Saving Money as your New Year's Resolution

It’s 2009!!! ... and like in the past new years, people begin to think of ways on how to start the year right in order to be prosperous for the remaining days of the Year – It’s a thing called New Year’s Resolution. The sad part about it is, at the end of the year most of them remained as merely “good intentions”. However, that should not be a reason to stop planning our new year’s resolution. All we should do is to never lose our FOCUS on our plans for the duration of the year in order to make it a success.

In this time of global economic crisis, the more sensible new years resolution for me would be “Saving Money.” Below are some tips which you might find useful:

1. First thing first, Write it down
Having a mental picture of our new year’s resolution is fine but we have to concretize it by writing them down the paper and read it them to ourselves daily. If we want to achieve our goals, we should be reminded of them not only on the First Month of the Year but for the remaining days of the year

2. Pay Yourself First
Perhaps you'll notice that there's always nothing left in the end if you don't prioritize saving. You should always pay yourself first. It’s easier to immediately save a portion of your income and spend the rest freely, rather than controlling your spending all month just to have money left in the end for your savings.

3. Automate Your Saving
Make saving automatic. If you’re an employee, ask your HR department or your bank if they can automatically allot a portion of your salary to a special savings account. I have friends who do this and they attest that it helps a lot specially when you’re building an emergency fund.

4. Play it.
Sometimes, the reason why we failed to save is because, we have the mindset that saving is about making sacrifices like starving and depriving ourselves of convenience and pleasures. This kind of thinking creates a great psychological hindrance for us to continue saving money. Thus the remedy for that is to make saving fun and simple - just like in playing.... How? Just be creative about it. Perhaps you could try keeping a picky piggy bank. My cousin started doing 10-peso coins last summer and when I visited her a few days ago, her piggy bank is already half full with an estimated amount of P8,000.00 - an amount she was able to “effortlessly” save.

5. SAVE UP FOR YOUR TREASURES IN HEAVEN.
Have a plan on how you can help the poor in your own little way. At first glance, this sounds a little off-beat to my topic but may I stress the importance of opening a “Spiritual Savings Account.” If you need to prepare for better future in this world by saving money, it is a lot wiser if you plan and prepare for the eternal future…. And helping the people who have no means to pay back your good deeds is your passport to eternal happiness in the next life..