One way to stay motivated is to focus on saving a little bit of money every day. If you can reach these daily goals on most days, you will eventually have a significant savings.
How much should you try to save?
This depends on your income. Is a dollar per day doable? What about $2? $5? Remember, you will want to be realistic, so you probably should not go any higher than $5, even if your income level allows for more savings.
Can this really enhance my life?
If you saved $1 per day, every day, for one year, you would have $365. This could buy you an airplane ticket to somewhere warm, a bicycle or pair of skis, two months of car payments on a new car, or a new living room furniture set.
Let’s look at the other end of the spectrum. If you save $5 per day, that would add up to $1,825 by the end of the year. That could pay for a nice week-long tropical vacation, a significant contribution to your savings account, the down payment on a new car, or two months worth of rent or mortgage payments.
You don’t have to wait that long to enjoy your savings
Maybe you do not want to think about saving for a whole year. $1 per day will give you $30 -$31 at the end of each month. That is enough for a meal out at a decent restaurant, a night at the movies with your significant other, or a bottle of high quality wine.
If you saved $5 per day, you would have $150 in a month. That would be enough for a car payment, a shopping trip, an entire day at a spa, or weekend stay at a hotel.
Be flexible with your goals
Perhaps you could keep your motivation up by deciding on a new savings goal each month. For example, you could try to save $5 per day for the month of November so that you can purchase holiday gifts. Or perhaps you would save $1 per day for a month so that you could go have a restaurant meal and see a movie that you are looking forward to seeing the following month. The amount of the savings and the reason for saving do not have to be the same each month. As long as this money helps you do things that you want to do, you will stay motivated to save.
How to protect your savings
One of the biggest problems with any savings effort is that you will sometimes be confronted with unexpected expenses. You might be tempted to use your savings to pay for these repairs, emergencies or extra bills. There is another option, however. You can get an online personal loan. Since these loans have a rapid application and acceptance process, you can often have the money in your bank in a day or less. Rather than touching the money that you have already saved, you can use future savings to pay for the loan. When you are done, you can go back to your regular savings plan.