Saving, Investing and Spending Money

Being rich is an attractive thing for most of us. Nevertheless, many of us do not understand that we can be rich in whatever place or position or situation we are right now. Rich people have one defining feature: they have developed a culture of savings and investment.  How can you develop this culture?
 
The first thing to understand if you want to create a savings culture is to know that you will never possess enough funds to save and invest, that is the reality. Earning more, paying your debts, working more hours does not mean that you will have enough money to save.  If you have not developed a culture of savings and investment with what you earn now when your earnings increase you will not develop that culture. The important thing first is to have the habit of saving. Culture is defined as the way we think, behave or work as a group. In other words, we create habits by doing something consistently.  Habits then become a way of life or culture.
 
Reflect on how you use your money. You can see that we have developed a spending culture instead of a savings habit, which is why as you earn more you also spend more. Most people mislead themselves that when they earn more they will save and invest more, which usually turns out to be untrue. New products emerge every day, be it new phone models, new types of clothes. For instance, you may consider yourself possessing the latest phone but a new type of phone or an upgraded version of your phone emerges next month. Thus, it is important to develop the culture of savings and investment. The benefits of this culture include.
 
First, it is useful in eliminating the mentality of scarcity. Most of us do not save because we consider ourselves as having inadequate money to save. In turn, this places in us a mind cage in which we always think we do not possess enough money. We have left the thought of lack to be part of us and thus we see and experience lack in everything we do as Eckhart Tolle once said. Therefore, if you think that what you are earning is not sufficient for you to save, it will never be enough since your concentration is on the wrong side. Start a habit of saving and observe the changes that you will experience in your thinking. Start with the KES 1000 or 500 or whatever you have and avoid procrastinating with the kes.1,000,000 you do not possess but desire to have in future. After a while, you will discover that things are right and you did not die because you started saving. You paid rent, bought food, clothes; you traveled and paid for other things that you did before starting to save. This will be the first step and it will give you confidence and help you increase the amount you save in future.
 
If savings has been challenging to you, begin with a small amount each month and ensure you are consistent with it and then you can increase it in future. Avoid starting with large amounts that will force you to give up the next month. Secondly, savings and investment culture open the doors for you to create wealth. The constant thought of not having enough will not allow you to create wealth.  Many of us want to invest but we never put aside our money for those investments. However, the truth is that you cannot invest without having the habit of saving. When you decide to save 1000 sh. consistently, after a period, you will start thinking about investments. Developing the culture of savings means that you are preparing yourself to grasp any future investment opportunity that emerges. Once you have money accumulating somewhere, your mind will automatically search for information. For instance, you may be discussing with a colleague and then a business idea will emerge. Moreover, you will become interested in investment opportunities in newspapers. Furthermore, you may join other like-minded people and engage in bigger projects.  Once you observe what your 1000 sh. Monthly savings can achieve, you will increase the amount.
 
A savings and investment culture helps you avoid the instant gratification habit since you will begin to understand the value of your money. For example, if you save 1000 sh. and later invest about 10,000 by buying shares, you will follow the information about how the shares are performing. In turn, this means that you will not be spending your money without thinking first about the opportunity cost. Your decision to spend will be informed and you will start using money as a resource to assist you in living the life you desire. The culture of savings helps you evaluate each spending decision you make, for instance, is buying a new phone more important than doing valuable things in your life. The culture of savings benefits the future generation and us now if we sustain it because our children will think more about the way to send money. Since we do not learn the important topic of saving and investing money from schools, consider your behaviors to be the lessons for your future children.
Keys to becoming rich

• Initiate your investments early while you are still young
• Commit yourself and stick to a consistent or systematic savings and investment arrangement
• You do not need a large amount of money, what you need is to make correct choices and act on them
• Set a target of the amount you want to have, by the age of say 35, and calculate the amount of money you need to set aside each month or day
• A commitment to saving, even a few shillings each month or day will make a big difference in the long term.
• Next time you consider buying something or making a financial decision consider also your savings and investment plan.