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Thanks to our Savings and Sangria readers for writing such helpful collaborative posts! Today Mel’s going to show you how to save for the future while living life to the fullest.
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A lot of people associate saving with saying no to everything, but that’s not the case at all. Believe it or not, it is entirely possible for you to have a great time living your life while saving money. And you may be surprised at how easy this is!
Your Cash Flow
Nothing will affect your future more than your cash flow.
You need to know where your money is coming from and where it’s going. And if you want to save for the future, you really do need to understand how your current spending habits are going against your goals.
It helps to have a weekly review of your spending. And it also helps to have a plan that you can stick to. You could bounce back from a single splurge week by living lean the next week or two. But if you’ve been overspending for a month, it is hard to live extra lean for multiple months to make up for it.
Track your spending and saving weekly, rather than monthly to help keep yourself accountable. It will be much easier to notice a problem and recover from it if you’re checking in more often.
Say No
Saying no sometimes sucks. But there’s a trick to it: decide upfront what you can say yes to, and what you’ll say no to. If you make these big decisions when you have a clear head, they’re much easier to stick to when you find yourself on the spot, trying to use your willpower to make a smart decision in the moment. This little hack will make it much easier for you to make better spending choices.
Maybe you feel deprived because you don’t go out to eat often, or you wish you could travel the world. Know that these two things are related! If you make the choice to make dinner at home, you will be saving money, which can then be used to fund your worldwide travel. But if you go out for dinner, you are keeping yourself from your traveling dream.
You can afford anything, but not everything. It helps to keep spending in perspective, so you can learn to say no and mean it.
Invest
Another thing that you can do is invest.
When you invest in things like a Ripple IRA account you can easily put money away for the future while safeguarding your interest.
If you have never invested before, you’ll be amazed at the difference this makes in your personal finances. If you don’t invest, you are losing out on compound interest which grows your savings exponentially! It allows you to save less now and still have more later!
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