I read a worrying report the other day suggesting that over a quarter of us haven’t saved any money in the last 12 months, and that less than forty percent of us don’t think we have enough money put away for a rainy day. Having said that, the report was put together by a bank so you would expect them to be encouraging us to save. We’re obviously not taking them up on that advice and perhaps the most worrying statistic from the report was that more than twenty-five percent of us would rather spend than save!
Now I know that spending is more fun than saving but if we have no savings now with summer holidays just round the corner then we’ll be in an even worse state by the time it comes to thinking about Christmas which is, after all, only seven months away!
Although many people don’t think enough about saving, there are many others who would love to save but who just can’t seem to find the spare cash to put anything aside after all of the bills are paid.
For many of us a decade or so of wage increases that are lower than inflation means that we’re paying a bigger percentage of our income just to make ends meet, and saving anything at the end of the month seems like a luxury that we just can’t afford.
That’s why it’s so important to make sure that the money that you do spend is all being put to good use, and that you’re not wasting money every month. And by that I don’t mean that you should stop spending on the occasional night out, or that Christmas needs to be cancelled this year.
What I mean, instead, is that you need to take a long hard look at all of your regular outgoings and make sure that you’re getting value for money. Do you have the best mortgage you can find? Are your gas and electricity rates competitive, and are you on a tariff that is not costing you a fortune every month? If you don’t know the answer to these questions then you have a bit of work to do!
