Stepping Blown: How To Not Miss Opportunities To Save

If you’re someone who believes that saving money and having financial wealth will come “in due time,” you’re sadly mistaken.

Having financial freedom is rooted in two key points: decision making that is sound and organization (with a splash of planning involved).

The notion that you can save a good job, make a fine living and not have actually to think or work on saving money is laughable at best. The trick to saving money is no trick at all, but all treat if you do it in a way that is systematic, smart and centers on budgeting and saving as a result.

There are opportunities, simple ones, in fact, to save money and those who are adept at saving know exactly where to look, while others let these slip by without a care in the world or, more often than not, unsure of where to look and what to notice.

Take for instance a raise you get at work: where does it go?

If the answer is you decide to treat yourself to a shopping trip, so be it. But what about using that little bit of difference in pay to add to your retirement or pad your savings. Think of it like this, if you make $1,000 per month and suddenly you’re making $1,150 per month, that’s an extra $150, but you’ve already been living on that $1,000, so the $150 is like found money, in some respects.

So rather than add $150 to your monthly budget, why not put that money aside and save it? That will result in $1,800 per year in cash that you can either see show up in a savings or retirement account or be put toward satellite radio, a better cable package or a monthly massage package for you and your significant other.

That’s not to suggest you can never indulge, but why not indulge in your financial future as well?

Another suggestion: you don’t always need to upgrade your life, whether it’s a new car in place of a used one or the latest and greatest phone, tablet, TV, wardrobe or furniture. Sometimes what you have is fine, and doesn’t need replacing, even if there’s a once in a lifetime, never to be offered again sale or just something that catches your eye in an ad or through a store window.

Golden opportunities to save money rarely exist and financial windfalls are few and far between (if ever), so the little things go a long way to being big reasons why you’re able to stay the course, save money and most importantly become someone who has learned how to be smart with money on a consistent basis.