We are a nation of consumers. If you head down the bread aisle, there are about two dozen types of bread choices, all with their own different brands and marketing. Pull back again and take note that we are a nation that has an entire aisle contributed to bread!
It seems absurd that the average American under the age of 35 has less than $6,000 to their name 1. But these numbers are sadly the truth of the matter.
Some people struggle for reasons external to themselves (health, student loans, sick parents) and it is a sad fact that this is more common than we think.
On the flip side, there are individuals out there who are simply irresponsible with their money despite being able to save more. They have dependents, a mortgage, and five-figure debt can still go out to buy a new Toyota and still be happy with that purchase knowing the avalanche of debt they have just acquired.
Saving and money management is critically important in life – you can’t expect to work until you’re 90 right? So why is it that some people don’t or won’t make the effort to save more money?
⭐ Related Reads:
- How Much Money Does Our Frugality Save? (Spoiler: $56,000+/Year)
- Eat Ugly, Save Money? Imperfect Produce Review (+ FREE COUPON)
- Everything ‘Married…With Children’ Did That Kept Them Poor
Table of Contents
1. Declining Mental Health
Mental health issues usually come with stress from different things, such as stress from work, school, and from family or personal problems. Some people are genetically predisposed to suffer from mental health discord.
Another common source of mental stress is financial problems, especially if someone has a huge amount of debts piling. Declining mental health can cause poor decision making, including poor money management.
Some people cope up with declining mental health by spending more money on things such as drinking, gambling, drugs, etc to feel better. Mental health issues can prevent someone from making sound financial decisions.
In return, this makes saving even harder even though the person can actually save a certain amount. To make it worst, a lot of people avoids dealing with finances because it stresses them out even more. It’s a very dangerous looping mindset to have.
A lot of mental health issues prevents planning ahead. Setting a goal and achieving it seems impossible for people who are experiencing battles internally with themselves. Most people will even feel helpless and ask questions such as “Why can’t I help myself?” and “Why can’t I fix my life?”
Fixing something starts with identifying the cause of the problem. One way to get out of this hole is to understand your own behavior, especially in your spending habits. Identify your bad spending behaviors, such as drinking when you’re stressed or binge eating to cope from burnout. Cut those habits and you’ll find that you can actually set aside money.
It is important to make yourself debtless first by saving money steadily. Free yourself from financial obligations by paying debts and find income sources to supplement your monthly budget. After paying your debts, and after relieving some of your mental stress, you can start saving for your future.
Having a positive mindset and believing that you can follow up with your financial plans is a step in the right direction.
⭐ Related Reads:
- 3 Signs When Being Frugal Doesn’t Work & What To Do About It
- Why Rich People Penny Pinch When They Don’t Have To?
- At What Age Does Being Broke Stop Being Cute?
2. Drop In Income
A drop in income is one of the usual reasons why there are people who cannot save anymore (or are now not more inclined to set saving aside).
A paralyzing moment in finances is when you lose one of your income streams or experiences a sudden decline in salary. You abruptly need to cut a lot of expenses, and it would be even worse if you have a family and children.
How could anyone save when there’s nothing left after paying the bills? Your finances will have a better state if you always have savings in your monthly budget. If you don’t have anything to save, then you don’t even think about saving! Getting by at the end of the month is what matters the most.
First thing you can do is to cut expenses that you don’t really need. You might want to remove your beer allowance to make way for your savings. Do you always make your way to a very fancy coffee shop? Consider making your coffee instead. Cut down on spending for things that you don’t really need.
Another thing you can do if you don’t want to cut expenses is to find another income stream that can replace your old one. You can apply for a job online to supplement your real job, or you can start a side-business somewhere. What’s important is that including savings as one of your priorities no matter what.
⭐ Related Reads:
- All You Need to Know About Becoming an Amazon Flex Driver (Starting $18 to $30/hr)
- 7+ Companies That Will Pay You To Lose Weight (Really!)
- How To Work From Home Creating a Profitable Doggy Day Care
3. Delayed Gratification
Did you know that my major in college was neuroscience? Developmental neuropsychology to be exact. That stuff was like ocean’s breeze to me, easy breezy. Years later, I started cracking into behavioral finance and the topic of ‘delay gratification’ kept popping up. One particular study – a gem in developmental research, involving marshmallows!
The Stanford marshmallow study was a groundbreaking psychological experiment completed between the late 1960s and 1970s. The experiment involved little children (age 3 to 6) of equal genders. The children were told they can eat one marshmallow now or wait and get two marshmallows later. Basically, one treat now or two treats when the experimenter returns.
All the children received marshmallows either way but the children who can delay gratification got twice the marshmallows after 15 minutes of unsupervised waiting.
The videos were adorable. A struggling club of rug rats scooting their booty trying to fight the enticing marshmallow before them. Some children consumed the marshmallow the moment the experimenter left the room, some children bounced struggled and squirmed until succumbing to the soft gooey treat, and finally, some children were able to wait the entire time to get the second marshmallow. The children who were able to delay gratification had better life outcomes.
“[the children who waited] ended up having higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, lower likelihood of obesity, better responses to stress, better social skills as reported by their parents, and generally better scores in a range of other life measures.”2.
I bet money the children who were able to delayed gratification had fuller retirement accounts too. Good job kiddos!
4. Accumulating High-Interest Debt
Having a debt is not a bad thing, as long as the debtor knows the right time to borrow and pay the money back. Debt can sometimes be good for building wealth, especially in a properly done mortgage form.
Good credit is always a must as it makes lending easier and safer for both the debtor and the creditor.
But while debt is fitting for some situations, a lot of people end up with high-interest debt. For example, credit card loans tend to snowball against you when you can’t keep up with payments – suddenly the interest rate starts to balloon. Before you know it, you owe money bigger that suddenly becomes double your original debt!
⭐ Related Reads:
- The Difference Between Reverse Budgeting vs. Traditional Budgeting
- Tips for Battling High-Interest Debt That Won’t Go Away
5. Learned Helplessness
When your situation looks bad, it is much easier to give up hope than look for another solution. Learned helplessness is a similar phenomenon where people attribute negative consequences to an internal characteristic that is perceived as stable.
For example, someone who has problems saving money associates the problem with “this is just who I am” then they will have a much more difficult time breaking the cycle. The individual who does not believe they have any control over their situation do not direct themselves towards a solution based mindset.
We used the same perception with others under the guise of fundamental bias. This is probably why personal finance mistakes (such as properly battling credit card debt) is so embarrassing. It’s easier to give up on something than to fight it.
6. Health Issues
O.K. not everything has deep-rooted psychological problems. Some people simply have bad health. Weak immune, weight, blood pressure, diabetes, allergies, etc. I have a select few among my peer group who question their own longevity beyond the age of 35.
Surprise, surprise – none of them saves! If you have consistent and bad health, why would you save or work towards an early retirement? Should you not just enjoy every day while you still have it?
I am not really sure how to respond to something like this. Admittedly, I do take my health for granted. I pride myself on having “Cockroach DNA.” I’m so proud of that term I want to copyright it, just like when Paris Hilton tried with “that’s hot.”
Cockroaches are gross but cool. They have thrived on the evolutionary periphery for 320 million years! I’m a cockroach. I grew up in the United States without any insurance for the majority of my life because my family was dirt poor. Yet I run like a well-oiled machine! I am a cockroach!
7. Higher Income Later
Higher income means you can afford to save more money later. Personally, I think it’s a total excuse and probably the worst offender on the list to have. Putting things off until later rarely works out.
Unless you are a starving graduate student who is banking on a six-figure salary after graduation, I see this mentality as a completely dangerous one. Who really knows what the future will be?
Later is always the perfect excuse and it’s starting to become my most disliked word. Referencing back to the sensitive areas of development in my previous point, I believe for many people who have problems holding onto money that it’s especially important to get into the habit of saving.
⭐ Related Reads:
- 9 Money Mistakes To Avoid For Debt-Free Living
- Don’t (Nicolas) Cage Yourself In Financially
- 4 Practical Budgets For People Bad With Money
8. No Habit Building
This one is simple, be persistent when it comes to money and saving. Some people are fastened to their pattern of spending.
It does not take long for a spending habit to solidify. Money habits develop and set during adolescence 3.
Debt is personal; admitting any fault can be difficult too. There is no real problem with overspending until the music stops. For individuals who tend to be stubborn with keeping their habits, it takes a massive shakedown to break the cycle.
9. Rich Parents
Just like the inheritance, there’s no certain way to confirm if your parents will still support you and your family in the next years.
Rich parents are subjective too. Wealth and businesses tend to come and go, there are companies who have seen centuries of operations, but it doesn’t mean that they are not vulnerable to the financial crisis.
Take the Singh brothers, they burned down $2 billion worth of empire which they inherited from parents. In the end, the Singh brothers saw their assets seized by banks because of unpaid loans. What happened to the Singh brothers is an example that having rich parents could actually be a bad thing. Because having money in their side has been the norm, they had fewer regards to money.
Although not all rich parents will raise their children entitled, it is still important to teach their children the importance of money management and savings.
If you’re waiting for your inheritance or managing the family business that your parents created, always make sure to save on a regular basis. This is also one of the ways to teach your children about saving their money and how they can have benefits for it.
10. Parental Influence
Great point contributed by fellow personal finance enthusiasts, Mrs. Groovy. Parental influence plays a huge factor in what we learn as children when it comes to money management. We tend to emulate our parents so if our parents were spendy, we tend to gravitate to spending as well. It’s what we know.
My husband and I both came from frugal households. My parents were frugal by force since the minimum wage in San Francisco doesn’t get you very much or very far.
Hubby’s parents are your traditional millionaires-next-door types who were conscious spenders and well prepared for anything.
11. Expecting Inheritance Payout
If you’re one of the lucky people all around the world who expects an inheritance in the future, there is a reason to believe that you don’t really need to save for your future.
After all, it has been guaranteed by your parents. If the amount is impressive, you might not work a day for the rest of your life once again. You believe that there is nothing wrong with taking out savings because you’re going to get a large sum of money anyway.
Believe me or not, you might want to rethink your mentality about inheritance.
First of all, you’ll deal with your parents’ death (or whoever your donor would be) before you can take the money, which could be heart-wrenching.
Second, your parents might actually spend the money themselves. You would be surprised at how much medical care cost for elderly parents. Likely your parents would prefer to enjoy the life that they haven’t been able to enjoy because of all the sacrifices they made (including saving their money!) in their youth. Even if you’re expecting to receive a large sum of money, you should also expect that there is a possibility for your parents to spend all their savings to enjoy their golden years.
Another factor is that you don’t know when you’ll going to get your inheritance, as one’s life is certain but unpredictable. There is a possibility that your parents will live longer than you all both anticipated, and to support their retirement in comfort, they will use their savings. With the health care costs and all other prices soaring, this might drain your parents’ retirement fund.
These are the reasons why you should not depend on the money from an inheritance. You don’t have the right for it. Saving your money can cushion your financial needs almost immediately, without having to wait for all the caveats of waiting for your parents to give you money. Being financially stable will take you a long way.
⭐ Related Reads:
- 7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Feel Embarrassed To Attend Community College
- How I Paid Off $20,000 In Student Loans Working Part-Time
- 15 Money Things Young Adults Overlook That Matter
12. Ignorance
I can vouch for this. My parents did not drop a pound of knowledge on me in terms of managing money. I saw they were frugal by force (being poor) and I copied their frugality. If it was not for that critical part of my life where I noted the importance of saving from my demonstrative parents, I would have spent most of my money too. A lack of financial awareness is forgiving. Financial awareness doesn’t hit everyone at the same time but a late start is better than no start at all.
13. Chanced Delusions
This part can be briefly explained by people’s irrational belief that instead of saving, they can do something else faster that will get them out ahead.
One of the most common delusions is faithfully betting on winning the lottery. A lot of people who believe that they will win the lottery will usually bet every day for years, never realizing that all the money paid on lotto tickets, when accumulated, can add up to a big sum of money.
Other forms of delusion are in the form of treating each of their lifestyle purchases as investments. Another type of delusion is when someone cannot distinguish the difference between a want and a need. Let’s say a woman wanted an expensive handbag because it’s currently on sale, she mistook it for a need and made a purchase
One tip to avoid unnecessary purchases is to wait and let those thoughts sit there for a few nights. If after some time, you still want the item, then feel free to make a purchase. If not, then you just avoided an unnecessary purchase.
14. YOLO Mentality
This was a great point by Ying, who wrote a follow-up post on this one about why millennials have a hard time-saving. Believe it or not, I fell victim to the same mentality too! From the start of college to a year after college…and I didn’t totally snap out of it until I turned 23 years old.
I even recall when I was 20 years old, I bonded over the “importance of being pretty” with a girl I shared a lab schedule with. I said “we’re only pretty right now – it’s not like we’ll be pretty when we’re 50. If I wanted that dress and I’m still a size 2, then I should be able to buy that dress guilt-free.” She nodded along in unison like I was the preacher for dumb vapid girls At the time I was foolish enough to believe it to be true. Shouldn’t I capture youth because youth is fickle and beauty will eventually fade? Why should I save if I need the money now to look my best?
Oh…boy…this is embarrassing.
Having just turned 27 years old now, I wish to turn back time and slap my 20-year-old self. Youth is something everyone gets to experience once but the rest of your life is something we’re all stuck with! That’s the right reason to save! Please kill off that YOLO mentality before it’s too late.
⭐ Related Reads:
- 4 Profound Things I Wish I Knew Before Growing Up
- Effective But Semi Illegal Ways To Pay Off Student Loans
- Top 5 Financial Mistakes I’ve Made In My Early 20s
What are some other potential reasons why someone won’t save? Do you think having health issues and questionable longevity excuses them from pursuing financial freedom?
Financial Freedom Starts With Saving:
Personal Capital: Sign up and use their net worth calculator for FREE. They are a free financial service platform that helps you analyze your portfolio, retirement, and financial health all on one simple & secure account
Imperfect Foods: We all need groceries. Try out Imperfect Foods to get $80 off ($20 off your first 4 orders.) Read my review of this revolutionary and money-saving grocery delivery service.
ThredUp: The only online recycle clothing store I currently shop and sell with. Great mission statement, company model, customer service, prices, and selection. Sign up with our invite link and you can get $10 free in ThredUP credit.
Survey Junkie: SJ is one of the few survey companies that are 100% legit, user-friendly, and great for making extra money. Earn up to $1,000 a month doing surveys online. You can make anywhere from $5-$20/day in your free time.
I think other reasons for not saving include the environment a person was raised in. That’s not to say that every spender comes from a family of spenders. But we do learn from our parents.
Do you know of Erin Lowery/Broke Millennial? She’s been on several podcasts recently and her book just came out. Her family was pretty well off yet her father took a portion of her Halloween candy as a tax for taking her out trick-or-treating.
Oh yes, environment and parental encouragement are huge factors. I should put that into the post as well.
Oh that is epically funny – I have heard of Broke Millennial (via Twitter) but I did not know that her father taxed her Halloween candy! Actually…I was thinking of doing the same thing with my children someday!! Not with candy exactly, but their allowances etc (then put the taxed amount into an investment account for them). I keep getting disapproving headshakes from people though. Here I thought I was being original and a total genius…what do you think?
ps thank you for stopping by :D!
Mrs. Groovy makes such a great point. I was just writing about this–trying to lay 100% of the blame on my spendy ways to my parents! Ha. Just kidding. That’s my personal pet peeve, blaming your behavior on others. But it is true that if you grow up in a frugal household, frugality is subconsciously imprinted on your psyche, and spendy behavior actually becomes somewhat abhorrent (as it does to my husband). I’ve had to spend much of my adult life reprogramming my baser instincts to stop myself from plopping down large, unnecessary amounts of money on crap–that is– stuff.
Thanks Laurie! Mrs. G is often very very right! Blaming others is my pet peeve too – it’s too easy. I use to do it a lot when I was a teenager but much less these days 🙂
My wife and I weren’t savers at first, but we learned how to. In my early career as a teacher, we weren’t making much money between us, AND we tended to use credit, when we had no business doing so.
I remember the experiment with the kids and the marshmellows. Pretty interesting, and entertaining video. 🙂
Your Cockroach DNA comment cracked me up. 🙂 Health issues can prevent folks from saving. When you have only so much $$ and you have to pay to take care of your health, it’s hard to put savings on the front burner.
I’ve SO witnessed Learned Helplessness. I worked with Low Socio-Economic families in the ’90’s and saw how most viewed themselves.
Great info! I’ll be looking forward to reading more of your stuff.
Hi Shin! Thank you for dropping by! I saw your article on RSF!!
Mad props to becoming savers Shin! Saving is a learning process. Virtually no one saves a large chunk of their income right off the bat. It took me and my spouse 2.5 years to get serious about attempting a 70% savings rate. It’s about getting creative with ’em hustles, learning (with help from the PF community), and mitigating risk (cockroach dna helps!).
Haha I witnessed Learned Helplessness within my own family. I might be one of the low S.E. kids you’ve worked with :p It took me a veryyyy long time to get over my mental blocks. I am going to write a series about poverty and all the ramifications that I have become self aware about over the course of 25 years on this rock.
I may not be the best person to ask since I’ve never had kids. BUT, since you asked, personally I wouldn’t tax their allowances. Some parents give allowances based on chores/work. Even in that situation though, I probably wouldn’t tax them.
Chris at Keepthifty.com has a current post on allowances. He also has a recent one about an experience with his daughter running a lemonade stand. I like what he did. After his daughter determined her profit he reminded her that he needed to be reimbursed for the lemonade supplies and that her little sister needed to get paid for helping her.
Comedian John Mulaney says it’s 100% easier to do nothing than something. I find that is true with personal finance.
There are many reports that say the average employee doesn’t change their 401k elections from the default.
So laziness and lack of caring also attributes to not saving.
Thanks for visiting BoaS!
It sounds like those Ronco “set it and forget it” motto has done more to our mentality than suggested. Just kidding! I think to a lot of people 401K is like this super weird, complicated thing. “What is rebalance? Allocation? Better not mess with it, nope.” *Closes tab*
I don’t know why people won’t save. I have a roommate who is living paycheck to paycheck – it doesn’t seem to phase him when he has to be late on a rent payment…
I don’t get it. I try to save at least 40% of my income each month. I’m at 50% for the year and need to keep it up!
Thanks for sharing FG
I know what you mean Erik, it puzzles me too. But I don’t overstep, it is personal finance after all. I rather not lose a friend 🙁
Oy! 50% is amazing! You know what the three sweetest words in the dictionary are? Collecting passive income! *dance a celebratory jig*
I think too many people are overconfident in their ability to save for retirement later in life. I know I had a roommate that reasoned he would make more later in life and could save then. I decided not to argue with him but I definitely didn’t follow his advice. I think he’s still spending away with no plan in place. Oh well to each their own.
That is an another excellent point! Hey, maybe he is right and land a huge gig later in life. I think the statistic is much of the wealth building starts when people hit 40 I still think it’s much better to start when you’re young (if you can afford to)..but to each their own.
Btw, I installed CommentLuv when I saw that you were using it! Hehe.
Wow, Lily. Lot of wisdom in this post. Our DNA definitely conspires against us–or at least a good portion of us. What percentage of children in the marshmallow study ate the marshmallow right away? I wouldn’t be surprised if the number approached 50%. The only thing that has a chance of countering our DNA is culture. We need a culture that unequivocally extols the virtue of delayed gratification, of saving, and of working hard. Sadly, our leading culture-makers have different ideas on what to extol–just spend, party, and don’t worry about the basic necessities of life, that’s the government’s job. Sigh. Any thoughts on how to fix our “culture”?
I did try to find out how many of the children from the original study did eat/did not eat the marshmallow but I do not have access to JSTOR anymore (they revoked my academia-ness essentially). Sigh, 40K a year education and I can’t access a scholarly source after I graduate. Nice set up.
I think our over indulgent culture was addressed in the Millionaire Next Door. Basically, no one wants to watch a guy pick up a penny, come back to his 140K house in his second hand car..it boring. We would have to revamp our entire culture and that is not possible without going ‘North Korea’ on everybody.
I can’t see not saving. It is ingrained in me. It gives me peace of mind. If I was living paycheck to paycheck with nothing in savings..I would definitely feel stressed. I went vegan a year ago and have really transformed spiritually and I find I need less and less to feel fulfilled. This is big for someone who loved weekly mall trips and eating out every weekend. I now enjoy home cooked meals and time outdoors really does the soul good. Best of luck!
Your savings mentality is just like mine. I use my savings as a type of self therapy to relieve anxiety as well. I do not want to be dangling on the edge of debt because of a shiny new toy. There’s better things in life to hope for 🙂
I think health is a huge issue! But beyond just the fatalist mentality of “I’m going to die young so why save?” there’s just the pure financial expense of a very serious health problem. I think it’s one thing if you have a long term health issue that can be resolved with a monthly prescription, it’s another if it’s an ongoing expense.
I think many have to spend so much money on healthcare, either for specialists with high premiums, or some doctors who don’t take insurance at all! I know many psychologists/counselors who don’t accept insurance (as opposed to psychiatrists who just prescribe medication), but they would be the ones who are teaching patients how to actually cope and live with their health issues.
I can’t imagine having to pay for that expense constantly, it would definitely make me feel defeated :/ It would also make it hard to not reward yourself because you’re dealing with more stress than the “average” person. I myself notice if I’m having a really stressful week, it’s more difficult to limit spending, so just imagining having a persistent health issue…well I really just can’t even imagine how difficult that would be!
Yup yup Jing. If I had an on going expense and I would have to constantly watch what I eat, what I do, how much I move…that’s where all of my self control is going. What amount of self control is left for me to hold onto my purse strings? I feel defeated just pretending to live through that.
Start small, start now. When we were first married, I saved $1. a week for Christmas. One bank teller laughed at me. I switched banks. It was the difference between have $25.00 each to spend on a Christmas present or $3. or $4. Those with health issues have a greater reason to save – it’s likely you will not be able to work until you are 65. We always had health bills, but when I knew I would not be working much longer, it was amazing how much money I was able to save. Thanks for liking my post, “No Oven April to October.”
Love your realness Pamela! I’ll add you to the post!
Thanks Lily for such a realist take on the matter! We can find excuses for just about anything when and where we want to. All too often people become their own barriers to reaching the financial freedom they really want. I love reading articles like this and I appreciate your perspective.
Thanks Tawnya :)!
I struggle with saving money when I don’t give every dollar a job. It’s easy for me to spend money when I don’t have a budget in place and I think that’s why a lot of people struggle – they don’t have a budget in place
I have trouble saving due to my income changing every month. I forget that I have to reaccess my income and budget, and the lazy part of me often forgets to!
Ummm…. As someone who has health issues AND a husband with health issues (that’s issues, plural, for each of us) there’s another reason people with health issues struggle to save: It’s friggin’ expensive. We spent more than $3,000 on my husband’s prescriptions last year. I now pay $600 for marketplace insurance because i’m so much more likely to have something happen that involves non-standard co-pays. I know there’s a difference between “struggle to save” and “not saving” but it’s still a bit frustrating to hear that chronically ill people don’t save rather than “have serious extra expenses.”
I’m very good at saving once I learned the secret of the rich–once you save enough–your savings will pay for your life! That’s right! Let me explain.
If you can earn 1% on a $100, that’s a $1/yr. Now if that was $10,000, that’s $10. But if that’s $10,000,000, that’s $100,000/yr–doing nothing!
So the hard part is getting your initial ‘nest egg’, but it’s actually not as hard as you think. When you’re young and have income and not many expenses–SAVE! Forgot the silly little parties and places to eat out if you want to being in Miami someday living like a celebrity–JUST SAVE IT.
This is even easier if you’re working and live at home–SAVE EVERY PENNY. Sure, you won’t have a life, but what type of life do you want? Do you want the life everyone else has, or the one everyone else wants?
Now this doesn’t mean spending for something worthwhile, but make sure it is truly worth every penny. Look at your money in terms of ‘hours of your life’ based on how much you earn. If you’re earning $12/hr is a 1hr dinner that’s going to cost $36 or 3hrs of your life worth it? Don’t you want those 3hrs instead to live life instead when you’re ‘made it’?
And when you have money, make your money work for you! Invest it in things you know about or have an innate knowledge of. Invest it in simple, no-brainer investments like index funds. Invest in conservative, income producing products to generate cash. As your savings grow, so will your earnings, compounding as it gets bigger. Think of compounding and double-dipping–making money on what you earned as well as what your money earned for you. Taking that to the next level is exponential growth which you can find in careful decisions in the stock market. A simple $10,000 investment can grow to hundreds of thousands in your lifetime if you can make this play out. And you can earn much more than 1% with good investments, upwards of 10%. And this means just $100,000 in savings gives you $10,000 a year in extra earnings–And a million in savings will give you $100,000 a year to spend–allowing you to quit your job, still pay rent, pay for your car and your life–wherever and however you want that to be.
I was lucky enough to have parents that understood living simply and saving. My father had only $500 in his pocket when he immigrated to the US, and with proper planning and careful decisions he reached the goal of becoming a millionaire. Much of what he learned my brother and I picked up, but we learned even more as we grew up.
By the time I graduated from high school I had saved up almost $100,000. How? By not spending a penny of my work income. And the financial and accounting work that I was doing at the time taught me even more about managing money.
The first car I bought was a Porsche Boxster and I wrote a check from my savings. While other people drove the best car they could and traded up at any opportunity, I had the car that I was lucky enough to have been given by my parents until I decided to give myself a slight reward. I still have the car my parents gave me too. Now, the funny thing is while I’m proud of that moment, it was actually a dumb decision in hindsight. If I would have been more patient, my money would have made enough for me to buy a new Porsche EVERY SINGLE YEAR without touching a drop of my savings! And that’s how the rich do it! They only spend the money that their savings makes them!
Today I’m on track to retire very comfortably in the next 10-20 years, and just on my own income–no inheritance or insurance payouts or anything like that from any other source. And this is even with my Porsche ‘mistake’. I made a wise decision to invest in technology stocks when I was 16 and knew that industry would blow up.
Did I miss some stuff in life my youth peers were able to do? Sure I did. Have I been able to do and continue to do things in the future my peers only dream about–you better believe it. 🙂
The world is yours if you save and are prepared for the opportunities that unfold in your life.
Interesting points! I’ve talked a little bit about the health aspect of it – Tanja Hester (Our Next Life) had an interesting post on it recently as well. I am not sure exactly what she has, but I have MS and so there’s the possibility of losing some health/function as I get older. It makes me appreciate what I have more, and not want to delay EVERYTHING until FI – but at the same point, once you really align your spending with your values, and just spend more wisely on stuff you actually care about, most of us will have *some* excess.
Love your work, It is not enough for a person to just earn an income you need to know how to save money. Saving is one of the most important thing for everyone. Money saving helps us to improve our financial stature. Keep sharing good work with us.
I am a pretty good saver, I’ve saved money plenty of times but there’s been a few times in the past where my savings had to be given to a family member, so that made me want to stop saving because I felt like, what’s the point? I’m just going to have to give it away! I would love to start saving again and I know I can, just have to change my mind set, any advice on what to do? Please help!
I was influenced a lot by my grandparents, who went through the depression. I consider myself frugal, although if there is something I really really want, like my iPad, I’ll get it. ( (Do you remember back in the day when if you wanted that super cool jacket you had to put it on layaway?) I find that big spenders tend to think I’m cheap, but there is a difference between frugal and cheap. I think it’s their way of making me feel small, and perhaps in some way justifying their spending habits. Interestingly, those are the people who always want to borrow money from me! I enjoy the money I have, the security it gives me, and the opportunities I have to help my children and grandchildren.
Thank you for sharing! The article is very informative. So many insights.
I think #14, the YOLO Mentality is huge! That along with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) on the latest iPhone or gadget has a huge impact on people who won’t save. I was glad to see this on the list!
-Andrew
The reasons are true! The list is impressive. Especially, “higher income later” is the most vital point to follow. I am going to share the post on my social media pages to see my friends and followers. Thanks and keep it up!