Why should you save money? I mean seriously. We work so hard for our money, it’s tough not to just go out and spend it right after we get it. I mean we all know…save money and you’ll have more “financial security”, you need to “save for retirement”…blah blah blah-BORING. If those are the reasons why I should be saving money then you might as well count me out.
Seriously, I mean America has a pretty good safety net. By the time we all reach the age of retirement, hell even if we’re completely broke then somebody’s going to help out…nobody is just going to let ya die! Might as well have fun while we’re young, right?
Well…let’s take a step back…by have fun, do you mean pissing all of your money away so you’re forced to live paycheck to paycheck and therefore forced to work 40+ hours a week at a job you hate? Gosh that sounds fun.
So, let me break down why you should save money in terms that will actually excite you. Without some excitement in all of this, you’ll likely fall facedown on your plan to save. Before I do though, I want you to know that I’m not a financial advisor and this isn’t financial advice. This is just me writing down my opinions that maybe could give you some things to ponder.
Anyways.
As I’m currently writing this it’s June 25th, 2020. This has been an insane year, to say the least, but let’s rewind a bit and play a hypothetical “what if”.
Let’s just pretend you had been responsible with your money the last 5, 10, 15, or whatever years you want to put here. Instead of living paycheck to paycheck and spending your money on things you don’t need you saved away every penny. How much would you have saved up by March of 2020?
Let’s just put a generic number on it and lets say $50,000. For a lot of middle class people living frugally that’s not an impossible number to have.
Now why March of 2020? Because that’s when the stock market crashed and if you put that $50,000 in the stock market at the right time you could have doubled or even tripled your money in a matter of weeks.
And this isn’t debatable. You can look at exactly what stocks were trading at for the markets’ low point in mid-March and look at where they are now.
Did you buy some Tesla stock at about $361 per share? That $50,000 would now be worth just over $134,000.
Did you buy Boeing at $89 a share? You could of sold off in less than 2 weeks and turned that $50,000 into about $100,000.
Or, let’s just get insane with it, let’s say you put that $50,000 on this stock on the morning of April 15th and sold it at the end of that day, your $50,000 would be worth just a shade under 1.5 million dollars. I shit you not.
This is a verifiable fact. Now, of course, that last stock I mentioned to you I’m sure you or anyone you know has probably never even heard of it. So who would ever do that? But, in hindsight, if you aren’t looking at the market now and being slightly pissed off that you didn’t invest correctly, then you’re just completely oblivious to what’s going on.
This, of course, is just one example of what you can do with money saved up. It’s not about having money that’s just sitting there, it’s about creating an opportunity for you to get completely financially free. Maybe it isn’t the stock market but it’s a business opportunity that can lead you to earn more money.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like working a job. I don’t like having to juggle bills in order to pay things on time, and I certainly don’t like having worked my entire life to still be in debt. I mean what in the actual f***! Think about that for a second. We work for decades and are still sitting in the negative, all the while there are others out there who live in 10 million dollar homes.
So, we can either complain about the situation at hand, continue doing what we’re doing already knowing the desolate future we’ll be dealt OR we can start taking steps now to reverse the downward snowball of debt we’re continuing to build. It’s up to you.
Is the system rigged? Sure. Can we still beat the system? I say yes. But the answer is an overwhelming no if we don’t get a grip on things.
Did that wake you up a bit? I sure hope so, because that number I gave you could be a lot larger for some people. It could $100,000 saved up, or $200,000, or more, and just imagine what that could turn into.
The point is saving money is a discipline that we need to have if we want to get anywhere in life. I mean money rules our life. Saving money is something that results in more money.
And everything we do revolves around money. If you had enough money you wouldn’t have to spend 40 hours a week giving your time to something you don’t like. If money wasn’t an issue we could go wherever we want whenever we want. Spend time with family? Check. Travel abroad? Check. Go to big-time sporting events (if the world ever goes back to normal)? Check.
The point is, we all want money because it gives us the things we all want in the modern world. The trick is in order to have money we have to save money first, only then will it ever snowball so that we’re building wealth.
And there it is, that’s your answer. The financial snowball effect. That’s how people get rich. Well, besides an inheritance.
The point is us average middle-class folks can’t even imagine owning a million-dollar home. Or anything close to it for that matter. That’s a pipe dream. In reality, though, people do it. How? Primarily compounded interest and large incomes.
In other words, if you make the choice to save now and not spend money it can compound your results later. That’s why you should save money!
It’s funny because most people complain about money, but make poor choices in the first place and really have no reason to be complaining. Wait, that just reminded me of that Louis CK money bit. Anyways, yeah we should probably laugh at where we’re at in the meantime.
Does that sound condescending? LOL Don’t worry I’m broke too. This comes from a place of changing my mindset.
Mindset Is Everything for Saving Money
In the back of our minds we know we should be saving money. And we know we shouldn’t be buying things we don’t need. And we know we shouldn’t be “keeping up with the Joneses” but we do it anyway. And we’re all stuck in this middle-class purgatory where we basically just always stay poor and are slaves to our jobs. So why in the hell don’t we just stop in our tracks, and get serious about saving money?
In my honest opinion, it’s because we don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. We think the mountain is too high to climb if you will. We look up at our mountain of debt and pretty much say f*** it, then do what we feel like doing at that moment.
If you think about it it’s a lot like getting in shape or losing weight. We know we should ‘just say no” to donuts but we eat them anyway. Hell, we may even do well for a couple of weeks but then we fall off the wagon.
Reaching your financial goals won’t be easy. That’s the first thing you need to understand, but at the same time we also need to understand getting out of debt is possible because several others who are in the same shoes as you have already done it.
But what’s the mindset answer? How do you stay motivated? Well, how about this for starters, your end goal doesn’t have to be and shouldn’t be your immediate goal.
Break Your Money Saving Goal Up Into Increments
You absolutely have to break up your long term goal into tiny chunks. I am nowhere close to reaching my financial goals, but where I’m at from where I was a year ago is night and day. I’m in a position where I pay all of my bills on time and even had some money saved to put in the stock market after the crash.
Now, that may not sound that good for some readers, but considering I’m someone who has always lived paycheck to paycheck and am used to consistently pay bills late, this is a huge leap forward for myself. I now plan my budget months ahead instead of looking at a bill and realizing I don’t have enough money to pay it.
Personally, being in the position I’m in now feels great. Don’t get me wrong I have a long way to go, but looking back I’m glad I decided to get control of my finances.
And that’s what I’ll leave you with. You don’t have to worry about your goal taking 10 years to achieve because even if you’re only 20% of the way to your goal you’re going to look back and be glad you’re where you’re at and that you saved money in the first place.