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How To Automate Your Savings

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Saving diligently was no easy feat for me. When I started working I love the notion of having money in my wallet and in my ATM. I feel like I can do anything and buy everything I need and want. That is why, it took me years to finally realize that I need to save up. Right after getting my salary, I usually treat my family to somewhere fancy and buy some clothes and shoes. The cycle just keeps on repeating since I know for a fact that after two weeks, I would still get another batch of money.

Then reality hits me. I incurred debt, thanks to my bad credit card habit and there is that realization that you are not getting younger and you still have nothing in your bank account. And the only way I know to solve this is to save. This was then the time that I still have one job and that is teaching. So basically I need to save up my salary to pay debt and of course to beef up my savings.

Since I still had that habit of buying stuffs on payday, I finally realize that I need intervention with regards to my one and only salary. That is where I want to automate my savings.

Automation/Automate

This is also referred to as automatic. This is defined as working by itself with little to no direct human control and is done spontaneously without conscious thought or intention.

The key there is little to no direct human control. That is why I don’t want all of my salary to go to my ATM right away. Because if it is, then I might end up spending it and still end up with no savings. Hence, automating my savings is the best way to go.

How did I do it?

I ask our school cooperative to intervene with my salary. That is, in a good way you know. I informed them to get this much amount every payday and should be directly deposited to my savings account. My savings account from them has no ATM card. Hence, if there’s a need for me to withdraw, I need to go there myself. And this can be quite a chore for me hence I am limiting my visit and more so my transaction. With that, what is now deposited in my ATM would be the money left from all the savings.

Then I want to build up my savings even more. Hence, I push myself to limit my expenses. That is why I ask our local cooperative to get as much as 50% of my total pay for my savings. Thank God I did. I was able to control my expenses and I was able to save more in the process.

To date, automating your savings is already available in banks. Identify where your ATM or salary is connected and ask the bank if they can be able to do direct saving up. Simply inform them to set aside this much money each week or month and it will be transferred to your savings account. I know a handful of banks can do this. Plus, you will have no excuse of not being able to save.

Automating your savings is a good way to develop that habit of savings and even more discipline yourself to limit your expenses. You don’t need to learn how important savings is the hard way. That is why, in order for you to really save up, why not choose for this kind of hassle free option. 







P.S. To those doing the 52 Week Money Challenge and 52 Week Money Challenge Version 2, it is Week 16 already! Did you deposit the next amount yet?

P.P.S Want to know more about investing, savings, stock market and more, check out my reference here. You can download free ebooks and resources too.