Know your
income and your expenses - It is important to know how much you earn, how
much money you spend and what exactly it is that you spend your money on. This
is essential so that you are sure that you don’t spend more than you earn.
· What are
your primary concerns? - You need to identify your main financial
concerns in order to create an effective savings plan. They could be job
security, education costs, medical bills, money which you owe or lack of
savings. Find out which issues worry you the most and then think about the
different ways in which you can tackle those concerns. If job security is a
major source of concern for example, you may need to start building emergency
savings.
·
Order
your priorities and set your goals - People have different financial priorities.
Decide what YOU want to save money for, whether it’s paying for education,
saving for a trip or wedding, paying off debt, building future savings for
retirement, or other purposes. You will then need to check how your income
matches up with your list of priorities.
·
Determine
timeframes - When considering your financial priorities, you
should also be thinking about a timetable for achieving them. How long will it
take for you to reach your goals? What are your target dates?
·
Create a
budget today - YES TODAY! You will need to save a certain
amount of money every month for each of your financial goals. How much you save
depends on how much you earn and how you can cut down on your expenses. Living
on a budget means being vigilant about your spending habits. Find out areas where
you can spend less and save more money for something else.
·
Finally, create
an automatic savings plan - After calculating how much you want to put
aside each month, you can set up an automatic savings plan. This can be done by
setting up a monthly standing order on your salary account with the funds going
directly into a savings account.
Financial experts advise that you save 10% of your
earnings and to live off of 90. Also, you must make a commitment to yourself
not to touch your savings account for any reason other than fulfilling your
established financial goals.
Don’t wait until tomorrow; create your savings plan
today.
This has been courtesy Fidelity Bank as part of The
Bankers Committee Financial Literacy Public Enlightenment Programme brought to
you by The Bankers Committee, comprising all the commercial Banks in Nigeria
and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
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