Wave Royalty Free/Design Pics Inc./Alamy This is going to make me sound like an old man, but I'll get it out of the way: I had a paper route in high school. Back in the day when newspapers were prosperous and teenagers could deliver the daily paper on their bikes, I had many paper routes. At one time, I managed three at once: one in the morning and two in the afternoon. I learned a lot of good life skills as a paper boy, and among the most important was that spending a lot isn't always a good thing. Since I didn't have the expenses of adulthood, I was free to blow my earnings on pizza, video games, clothes and anything else that caught my eye. What I didn't have, because I was piddling away my money, was any substantial amount of savings to buy a car or anything else that required more than a week's salary. I don't remember precisely when the realization hit, but when it did, it hit hard: If I ever wanted to be able to make a big purchase, I had to start saving for it. My first major savings goal was to be able to pay for college. My parents had agreed to cover half of my college education, so my goal was to raise the other half. My paper routes helped me start, leading to selling newspapers in front of the local subway station before and after school, and putting Sunday newspapers in news racks around my hometown in the early hours of Sunday mornings. It was a lot of work, and I didn't sleep much for a few years, but it paid off with a good-size savings account when I graduated from high school. Since then I've tried, though I haven't always been successful, in saving for big, planned purchases -- a house, car, vacations and even my daughter's first year of life -- so my wife and I could each afford to take six months off from work to take care of her. Putting money aside for months so we could care for our new baby was the best savings goal. We now have savings accounts that we regularly contribute to for vacations, Christmas and emergencies. Having a savings plan requires thinking ahead about things that will come up anyway. Christmas is every December, and having a savings plan for your holiday spending can make it easier to afford. Saving for a vacation, for example, can take six months to a year. Putting aside money each month isn't the only benefit in thinking ahead about a vacation. It can also give you time to find the best deals and research where you want to go, while knowing you'll have enough money saved to pay for most of the trip before you depart. Saving for a home, auto or any other big expense can take years. But that doesn't mean it should be seen as insurmountable. After putting aside a few hundred dollars each month -- or whatever you can afford -- consider saving a tax rebate or bonus at work. Tips from happy customers, as I learned from my newspaper routes, can add up to substantial savings and more spending money in college. And you can never have enough spending money in college.
Managed to get that raise or promotion? Fantastic -- now don't go out there and spend it all immediately. In classic "keeping up with the Joneses" fashion, too many of us see an increase in salary or a sudden windfall (like an inheritance) as an excuse to take our lifestyle up a notch. We buy bigger houses than we need, get the latest gadgets even though ours work just fine,and spring for fancy steak dinners just because we can.
No comments:
Post a Comment