10 Ways to Trick yourself into Saving Money

Saving money isn't that hard. What's hard is keeping money saved or having a habit of saving is also difficult to have. The easiest way is to trick yourself so that your mind assumes that the money available to spend is only what you get to post your compulsory saving for the month.

We have tried to list some ways to trick yourself into saving money that actually lasts. Such as:

1. Make it Compulsory or automate your Savings: the most effective way to save is to make the saving automated. Saving should not be from the residual amount post your monthly expenses, it should always be like

The total amount available for a month - Compulsory Saving = Money available to spend.

The great example of this is a compulsory transfer to your provident fund, pension fund etc.

2. Fund for specific future needs: Labelling your saving with its purpose can be a powerful deterrent to tapping the money for other uses. For example, setting up a fund for kid's higher education, marriage, holiday travel etc. The names to every saving make you think about what you're really sacrificing when you spend the money thoughtlessly.

3. Make it invisible: if you keep on seeing what you have saved every day, it may prompt you to spend it. The out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach would help you not to promptly remember that you have this money. The best example of these are your retirement saving, saving which you kept in PPF accounts, money which you kept in account other than your regular saving bank account or Fixed deposits.

4. Save in some instrument which has locking period: Idea is to make spending from your saving little difficult so that you don't always prompt to use your saving for any discretionary spends but you should keep a minimum amount in liquid funds for your emergency needs. The best way is to do this is to transfer money to Fixed deposits, PPF, etc from your savings account.

5. Have medical insurance, accidental Insurance, Term Insurance: You must be adequately covered yourself and your family for any medical need from the insurer. You also must have Term insurance & Accidental Insurance so that your family is completely secured because of an unforeseen circumstance. These can be a major reason to kill your entire life's savings in one go and put you or your family in trouble. It is utmost important that you are adequately covered for that you should take expert advice as well.

6. Save your One-time revenue: If you're in JOB then you must be getting year-end Bonus, Deepawali Bonus as one-time revenue. You define these onetime payments as extra money and make your-self tuned to save it for future needs.

7. Save from yearly increments: you can easily move your yearly raise to save for future needs. If you want to make it compulsory then you can also opt for increasing your voluntary contribution in provident funds so that you get the same in-hand salary which you used to get before your yearly raise.

8. Participate in ESOPs: Many companies offer attractive ESOPs for their employees where they offer shares at lesser than market prices. It would be a great option of saving automatically and also having a handsome return as well as provided your company is doing well financially.

9. Divert it: Every time you cancel a subscription, disconnect a service or pay off a debt, divert that monthly payment into savings. It took you years, but you finally paid off your home loan EMI, Instead of being tempted to spend the extra cash you now have each month, pretend you're still paying the Home loan EMI, but make it to yourself instead of the bank. You can set up an automatic transfer to savings for the payment amount.

10. Increase Savings Incrementally: Once you're on an automated savings plan, the way to really build your savings is to increase those savings by 1 percent every six to 12 months. For example, if you're setting aside 10 percent of your Salary, reset it to increase by 1 to 2 percent the following year, and every year thereafter. In such small increments, it's easy to adapt to the higher savings level. And, before you know it, you'll save a large portion of your salary automatically.

Conclusion:

Developing a habit to save money neither easy nor an overnight process. But if you try with the right mindset and ready to explore unconventional ways, it’s possible to trick yourself into saving money and achieve your financial goals faster than you imagined.