comes”. The disadvantage of this habit is that most times you always need an“urgent 5k”, it gets tiring and embarrassing and you would not want to keep living this kind of life.

  • You can start by having a separate account for your savings.
  • When your money comes, separate concerns
  • Have a personal challenge of how much you would like to have after a period.
  • When you are tempted to spend on things you do not need, especially when you know you do not deserve it yet, just send the money to your secret savings account and see it as gone.
  • Have a quarterly or yearly reward. I always look forward to this myself. It encourages me to keep saving and investing. But then I use the interest in my savings to get nice things for myself or loved ones. Please, do not use all the savings to reward yourself😂.
  • Buy some of the stuff you WANT with part of the interest from your savings!!

The good thing about savings, it gives you the avenue to think of some nice investments you can venture into. It also gives you that positive mindset that you can achieve your dreams, buy the house you have always wanted. Just know that slow and steady wins the race.

The more you can save and invest, the more your WANTS reduce, the less you stop blowing your money on things that do not matter🤪.

Just my two cents. Let me know your thoughts in the comment section here…….

Ps: The next write up, I will talk about unforeseen expenses, lending money to people, learning when to say Yes or No.