People think that the process of accumulating money is super tough.
When they think about some big goal like buying a house, a car, or making a renovation, they believe they could not save money for it.
“How can I save money if I spend everything covering my living expenses?” they ask. And that makes sense.
If you have never accumulated money, it seems impossible. But let me share my savings experience, thanks to which I bought 2 luxurious seaview flats with cash, and you’ll get the idea of how accumulation works.
When I started saving money, I believed that it was impossible for me to save money and buy a flat with cash. At the time, I made $300 a month. Obviously, I couldn’t save much. Saving 10% as recommended in books was nearly impossible, because after all my expenses I didn’t have any money at all.
Part 1 – First Steps and acquiring the habit
My first step was to take a $1 bill from my wallet and save it in some secure place. I always spent all the money in my wallet, so the idea was to separate savings from cash.
The second step. I decided to save $10 from each paycheck. I tried to save 10% ($30) as the books recommended but couldn’t stick to that. I lacked money at the end of the month, so I dived into my savings and borrowed money from there, eventually leaving nothing.
The third step. I continued saving $10 for the next 3 months creating a habit. And I ensured I didn’t take money out of your stash. I realized that if I dipped into my stash, I saved too much and needed to reduce my monthly savings.
Part 2 – Increasing monthly savings and losing them
The fourth step. I set the goal to have $100 in savings. I enjoyed the saving money process. But the only way to save more was to make more! Obviously, I couldn’t save much, making $300. I worked a half-time job for 6 months, so I summoned my courage and asked the boss for a raise. He increased my hourly rate by $1 🙂 Thanks to that, plus working 20 more hours, I made $450 a month. Not bad for a student in Ukraine.
The fifth step. I increased my monthly savings to $50, leaving $400 for my living expenses. I practiced the habit of saving money for a year! My motivation for saving money got even stronger.
The sixth step. I worked hard at a job and got my salary increased as well as my savings. At the time, I was able to save $100 per month.
After finishing my third year at a university, I switched from a half-time job to a full-time doubling my salary as well as my savings. Every month, $200 is added to my savings! I accumulated $1,000 in 5 months. That was unbelievable. I continued that way for next year.
In parallel to my job, I started to build my personal development business. That was where I began to spend my savings. It was not a huge mistake because I invested money into the thing that could multiply my income, but I acquired another habit – spending my savings.
Eventually, I spent all my savings moving away from my parents flat renting my own in another city. I quit my job, and I no longer have a stable source of income.
Part 3 – Restoring and losing my savings again
Thankfully, I developed a habit of accumulating money. And I was super motivated to make more thanks to my business and accumulate more.
Taking into account that I lived on my own, my expenses skyrocketed. Making $2,000 a month, I couldn’t save $200. At best, I saved $50. When I doubled my income, I still didn’t save much because I invested in my business education. To be exact, making $4,000, I saved only $100 a month.
I achieved massive growth in savings when I reached $7,000 in income. I was able to save $500-700 a month. As you have noticed, my income increased by 75%, but my savings were 5x!
Shortly, I fulfilled my goal of making $10,000 a month and was able to save $1,000 a month. Yay!
Unfortunately, I couldn’t enjoy that success for a long time. I was so driven to boost my revenue that I got involved in a wrong partnership. My partners convinced me to invest my savings into the business. My bad! But that didn’t help our business. It collapsed in 1,5 years. I was left without business and savings.
The lesson: don’t tell anybody about your savings.
Part 4 – Million Dollars in Savings
The most challenging thing is to acquire a habit. Once done, everything goes easy. So, I acquired 2 vital habits:
- Saving money
- Making money in business
- but I failed to save them.
I made a firm decision: I accumulate savings to buy a flat! Buying a flat is the only thing I will spend my savings on. No matter what happens, I will save my savings!
To make a long story short, in 6 months, I returned back $10,000/month in income, saving $1,000/month. In another 6 months, I reached $20K/month, saving $4K/month. At this pace, I accumulated money for my first flat in 2 years!
But that was not the end of the story – my income kept growing, $30K-40K-50K. Believe it or not, making $50K, I saved $20-25K a month! That was the way to Million Dollar Savings!
If I had been told in the beginning that I would have been able to save $25K a month, I would not have believed that.
This is the compound effect! You start at an extremely low pace and accelerate with every passing month. But, unfortunately, most people can not endure for a long time, hence the compound effect doesn’t work for them. People want money fast now!
Conclusion
In the beginning, it doesn’t matter how much money you save, you just need to acquire a habit!
Get ready for a couple of times when you would spend all your savings. Probably the first time you’ll buy something big that you’ve always wanted. Some people buy a car; some go on luxurious vacations.
The next time, people waste their savings trying themselves in investment, having little to no investing experience. That will cause you pain, and you’ll make a decision: “No matter what, I’ll save my savings.”
My advice is – don’t touch at least 50% of your savings. Let them sit in cash or your savings account in the bank.
Saving money is a habit, and it takes time.
Learning how not to waste your savings is another habit that takes time, too.
Saving and keeping your savings requires discipline and usually the help of a mentor who will keep you accountable.
And the most essential thing nobody speaks about is that savings will motivate you to make more money!
