How to grow your Savings

“Enrich your financial portfolio with your savings” - MC

Moving on to the next chapter of the Her Finances series – How to grow your Savings.
On my journey to Financial Independence, I learned the benefits of being disciplined in my savings. You might ask, have you always been successful? My honest response is, I have been 90% successful. The exceptions have been when I was going through transitions and had no income.
With this blog post, I want to encourage you in every phase of your saving journey. It's an achievement to get started and an even more significant achievement to power through the learning phases.
 
Benefits of growing your Savings
To motivate you more, here are some compelling reasons why we should grow our savings:

• Have a good and balanced life.
• Stress less about the small expenses.
• Be financially independent.
• Be able to make larger purchases and investments.
• Freedom to take huge steps and risks in life.

 
My saving journey - First memory & learning to save
My earliest memory of saving was when my mum opened Savings accounts for my sister and me at the age of three. I was so proud to save my money. Sadly life happened, and I wasn't able to continue my saving journey until I started my business at age 13 and started saving my profits. The seed of saving was planted and would later grow in high school. My friends and I replicated something we watched our mothers do. It was a saving system where we pulled money together to get larger sums. Each month, we pulled our money together, and one of us will take the bulk sum. We rotated until everyone got her chance to get the big sum. Continuing my saving journey, when I moved to Germany, I opened a fixed savings account where I saved fifty euros monthly. I remember having to squeeze fifty Euros. I had small beginnings to the saving discipline I have today. Today i am able to save about 25% of my income monthly.
 
My Top 5 Saving Tips
The five best practices below have helped me grow my savings over the past fifteen years.
 
Make your savings a priority
Your attitude towards saving should be to pay yourself first. Take out your savings before you start spending your money. If your savings are the last thing you take out monthly, it will never happen.
 
Take the first step
Start with whatever amount you can afford today. It is crucial to see your savings as a journey. It is not one and done; it is continuous. Increase your Savings when your income increases. Every time I get a salary raise, I increase my savings. I see more income as an opportunity to be more financially secure not spend more.
 
Be consistent
Make monthly payments to your savings account. I have had excellent results with transferring a fixed amount into my savings account on the same day of every month. The routine helps saving become second nature.
Always save, no matter what. It is very easy to stop saving when things get tough. Set rules for when it is OK to change course or take money out. I only take money out of my savings to invest in learning, pay for periodic bigger bills and the things I  saved for.
 
Set savings goals and work towards them
Plan your savings and define the goals you want to meet. Remember to set a timeline to achieve your goals. It's gratifying to reach your saving goals. When we set goals and track our progress, we increase our success rate. Suddenly something that feels like a punishment serves a purpose and becomes a little more exciting.
 
Learn, adjust and pivot
It's a journey, be ready to learn and make changes. Get to know what works best for you. Don't be discouraged when things don't go as planned. Keep learning, try new techniques and get the support you need. There are many useful resources to help you grow your savings, see some listed below.
 
Final Thoughts

• Having and growing your savings is a vital step to financial independence - make it non-negotiable.
• If you don't have savings - Start now. If you were doing well and let go recently - Get back on track.
• Every woman should have savings that she can use to meet her financial needs.
  

 
Great Resources

• How to Save Money: Daily, Monthly and Long Term
• NerdWallet’s Best Money Saving Apps
• 10 Ways to Trick Yourself Into Saving Money
• 4 Money Myths That Are Hurting Your Savings
• 8 Foolproof Ways to Grow Your Savings
• The Trick to Actually Saving Money When You Say You Will
• 8 Secrets of Genius Savers
• 3 Strategies to Start Saving More Money