A Financial Planner’s Best Advice About Saving Money After Age 30

Educate yourself

Allow me a quote: “In life’s journey, having the ability to predict the future gives us an unfair advantage. If we can understand the laws of cause and effect, anyone can predict the future. What we do today leads us to tomorrow’s destination.”

Remember when you first learned to drive?  It was not just about getting in the car and driving. First, you did your homework and read up on how to drive, what the road laws were and what different signs meant.  You also then booked and had to go for your learner’s permit. Only then did you get into the car for the first time.

Your financial planning and future is just like driving. You need to first get “educated” and understand the basic terms of financial planning.  If you don’t understand them, how are you going to plan them or implement them going forward?

Research online. You can find loads of stuff out there to help you understand the financial terms. Technology is amazing – there are many APPS you can download to work with. Things like just tracking your daily spending will give you a very good idea over a 3-month period what you are doing financially and where and what you are spending your money on.  You will also track how much you actually spend on “nonsense.” Think twice about buying coffee on-the-go. Leave the house with your own coffee – that’s already a few bucks saved with very little effort.

If you did this every weekday and added up the days in the month; ask yourself how much you would already have saved. We are trying to get to the point of being able to save and put away at least 6 percent of what you earn in a month to grow your savings.