Like a lot of people, I found paying off debt really exciting — I couldn’t wait for payday every month so that I could sling thousands of dollars at my student loans.
But when I paid off my debt and switched my attention to savings, my motivation lagged. It was too easy to come up with other things to do with all those dollars that I should have been virtuously putting away!
From my experience reading personal finance blogs, it appears as though finding the motivation to save money rather than spend it really is pretty hard. If you’re not naturally tightfisted, it might help you to try one of these motivational techniques out.
1) Have a Goal
This one is so important that I’m tempted to just repeat it nine more times! One of the nice things about debt payoff is that there’s a clear end in sight, even if it feels far away. When you’re saving, it can feel random and endless.
Set some goals. They may be really big, like “$1 million for retirement,” or medium-sized, like “$10,000 for an emergency fund,” or small, like “$1000 for a week in Hawaii.” Knowing what you’re saving for will encourage you to get excited.
2) Mental Visualization
So, you have a goal or six! Choose one of these goals, and spend some time creating a mental image.
Say your savings goal is a down payment for a house. Sit down and spend some real time — at least half an hour — thinking about what that house would look like. How many bedrooms? What location? Is there a garden out front? Then, every morning, take a minute to go back to that mental image. You’ll get a strong urge to reach that goal!
3) The Snowball Technique
You’re probably familiar with this idea from debt payoff. Let’s say you have five savings goals, and you plan to contribute $100 a month to each. Let’s further say that one goal will be reached after you’ve saved $300.
After you’ve met that goal, don’t spend the extra $100! Instead, “snowball” it towards your next-largest goal. When you’ve reached that goal, you can direct $200 extra towards the next goal, and so forth. The reason this works as a motivating technique is that you can see yourself moving faster as you reach each new goal.
4) Physical Visualization: The Picture in Your Wallet
If mental visualization is too woo-woo for you, try something physical. This is especially good if you’re a credit-card junkie.
Print out a picture to represent your goal, and wrap it around your credit card. Before you spend, look at your savings goal and decide whether it’s really worth it to you.
5) Physical Visualization: The Thermometer on Your Fridge
Visuals motivate you to save because they constantly remind you of why you’re doing what you’re doing! You can use a variety of techniques, many of which are also good for paying off debt. For example, if your savings goal is $20,000 for a house down payment, try making a thermometer on a piece of paper and sticking it to your fridge. You’ll see it every day, and feel really motivated to color in each new level.
You can try other creative visualizations in your house. I have a jar of pennies sitting on my shelf; every time I put $100 in my savings account, I add a penny to the jar, and I’ve been enjoying watching it fill up.
6) Virtual Visualization: Online Goal Setting
If you have a Mint or a Capital One 360 account, you have access to a “goal-setting” feature. You link your savings account to a specific goal and tell the computer how much you want to have saved, and by when. Then your goal thermometer is automatically updated every day.
The great thing about this is: no cheating! If you take money out of your savings account, you can’t un-color the paper thermometer on your fridge. But the online thermometers will know exactly how much is in your account. They’ll also email you to encourage you when you meet certain benchmarks (I just got one from Cap One 360 when I got to 75% of one of my goals.)
7) Gamify Your Savings
Debt payoff was fun for me because I made it into a game: how much could I pay off every month? How fast could I do it, and how little interest could I pay?
You can turn your savings into a game in the same way. Try competing against yourself: can you make this month your best savings month ever? Can you earn an extra $100 specifically to add to your savings? How long can you go without touching your emergency fund? Can you save 10% of your income? 15%? How about 50%????
Also consider starting a challenge to motivate yourself to save a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time.
8) Read Personal Finance Blogs
Definitely one of the best money motivators for me is reading other people’s stories in real time. I cheer when they succeed and sympathize when they hit setbacks. But most of all, when they make progress, I think “I want to be like that.”
Since I started reading blogs, I’ve hit all kinds of financial goals I never would have thought to even reach for — from maxing out my Roth IRA to saving a six-month emergency fund. A lot of my motivation came from the knowledge that it was possible to do things like that, because other people were.
9) Reward Yourself
Small savings goals have their own rewards: you get to go on the vacation! But large ones, like retirement or home buying, can be marathon slogs. Set some smaller benchmarks along the way, and do something nice for yourself.
Maybe it’s a dinner out when you hit every $10,000 in the account, or maybe it’s a long walk in a favorite place — it doesn’t have to involve spending money! But it should be something that you think of as special, and you should be ready to enjoy every second of it.
10) Tell Your Friends
I don’t know about you all, but I find shame to be a pretty powerful motivator! If other people know I’m working on something, I’m way more likely to finish it.
If you’re having trouble getting going on savings, why not tell some friends or family members? Ask them to check in on you and encourage you. If it turns out they’d like to save for a goal too, maybe you can be “buddies” as you start to save. Or maybe you’ll want to compete against each other to see who can save the most in a set period of time. Whatever works for you!
Here are some other posts you might enjoy
- 30 Ways to Save Each Month
- 100 Goals to Focus on for a Successful Year
- 20 Ways to Save Money In Your 20s
- Should You Reward Yourself for Good Financial Habits?
- How to Turn Your Financial Goals Into a Game
Do you agree that it’s hard to motivate yourself to save? I’d love to hear some more techniques in the comments!
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Completely agree with the entire post!
Catherine, I love these tips. Especially the idea of visualizing. I always tell my clients that without a goal, it’s just a wish. I think your tips are fantastic. Thanks for sharing!
Hey Catherine,
Great tips, especially using online tools to set goals. “Gamifying” personal finance has helped make managing money a lot more appealing to the younger generation. I love looking the graphs and charts on Mint to see my progress and where my money’s going.
Reading success stories is the most important for me. I need encouragement and practical options, so stories (blogs) show me what is possible.
Cool tips here Catherine & welcome to YAM! (not sure how long you’ve been here as I’ve been away for a bit haha)
I’d say for me it’s really about contributing towards a vision / longer term goals / dreams etc that will help with saving more :)
I like the tips you have shared with ways to motivate people to save money. I will apply them in my life. Having a goal has helped me stay motivated on saving money. The last time, I tried to save money I failed because I didn’t have a goal to help me stay on track. I ended up blowing money left to right that I should not have blown in the first place.