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What are you saving FOR?
Or are you just saving “to save”?
I had a conversation recently with a business owner trying to get a handle on her personal finances. She felt frustrated because she knew she really ought to be saving more, but she somehow never really seemed to make headway. When I asked her what she was saving FOR, there was silence for a second before she admitted, “I never really thought about that before.”
It’s a general idea that has come up in so many of my conversations recently. We know we ought to save, but we are often saving for some vague “FUTURE”. Nothing specific. We might be thinking generally of “Retirement.” But more often it’s just a general idea of saving because, well, we ought to save.
The problem with saving without an end goal
When we try to save money with just a vague idea of what that money could someday be used for, it’s tough to stay motivated. It’s never easy to delay gratification to save for something specific like a new car or a house downpayment. But when we don’t even have a goal for the money, it’s that much harder to see the point in saying no to some impulse purchase in the present moment.
For me, before I really took the time to figure out what I wanted to accomplish with my money, I was in the habit of just saving whatever…
