We’ve all grown up hearing reminders from our folks to always save for rainy days. In the age when financial literacy is taught on almost all popular platforms, it is still surprising to discover some new ways and strategies to grow personal savings.
Saving money, as we all know, is not as easy as it seems. There are difficult and inevitable challenges that have to be overcome. Aside from external factors like rising inflation, reduced income flow, and a weak economy, people have to defeat the temptation and urge to spend for unnecessary items—including buying the latest gadgets, upgrading the wardrobe, or checking out the newly opened restaurants in the community.
However, if achievable goals are set and personal discipline is observed, saving money could be a breeze. The rewards may not come instantly, but in the long term, you’ll be thankful you’ve kept your focus despite the interesting journey.
Fortunately, modern technology abounds with new and effective tools that can help us save some cash and keep our focus on attaining financial goals. Here are practical and strategic ways to grow our savings using readily accessible tools in the age of technology.
Use Savings Calculator to set financial goals.
How much savings should you make each month for you to attain your target savings amount within your preferred term or duration? How long would it take for you to reach your savings target if you decide to save ₱5,000 each month (for example)? Don’t get stressed making calculations; use online tools to your advantage like SavingsCalculator.org.
Use the Savings Goal Calculator to determine the answers to the above questions in an instant! For instance, if you aim to save ₱5,000,000 in 20 years (240 months) in a bank account with a usual annual interest rate (1%), you would need to save ₱18,828.05 each month. In the ‘How Long’ tab, you can determine how long it would take to reach a specific savings goal. For instance, how long will it take for you to reach your savings target of ₱5,000,000 if you intend to save ₱15,000 monthly? The answer—295 months or 24.58 years (thus, if you start saving today, you would attain your target in September 2047. Try the calculator for yourself and be immediately motivated to set your personal finance goals.
Download and use a budgeting app to track spending.
Tracking the monthly cash flow can take so much of your time, especially when you are easily distracted by a lot of factors. Thanks to all those budgeting apps that are available as free downloads, you can easily monitor and analyze your spending habits so you can do some logical lifestyle tweaks to be able to meet your savings goals.
Use any of those budgeting apps and quickly realize how trimming your online shopping sprees or limiting your visits to your favorite coffee shop could make a huge difference. Remember to stick to the resolve to save more by spending less.
Use the autosave feature of your online bank account.
Technology will help you save automatically if you activate the autosave feature of your online bank account. If you are not aware and familiar with such a feature, you may ask your bank how the service could be activated on your account. There are local banks that offer to automatically deduct a specified amount (approved by yourself) from your payroll or savings account each month—that cash is kept as savings that can’t be withdrawn via ATM or online transfers.
If you are using an account in a popular e-wallet, you can also seek assistance for such a feature. Interestingly, many local e-wallets now offer higher interest rates on savings kept in such wallets. Take advantage of that.
Instantly invest savings through e-wallets.
Gone are the days when investing in the stock market requires too much time, effort, and money. E-wallet apps now offer investing features, which allow you to instantly invest in various instruments like stocks, mutual funds, or even cryptocurrency. There’s no more need to seek the assistance of a broker or agent. Investments are done in just a few clicks—and even in the convenience and accessibility of the smartphone!
Upon using these tools, it would be up to you how you would be able to reach your targets/goals. You can make adjustments along the way so you can speed up the attainment of your goals or prolong it a little if there are unplanned but necessary expenses coming your way. You can do it!
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