I realize this over and over again whenever I go out to the store with my; especially my 8-year-old son. He has a severe problem where the second he gets a dollar, he has to spend it! It doesn’t really matter on what. He just has to spend it.
“Do you really need it?” I’ll ask him. “I thought you were saving your money for the bigger one?”
He might try to argue. He may even try to justify making this purchase. But as his parents we still challenge him because we know that it will be a very important lesson to understand why it’s important to save money for the things we really want later in life.
Why Is It Important To Save Money Now?
Unfortunately the majority of adults still don’t even grasp the concept I’m trying to teach my son. In 2013 as many as 76% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. They have little to no emergency fund and barely any retirement savings.
And why is that?
- Do they not make enough money?
- Are their expenses really so necessary?
- Do they feel a sense of entitlement?
- Do they simply want to enjoy each and every fruit of their labor?
- Do they simply not know how to stop their bad habits and start saving?
Regardless of the reasons, there can be no achievement unless you believe in the reasons for your goal. And so with that, I give you three reasons why it is important to save your money:
1. Because Things Will Happen.
Not every day of your life will be a picnic.
Your car is going to break. Your water heater is going to stop working. Something is going to leak. Medical bills can and will happen!
These things are totally inevitable. You’ll never know in advance that they are going to happen. You won’t be getting a memo or notice.
If you don’t have money saved or even a sizeable emergency fund to take care of these things when they come up, then all you’re doing is gambling. Each and every day you wake up you’re rolling the dice. Some days you’ll win and there won’t be anything bad or inconvenient happen.
But just you wait…
Something will come up.
And the last thing you’re going to want to do is plunge yourself into debt to take care of it.
2. Because There Will Always Be Bigger and Better Things You’ll Want.
A down payment for a better house.
A wedding.
A vacation.
College for the kids.
There are so many incredible things that you can’t necessarily afford right now. But given just a little bit of saving over a number of years, and you’ll be able to reach these goals with no trouble!
My wife and I have been stashing $100 every month for our children’s college funds since our kids were both born. Since we see a college education as something important for them, we’ve committed ourselves to making sure that we’re saving our money towards this goal.
And so what has this effort turned into? Over $11,000 for each child!
That’s $11,000 less that each one of them won’t have go deeper into debt over. That’s not bad for just a little bit of saving and planning.
3. Because If You’re Clever About How You Save Your Money, It Could Take Care of You for the Rest of Your Life.
This is the most grand and important reason why it is important to save your money:
Because someday you’ll want the choice!
Someday you’ll want the choice as to whether you’re going to have to work every day or not.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to have a nice long career or work well into your gold years. But there are many times when life has other plans for you. Sometimes your health or medical conditions might prevent you from doing what you used to do.
Plus is working for the rest of your life really your plan? Though you might be younger and full of ambition now, your lifestyle and priorities could change as you age.
But unfortunately you might be committing yourself to a dependency on a paycheck until the day you die if you don’t have any savings to fall back on.
Wouldn’t you rather get yourself to a position where you’re financially independent?
Author Charles Farrell said it best in his book Your Money Ratios
when he wrote:
All decisions you make should help move you from being a laborer to being a capitalist. All of us laborers. But as a capitalist, you are not paid for the value of your labor, but for the use of your money.
So how does one become a capitalist?
Simple – Save! Invest! Take a lesson from people who have already made it rich.
The greatest way to accumulate wealth is to use your current money to do so. This is accomplished by a healthy balance of leading a modest lifestyle while stashing your current income in assets that will simply generate more money for you over time. There are dozens of passive income streams you could be taking advantage of. The choice is yours how you want to become rich.
Wealth doesn’t just appear. If you want to get there you need to put together a plan. Would you like to see a very detailed map of how I plan to become financially independent? Click on the link and you’ll find out. Feel free to copy the elements of my plan that you find useful for your own.
But remember this: Building your wealth doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t just arrive one day. Saving your money has to be an important priority that you continuity work at until one day you’re there and enjoying what you’ve accomplished. It will take a little bit of ambition and sacrifice. But once you’re enjoying the fruits of your labor, you’ll never regret it!
Readers: How you do answer the question of why is it important to save money over the long term? What are the things you find yourself saving for?
Related Posts:
- How the Things I Want for Christmas Are Different Now That I’m An Adult
- Recognizing Opportunities to Build Multiple Streams of Income
- My Post Retirement Ideas for When I Become Financially Free
Images courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The difference between your son and the majority of other people is that he has you there to guide him and teach him about financial responsibility.
It is important to save money over the longer term to ensure that you can support yourself and so that you are not a burden on society. There is a certain sense of achievement to be able to say that you are financially independent.
I’d have to agree. Reaching financial freedom is like enlightenment. You earn what few people could ever dream to have.
Lately,I really want to buy something for myself and I badly needed it for improving myself, but since I realized do I really need this one? My goals are to save more, owning a rental property and being financially independent in the future.
I think so much of this comes down to the struggle, or unwillingness, many have in looking past their noses to plan for tomorrow and the future.
Like Glen touched on, saving and investing is important so you can provide for yourself in the future as well as for those that come after you.
It does seem like there is a certain unwillingness for most people to change. I’m not really sure why that has to be given how much information there is readily available.
It is so important to build the savings muscles at a young age, I still remember my parents requiring me to develop goals and save my money towards those goals. This lesson, applied starting at age 6 has made all the difference in life. It is a natural process for me, whereas for people who grow up without this instilled, saving is a foreign concept. I’m glad my children have taken well to saving at a young age.
Exactly right John – I think it’s something that really has to be instilled with kids at a young age. This way, it becomes a natural habit and something they do subconsciously all the time.
When it comes to money, saving certainly does take “muscles” and they do need training.
No matter what things you end up buying someone is going to have something nicer and more expensive. Your son is lucky to have you to help steer him down the right path because so many people didn’t/don’t have that so they get into the cycle of “keeping up with the Joneses” which usually means debt. I’m so glad that I came across the idea of being financially independent when I did. Before that I saved/invested but there wasn’t really a goal in mind to push me and keep me on track.
I’m also glad to have come across the idea of financial freedom at such an early age. My only regret with money is not saving more sooner or getting more involved with investing earlier.
I wish I had parents that tried to instill those lessons into me, however they were, as you so succinctly put it, gambling. I consider myself as a late bloomer when it comes to finances, as I didn’t start changing my ways until 26, but I’m glad I began when I did, if not earlier. Life is much easier if you make the smart choices.
If there’s anything I can pass on to my kids it will be to train them in the ways of money that they’ll never learn in school. If someone would have told me at 16 to start an IRA, I’d be incredibly rich by now. I plan to make sure my kids get every advantage they can get.
My seven year old is at that point now where she just wants to buy stuff with the money she has earned. The things she buys are so random that I just have to laugh. I will give her credit in this regard, if she wants something that is $5 and only has $4 she won’t ask me for it. Instead she waits one more week until she has the money, then goes and buys it.
I find myself saving for big ticket items that I don’t want to finance or use credit cards for. A new car, home projects, and summer vacation take in the majority of our savings.
I can see my kids doing the same thing. When I see them holding back on smaller purchases just so they can wait and get the bigger thing that they really want, it makes me proud as a parent.
I think you are absolutely right about how saving money gives you choices. Otherwise, we’re pretty much victims of circumstance.
It often amazes me how many people forgo things like insurance because they really don’t think anything is going to happen to them. Shit happens to EVERYONE! Better to accept it and be prepared.
Stefanie,
Exactly! That is the one constant in this universe of our. Shit does and will happen to you!!
I totally agree. Ignorance is not a plan for financial freedom. Playing defense with your money can go a long ways.
Those are all great reasons!!! I personally choose to save today and not spend everything because I want to be kind to my future self. I don’t want to regret my financial decisions and end up working longer than I have to. I want my future self to have options.
Our future “selves” will thank us!
I think the biggest thing for me is peace of mind. Like you said, unexpected things happen, and you can have that send you into a panic, like it used to for me, or something you can handle. This year I had to buy a new (used) car and found out I owe 8k on taxes, all within a month of each other. Because I had saved a lot for emergencies, and had extra money for taxes, it didn’t hit me as hard.
It’s definitely a balance…you want to enjoy yourself, but you definitely need to save for the reasons you mentioned above. I know plenty of people who live pay check to paycheck, yet it seems based on their salary, they shouldn’t be. They just have different priorities with their money…they’d prefer to spend it rather than save it. And when an emergency comes up or they need money for a downpayment, they’ll say that it was impossible to save because it was impossible to save.
Maybe its just me, but I never get this concept of spending everything you make every month that people often seem to do. It just seems senseless to discount all that could go wrong.
Saving is something that are taught to us since we were kids. We are taught how important it is and that we should always spare something for our future. But the challenge here is how to save when the temptations are all around us. Enough discipline is very important and also a good prioritization of things.
Unfortunately the temptation only seems to keep getting worse and worse. Marketing campaigns and sales tactics are getting very clever about making it easier than ever for people to buy big ticket items without a second thought. Any more we have to work hard to keep our money!
I think for me saving is important so that I feel secure about my future!
Kind of off topic but I’d love to see a post on how you are planning or have started teaching your kids the importance of a dollar/saving for the future!
Security is absolutely important. The last thing you want to be in your golden years is worried about how you’re going to pay your bills. You’ve got your whole youth to take care of that problem.
Thanks for the post suggestion. I might just take you up on it – I’m always in need of good topic ideas.
I think it must be in balance. Of course we should save money for our future. But we must also enjoy life.We only live once so we must do the things that we enjoy. Life is not about saving. Life is also wanting happiness to happen. If we want to spend for something, of course it must be in a disciplined way. Never spend for unnecessary things.
Marie,
I agree with you – the only problem is that people can convince themselves they need things that are really just wants 🙂
There seems to be a reluctance to change for most people. I’m not really sure why this is so because, it’s like a lot of information is readily available. Thanks for sharing.