We list 7 ways in which your savings fund can grow over the years.
Saving money is a good financial habit to inculcate – but not everybody is cut out for it! It takes commitment to save money regularly, especially in the face of rising expenses. Yet, you can save money for a bright future, and also increase the size of your savings with these 7 hacks:
1 Keep adding to your savings. The key to creating a large savings fund lies in supplementing it. The best way to do this is to pay yourself first the moment you get your monthly income – set aside the savings first, and then allocate the rest of the income to household and personal expenses. Also make it a point to divert additional income from increments, promotions, gifts and investment returns to the savings fund.
2 Monetize an owned asset. Let out your extra office space. If you have a couple of extra chairs and desk space that you don’t need, you can rent it out for a monthly sum. Many shared communal spaces in the country function on this model. Or if you have an extra room at home, you can add a bed, provide power points and access to the bathroom, and advertise it on platforms like Airborne for tourists to hire. It provides steady income that you can divert to your savings fund.
3 Make money online in your spare time. You might have a talent as a writer or musician, or you might be proficient in yoga. Whatever your talent, you can be sure that there is somebody in the world who wishes to learn it. You can give online lessons for a certain fee per lesson to supplement your savings.
4 Create a fixed deposit account. One of the easiest ways to grow the size of your savings fund is to open a fixed deposit account. The FD account can be opened online, and it offers a fixed rate of interest for the deposit all throughout its tenure. So if you deposit your savings in the FD account, you can gain good capital appreciation on it at maturity.
5 Set a monthly spending limit. An easy way to save money is to spend less. Set a monthly spending limit on your personal expenses. You may allot about 70% of your income to household expenses, travel and food costs, general entertainment, bill payments, etc. Do not exceed this limit, and deposit the remainder in your savings fund.
6 Sell what you don’t need. All of us have old newspapers, books, clothes, kitchen utensils, games and even personal computers that can be sold. Organised a yard sale, and sell off all these things. Put your earnings in your savings fund.
7 Deposit the money in your bank. A key takeaway from the demonetization exercise initiated by the Government in November 2016 is that it no longer pays to save money at home! In any case, money saved in the bank earns interest, while money saved in cash at home does not.
