First off, those reading the title of this article may assume that the article will talk about the power of saving from a financial perspective and it will, but in a different manner from the conventional sense and the article will talk about the power of saving from non financial perspectives as well.

We all know that saving money is something we should do. It’s one of those things that people know they should do, but sometimes don’t. The reasons vary – they say there’s nothing to save after all the bills are paid, there’s too little to save so it won’t really make a difference if they do, they never got around to doing it, etc.

So when the financial emergencies come, plastic comes to the rescue, only to further dig them in a financial hole due to the interest rate of the credit cards which makes it that much more difficult for them to save. More emergencies come later in the future and the hole will get dug deeper exponentially.

People know on a certain level that saving is something they should do. The advice to do so is all around them. All the literature on saving goes something like this:

- Pay yourself first.
- Save at least 10% of your money after taxes.
- Set it and forget it (have your savings account automatically deduct a certain amount from your checking account every month)
- Budget your money to see where you can save, etc.

All very logical and valid points.

But sometimes, logic isn’t enough to sway a person. They need more than that. But before we find out what that “more” is, let’s go through the logic of saving one more time, this time though a bit deeper.

Yes, paying yourself is the FIRST thing you should do, regardless of your financial situation.

Think about it.

YOU earned the money.
YOU worked for it.
YOU worked hard for it.

Why give it to the bank, the electric company, the gas company, the credit card company, etc. first? (if you’re religious, you may choose to donate your money to your place of worship first but I’ll leave that type of context out of the article)

A part of what YOU earn should always be YOURS to keep.

Pay yourself FIRST, regardless if you can’t make it without the amount you want to save every month. It should be done BEFORE any bills are paid. If you find yourself short for the month, it will force you to either find a way to make more money, or find a way to cut expenses from your budget. Regardless of the two routes you choose to take if you find yourself short, you increase your wealth immediately just by taking that one simple action.

The usual benchmark for saving is 10% but if you can save more than that without straining your budget, go for it. If you can’t do 10%, try a number that’s comfortable for you and work your way up from there.

Regardless, save something each month, even if it’s something very little. It WILL begin to add up over time.

Having a monthly budget and seeing where your money is going every month will also help you plug any leaks you see that you can divert into your savings.

Automatically depositing your savings amount from your checking account to your saving account is another way to help you to start saving. Set it and forget it. You really won’t miss it. I guarantee it. You will adapt accordingly. You will work with what you’ve got successfully.

So there’s the gist of the logic of saving with all the literature out there on personal finance. What’s that “more” that people need to help them get off the fence?

Every person who has instilled the habit of saving will know exactly what that “more” is.

When you start saving for some time, you’ll start to feel a change come over you. When you start to see your money grow and collect interest, even if it’s only $20 in one month, something happens. You begin to see for the first time money working FOR you. Instead of paying out interest to credit card companies, interest is being paid TO YOU while you sleep.

You also get a sense of peace and well being, knowing that if there’s a small financial emergency, you can handle it without the credit cards. You feel more “free” to do things now that you have a cushion to fall back upon. The handcuffs of debt unshackle from your hands. You start to feel more confident of your capabilities. Your self control and willpower improve as they see the fruits of their labor. You get more of a long term perspective and see things in the big picture. As a result of all these positive developments, you become more capable of making even more money and opportunities to do so begin to present themselves to you more frequently, all seemingly out of the blue. But most importantly, once you start having this feeling, you will have effectively solidified the habit of saving in your life and put yourself in a great cycle that ensues in your favor.

It’s like with weightlifting. People hear that they should exercise all the time but they’re not aware of all the benefits when it comes to lifting weights. And I’m not talking about the scientific benefits. When I wrote my article on Why Every Man Should Lift Weights, notice that it didn’t include the usual reasons listed in most health literature - lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, increased lean muscle mass, improved circulation, etc. – all “hard” scientific facts. The article contained that “more”.

When you explore the “more” side, you begin to see the benefits not often talked about until one experiences them by doing – and that’s when it begins to really get people to change. Logic alone may get some people to change, but people need that extra “more”. Many people have emailed me to tell me after reading that article that they started to lift weights but more importantly instilled the habit after experiencing for themselves the “more”, rather than just the logical facts and as a result, never want to go back.

It’s the same thing with personal finance. All the literature on personal finance is “hard” numbers, logic, reasoning, graphs, interest rates, compare and contrast examples of something like how if Susie started saving and investing at age 22 compared to Bob at age 35, she would have more from retirement due to compound interest, even if she stopped saving at age 35 and even if Bob continued to contribute to his 401k or Roth IRA until retirement (assuming of course a 8% return every year across the board – which all personal finance experts seem to think is easily doable) etc., - all of which is great for the head, not so great for the heart which is a big, if not a bigger factor in decision making than the head.

This concept of “more” applies to any great habit you want to instill. So often we are only exposed to the “hard” logical reasons why we should do something, why we should instill this habit, but it’s not enough.

The logical reasons only cover the “frontal” benefits, never the tangential and “spill over” type benefits that one can only discover through personal experience or through the experience that others detail.

When we actually try to instill the great habits and see those surprisingly pleasant tangential and “spill over” type benefits that weren’t mentioned anywhere before, that helps us to instill that habit.

And what’s more, knowing what those secondary type hidden benefits (the “more”) from the get go can prove to be the catalyst one needs to engage in that habit and once experienced personally, will help solidify it.

Now aside from saving from a financial perspective, in what other areas can we also see the power of saving?

One that comes to mind is saving records of any and all kinds of positive accomplishments you’ve achieved. If you do this for the workplace, I guarantee you that you will have great ammunition for raises, promotions and even protection from layoffs. Human memory is pretty fragile. There’s so much that goes on everyday that it all becomes like a blur. Saving your positive accomplishments by putting down in detailed writing can do wonders for your career and in turn, do wonders for your savings as well.

But it’s not just about your positive accomplishments at work, but in your personal life as well. When you start building your own “positive” account, you can cash in on it any time you feel down. For some reason, people seem to really remember the negative aspects and all its details of their experiences in life, but rarely the positive. The negatives tend to stick easier than the positives. Do justice to your positive, uplifting memories of accomplishment or experiences by saving them by writing them down. Not only will they do wonders for your self confidence but they will help prove to be the well you can drink upon when times get rough for you and the rock and foundation you can rely on to pursue any future aspirations you might have.

There are many other areas where you can harness the power of saving but to conclude this article I will highlight this last one – your ideas. I’ve said it time and time again. Flashes of insight, ideas that shoot into your mind, ideas you think of while driving or showering or mowing the lawn, these are your best ideas yet. Ideas that have bubbled forth from your subconscious. Do them justice by saving them, by writing them down or recording them verbally. And not only ideas, but any snippets of information you come across while reading or engaging others in conversation that you know will be of use to you in the future.

When you get into the habit of saving and acting on your ideas and the information you save, you begin to realize the value in them which helps you trust your subconscious even more which helps you produce more ideas which you then save and act upon and the cycle then engages in your favor exponentially.

It’s the building of the reservoir that comes with saving that starts to make you feel a multitude of things – abundance, self confidence, a sense of discipline and self control; it’s the reassurance you have when you know there’s something to tap into that’s available to you anytime when you need to; it’s the tipping point where the cycle begins to exponentially increase in your favor when you begin to realize the “more” - the tangential and “spill over” type benefits not spoken about but only experienced through doing, which help you solidify the habit to the point where you never want to go back. That is indeed, the true power of saving

  
     

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