I've been saving money every month for the past few years, not for a specific goal like buying a house, but just in case something big went wrong. It's kind of like buying your own insurance. In this article, I talk about the benefits of saving money this way and how hard or easy it has been for me to save money this way.
Maybe I'm crazy, but it always seemed like my friends had a lot more money than I did. Four years ago, a group of us took a two-week vacation in Spain. I'll never forget when one of my friends asked how much money we were each bringing on vacation. We all answered one by one, and I was shocked to find that not only did I have the least, but I also had about 200 pounds less than the next person with the least. It wasn't because I was being cheap; I just didn't have anything else. It had been really hard to save up this much money.
When I got back from this trip, I decided I needed to change the way I thought about money. I talked to a few people and read a few books to figure out how to move forward. I didn't want to have to work hard next year, for example, if there was another holiday.
I thought the answer was to start putting away some money every month, which would be taken out of my account automatically. I was the kind of person who spent almost everything she had or made. I would spend it because it was in the bank. It was going to be taken out of my account through direct debit, so I wouldn't be able to spend it.
I set up one of these savings plans and put in a small amount of GBP30 per month to start. I'm glad to say that it didn't really hurt my relationships with other people too much. The policy itself had something to do with the stock market, which was exciting, even though it's sad. After a year, I got a statement in the mail, and I was glad to see that for once I was actually worth something. Then I decided to save GBP50 a month, which was more than I was saving before.
In life, you never know when something will go wrong, like your car breaking down, your washing machine breaking down, or your house needing some repairs. By saving the way I know how, these problems are much less stressful to deal with because I have the money on hand to fix them.
I do sometimes have enough money saved up to buy something nice, like a vacation or a new car.
I would strongly suggest to other people that they start saving regularly, because it has given me peace of mind.
