i am very interested to hear some of your strategies in saving money. i need to find a way to do an effective saving style because i want to discipline myself as early as now.

well i am not really an expert on this one..coz i am an impulsive buyer..but through the years i had learned my lesson well..that i had decided to think of the best way to save..so what i do is to save 10% of my monthly salary before deducting any utility bills(gross)..in this way i was able to save a little.. and it really work for me..

i also do the same strategy as sofia and it works well for me. one thing also that i've tried is having a loan with a little interest rate and deposited the whole amount into my savings account and made an automatic deduction of the monthly amortization directly from my payroll.

sfab- about the loan, why do have to get a loan in order to save? why don't you just automate a certain amount directly to your savings account from you payroll?

I know what you are thinking cassmith81, if I do that then I could have save the interest from the loan. The main purpose here is like force savings. I will obliged myself to pay the loan because it is a debt that may bring me to legal action if not paid. If I just do the direct deduction from my salary to my savings account then I can also stop it anytime when I feel like it and may not continue the full saving strategy.

To start off, I first want to let you know that I was the kind of person who would just spend, spend, spend. I didn't know how to stop. When I recently lost my job, I was forced to realize and change my ways. The best way to save money is to tell yourself you can't spend any and then set a day when you get to reward yourself for not spending. For me, I really like coffee, so I will treat myself to a coffee once a week if I've been 'good'. I'm not going to tell you it's easy, but it is definitely possible if you really want to go through with it.

My saving strategy is common but difficult to do. I often deprive myself of the things that I want because I find it unnecessary to buy or something. I also hide a few dollar bill in books and secret pockets of my pouch so as when time comes when I need some emergency money I know I can count on the hidden savings.

cassmith81 wrote:
i am very interested to hear some of your strategies in saving money. i need to find a way to do an effective saving style because i want to discipline myself as early as now.

i just do the normal saving. i have a bank account and deposit it regularly. if ever i have some extra income, i directly deposit it to my account so as not to be tempted from spending it.

sfab wrote:
I know what you are thinking cassmith81, if I do that then I could have save the interest from the loan. The main purpose here is like force savings. I will obliged myself to pay the loan because it is a debt that may bring me to legal action if not paid. If I just do the direct deduction from my salary to my savings account then I can also stop it anytime when I feel like it and may not continue the full saving strategy.

sfab, I think you're not making sense. You're not saving anything when you pay the loan because the money you used to pay the loan comes from the loan itself. You may pay it through payroll but u could have just paid it through the loan money itself. Furthermore, what's going to stop you from spending all the loan money (except the monthly amortisation) as soon as you got it?

Kuroky wrote:
sfab wrote:
I know what you are thinking cassmith81, if I do that then I could have save the interest from the loan. The main purpose here is like force savings. I will obliged myself to pay the loan because it is a debt that may bring me to legal action if not paid. If I just do the direct deduction from my salary to my savings account then I can also stop it anytime when I feel like it and may not continue the full saving strategy.

sfab, I think you're not making sense. You're not saving anything when you pay the loan because the money you used to pay the loan comes from the loan itself. You may pay it through payroll but u could have just paid it through the loan money itself. Furthermore, what's going to stop you from spending all the loan money (except the monthly amortisation) as soon as you got it?

Both of you have the point. As I've understood from sfab is that when he got the loan he would immediately deposit it to maybe a time deposit account in order to earn higher interest (just an assumption), so it would be a force savings as he stated. Then he is paying the monthly amortization from his salary, which should be done to avoid any legal dispute against the loan.