5 Reasons People Suck at Saving Money

1. Not Having a Plan – I’m going to tell you right now, if you don’t have a plan, you chances of success are less than 5%. Creating a plan is your first step to saving money. Your plan can be as detailed or as vague as you want, just make sure you have an idea of how you’re going to save money.

2. Procrastination – I am guilty of this one. If you made a plan, follow it. Try not to get into the habit of pushing your plan to the following week, month or even year.

3. Not Setting Goals – What prevents me from procrastination is the fact that I have certain financial goals that I want to accomplish such as paying off the house in 20 years instead of 25, retiring at 55 instead of 60 or going on an all inclusive vacation at the end of March if I save XXX amount of dollars. Setting goals gives me the motivation to follow my plan.

4. Lack of Knowledge on How to Save – If you have little idea on how to cut down costs and how to be more frugal just read a book or better yet peruse the thousands of personal finance blogs or websites for FREE located here on the net.

5. Going too Hard too Fast – I’ve seen many people go full tilt and save lots of money right at the start and think that they can trim there 25 year mortgage into 5 if they try really hard. They cut out everything that made them happy and after a few weeks they get bored and find that paying off the house in 5 years is too much work and THEY GO BACK TO THEIR REGULAR SPENDING WAYS.

The best approach is a slow and gradual one. Set small goals and cut out little things at first. When you think about saving money, think of it as a lifestyle and not a chore. If you ease yourself into it, saving money will eventually be a natural habit that won’t seem like work at all.

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Filed Under Budgeting, Frugal Living, Lifestyle, Money 

Comments

4 Responses to “5 Reasons People Suck at Saving Money”

  1. Establish Financial Goals | Financial Learn on April 3rd, 2008 1:32 pm

    [...] writing 5 Reasons People Suck at Saving Money, Marg wrote an article about establishing financial goals which is a huge reason why people [...]

  2. hank on April 7th, 2008 8:39 pm

    I think procrastination is the big one; people just forget to get it done because it’s NOT a big deal to put 20 or 30 bucks a month in an account, so it gets forgotten. Good post…

  3. Peter @ biblemoneymatters on April 12th, 2008 8:46 am

    Great post - these really are some of the reasons so many people fail at saving. Let’s post this list on our wall as a reminder!

  4. Weekend Reading: April 13, 2008 | Moolanomy on April 13th, 2008 5:01 am

    [...] Lastly, Financial Learn gives us 5 reasons people suck at saving money. [...]

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