Consumer Culture--Saving Money! |
By Chris Buchheit on March 10, 2010
.jpg.aspx?width=75&height=75) In our “gotta have it now” culture, saving money is not emphasized as much as it should be – only lavish spending. Spending beyond our means can even destroy factors of economies as the recent housing meltdown exemplifies. As these lessons prove, spending money is much wiser than any alternative. It is something that we as a culture will need to improve on. Fortunately, there are a few methods to begin learning how to save money.
At an early age, learning to budget what money you actually have is extremely important. The key to budgeting is having solid spending habits – and this means to stop using credit cards, or money that you do not actually have. Keep a sharp tab on what funds you do have. A great way to make a budget is to make a spreadsheet. Take your income and subtract all your expenses to see how much you will have after taxes, bills, and other responsibilities. However, once everything is taken into account, make sure to have a rainy day fund for when the car breaks down or someone breaks your refrigerator with a sledge hammer. When that happens, you will have a reserve fund to take care of it. Keeping a physical budget and spending responsibly early on and making it a habit will work out your finances in a heart beat.
Once your finances are organized into a budget, your funds can be allocated as needed. If your pay check is directly deposited into your checking account, have your employers split your check and put a fraction of it into your savings account and let it accumulate over time. If you keep a close tab on your cash flow, you can figure out where your money needs to go. For example, if you look at your budget sheet and you see that you have too much money placed for entertainment purposes, you can take the excess cash and put it in your savings account. There are tons of applications for this, but it all requires that you budget your information. Once you put your financial situation on paper, it becomes a lot easier to become accountable for your situation.
All the experts agree that budging creates financial responsibility. If we start viewing our money as a finite resource, and not something that is always readily available, we will respect our financial situations better.
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