Simple Hacks That Will Motivate You To Save More

If there is one thing Kenya definitely needs to improve on is its saving culture. Kenyans have a poor saving culture with a majority of Kenyans in debt and always working to pay the debt and take another.

Clearly, developing that saving culture is not easy. As an individual, it takes discipline, sacrifice, and focus to even start saving; you can only imagine what it would take for a whole nation to develop a saving culture.

However, there are various hacks that have helped many develop a saving culture with a little more ease. Here we look at some of these hacks that will help you to start saving and perhaps even enjoy doing it.

Set a Saving Goal.

Before you even start saving, you need to have a goal. Whether you are saving to buy a car, a piece of land, a house, a business; you need to get the goal clear because it will motivate you. This will get you to keep saving until it becomes routine.

If you just try to set a general goal to save more, you will likely fall short. Setting achievable and realistic goals makes the savings process much more likely to succeed.

For households, it is advisable to have an emergency fund goal, save at least three to six months of expenses in a cash emergency fund. Job losses and layoffs happen, as do injuries, illnesses car accidents, and home repairs.

Make Saving a Norm

Many Kenyans have made the initiative to start saving but only a few of them keep the saving habit going. Remembering to put some money aside every payday is one of the hardest parts of saving. For this generation, it can be easier since there are many ways to make your saving automatic with modern online banking and mobile banking tools.

You likely already have automatic savings built into your bank account. You just have to log in and turn it on. With this, you will rest assured that at every payday, there will be money going into your savings account.

The money going into your savings should be excluded from your expenditure planning.

Split your Direct Deposit

If you work for a large employer and get paid via direct deposit, you may have an option to split your direct deposit into multiple deposits. This way, a certain amount of your salary will be automatically saved.

You will then know which bank receives your expenditure money and which one gets your savings. If you get used to this, then you would have already developed a good saving culture.

Save cash windfalls

Work bonuses, tax refunds, and cash gifts are all money sources you regularly live without in your monthly budget. When you get a big cash infusion all at once, use that cash exclusively for savings (or debt payments, if you have any high-interest debt).

If your salary is enough to pay your bills and take you through the month, then you don’t need the extra lump sum of money you get from time to time, so save that money.

Use a savings app

Lastly, if you’ve tried all of the above and still are not motivated to save then perhaps you can let technology step in and give it a try. Take advantage of the many new saving apps showing up on your phone’s app store.

These apps allow you to save using a range of flexible rules.