We have to do it America, and so many of us are NOT doing it. Do you know what I’m referring to? Saving. We need to save more money America. While 2020 has been unlike any year we’ve ever seen because of the Coronavirus pandemic, there were some bright spots for me to say the least: I was saving a lot more money because everything was shuttered. You cannot spend when you have no place to go and I saw potential drawbacks, but as the shutdown for most of the country continued, what I discovered that made me quite happy was the amount of money I had in my checking and saving account.
I saved more money in 2020 than what I have saved my entire life, so it sent alarms buzzing in my head: you’re spending too much money on silly stuff. One of my biggest expenses was food. I’m a morning person, but I don’t indulge in breakfast in most cases, I just don’t. As long as I have a bottle of water, a banana, a breakfast bar or a bagel, I’m good for 4-5 hours, then there is lunch and there is dinner.
Most people prefer to cook, but with that said, there are those days after long days of work that you just don’t want to cook or you don’t have the energy to cook. It sucks to say, but it’s the world we live in. With that said, lots of money was being spent on fast food or quick stops here and there. The problem was the fact that the charges were NOT large, but those small charges find a way to add up. That is what I was realizing. A charge here, a charge there, cash spent here, credit here, before you know it you’ve spent $200-$300 in a single month and you didn’t even think that was possible. That is scary America. Why?
It makes me think what I could have done with that $300. That is money that could have been used to pay off credit card debt, it could have been used to pay bills for the month, I could have put half into my savings account there are always options beyond spending when you have our hands on money. However, we’re human beings and no matter what we are always going to be inclined to want things.
So many people argue that saving money takes a level of discipline and I would agree with that assertion. I think all Americans want to save more, but temptation always gets the best of us and because of that we tend to spend more than we need to. So as a result you have to remind yourself that you have to pay yourself back. What does that mean, when you get paid, after you’ve paid any bills for the week or for the month, see what you have left over and try to at least do 25 percent maybe 50 percent if possible of what you have left to your savings account. That way that money is there in case an emergency arises and if 2020 has taught us anything, the economy and the world is unpredictable. People were out of work for months, some people are still out of work, some people have lost their jobs.
As a result if money was placed away, then you have expenses covered for a few weeks or a few months. Many of us don’t like to save because it places us in a predicament where we have to stick to a BUDGET. Yes, I said that, budget, that is a word we don’t want to hear, but it’s apart of the American lexicon. When you budget, you know what you have, what you can spend and what you cannot spend. It allows you to prepare for the best and be prepared for the worst, because the unexpected ALWAYS transpires in life and sometimes at the most inopportune time people.
Do not look at saving money as a chore look at it as an opportunity to reward yourself. You’ve worked hard and now you’re placing that money away for something you may want or need in the future. That’s the key word: think about the future, because if you have nothing today, you won’t have anything in the future if you don’t start to plan now.
