MY PERSONAL STORY ABOUT SAVING
Many of us wanted to save but for some reasons, we fail to do so. We all know what are the advantages of savings and maybe most of us have already tried saving before. Sadly, some who tried saving money faced a difficult situation and so the savings account was used. And after the storm passed, we we're left with nothing and the savings account was never revived. Maybe you did tried to restart the account but finds it hard to do so. I will be discussing to you my own personal experience in the art of saving money.
Since I was a kid, I have been trying to save for various reasons. Most of the time, I failed to continue doing so because there are so many temptations lingering around. Once I have enough money, I found out that there's a new toy, or a new gadget or maybe you saw a nice shirt while visiting the mall with my parents so, it was not really successful. It came to a point where I did not even tried to save anything. That went on for years.
Fast forward, I graduated, had a job and started working. I thought, maybe I can save this time. That thought just stayed there but it was never accomplished. Every time I receive my salary me and my team will travel to new places. That happened almost after every payday. I thought, I'm only young once so I should enjoy every moment. Fuck to savings that's for oldies only. So, I enjoyed my youth so much. And it broke me big time.
When Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) struck Leyte, I was not there. I was in Cebu that time. My entire family was in the center of the typhoon and I'm miles away to help them. Much worse, I have no money at all. Even if I will go home, I cannot help them financially and I will just end up as an additional bargain for them. My hands we're tied and I cannot do anything so I just sat there and cried rivers feeling so damn pathetic. I never wanted that to happen again.
We survived that tragedy through the help of some relatives and friends and if you're one of them whose reading now, thank you so much. So after that, I decide to start saving again. However, I have been so caught up with my financial routine that I do not know where will I get the money for my savings. This is one of the most common reason why people cannot save.
"I don't have enough salary and I do not have any extra income"
"I don't have any spare money to save."
"There are just too many expenses. There's nothing left."
Excuses. That's all they are. That's some answers I heard when I asked my friends why they don't have any savings. But in reality, a percentage of our money is actually being wasted. We tend to buy something unnecessary when we have the cash at hand. It may occur to you sometimes that, "If only I didn't used my money for this, I could have saved this amount. What a waste." That's what happened to me.
Everyday, we will always have a spare coin in our pockets. It could be just one peso or five pesos or ten pesos or anywhere along those amount. One thing for sure, you always have a coin at the end of the day. That's where I started.
I will collect all coins I have in my pocket and placed them in one of my cellphone boxes. I don't have money (maybe I just don't want to) to buy a piggy bank so I used the available resources at hand. I never even bothered to count how much money I drop in that box. If it's a coin, then it will go to the box. I continued doing that for several weeks until it became a habit.
After a while, my sister ran short of funds and she asked if I can lend her some. I'm about to say that I don't have anything when I remembered the coins in the box. For the first time in a couple of weeks, I counted the money in that holy box and guess what, I have P2000! That's all just coins but it's plenty enough to lend to my sister and some will still be left. I helped my sister literally with spare coins. Amazing isn't it?
Realizing the effect and advantages of saving I started to save some more. I raised the amount I'm placing in the box to a 100 pesos per payday plus of course, the coins. You won't even feel the amount you dropped there. It's too small. But all great things came from humble beginnings.
Few months after that I generated enough cash to open up my official bank account. So I did. I started budgeting my expenses and further raised my savings allocation to 500 pesos per payday. Even in the existence of the bank account, I never stopped dropping the coins in the box. Every 2 months, I will collect all the coins in the box and add it to my saving account. Easy.
I am still doing the same thing until now and I'm reaping the effects. By making savings a habit, I can optimize my funds to its full capacity. Financial freedom is something acquired through efforts. It doesn't matter how much you earn, what matters is how you utilize your money. I don't have to worry where to get money whenever I travel, or where will I get money for medicines or what if the phone suddenly stops.
Currently, I have several accounts for different purposes like a travel fund, a health fund, and the miscellaneous ones (emergency purposes.) You may think it's impossible until you try it. So start saving now. I will be posting more about savings in the following weeks so stay tuned. The best time to start saving is today. Good luck!
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