How To Stay Motivated When Saving Money

Saving money is essential in achieving financial stability. And you can’t reach your long-term goals without saving. But staying motivated can be challenging, especially when so much things are there to tempt you to spend. Whether you’re saving for a big purchase, your retirement, or an emergency fund here are some ways to stay motivated when saving money.

Set clear goals

Knowing exactly what you’re saving for and how you’re going to achieve that can give you a sense of purpose and direction. Your goals should follow the SMART rules: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

So if you want to save £10,000 for some home renovations your goal might be to save £500 a month for the next 20 months. As long as this is achievable for your financial situation then this would be a SMART goal.

To be achievable you should divide your goal into smaller, manageable milestones. This way it’s easier to track and you’ll feel your progress move further.

Stay motivated by tracking your progress

Following on from the above make sure to track your progress regularly. This will help you stay on course and motivate you to continue. Seeing how much you’ve saved and ticking off each month/ weeks goal will help and will reinforce your commitment to saving.

You can use a pot or savings app to track your progress. Or you could create something visual like a tracker you colour in for each small milestone.

Set time aside each month to review your progress, see if you’re hitting your progress goals and adjust your budget if necessary.

Celebrate milestones

Saving money doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself completely. When you hit key milestones within your savings goal celebrate. This could be through something totally free like a pamper evening at home, or it could be a small treat like a trip to the cinema or a lunch out.

Stay motivated by visualising your success

Visualisation can be a powerful tool to keep your motivated. Depending on your goal imagine what your life will be like once you’ve achieved that goal. It might be owning a home, being debt-free, going on a dream holiday or having a new kitchen.

You might find it beneficial to print off photos to place around your house to remind you of your goals. Others may find a digital vision board works better, or even meditation where you visualise your goals and the benefits they’ll achieve.

Keep yourself accountable

Accountability is a powerful motivator as no one else is going to do your savings for you.

Share your goal with friends, family, your partner etc. so that they can support you and keep you on track. If you’re cutting back so you can save for a house deposit you won’t want to keep going out for meals. But if your friends and family don’t know they’ll keep inviting you out.

You might be able to find an accountability partner with a similar savings goal as you so you can check in with each other regularly. Or you may find sharing your progress in a private group or in social media helps with support and encouragement.

Stay motivated by automating

I’ve spoken about automation a lot, and I think it’s a really easy way to stay motivated. Once they’re set up you can walk away and not even think about it. This takes the effort out of saving, makes sure that you’re remaining consistent and stopping you from having to make that decision.

You can do this by setting up a direct deposit from your paycheck into a savings account. Or you can do things like rounding up your purchases, or setting automate savings for things you do. My favourite automation is that £2 is put into a pot in my Monzo account every time I mark a book as completed in my todoist app. I don’t notice a few pounds coming out every so often but seeing as I’m set to read 130 books this year it’s a good chunk of savings.

Stay motivated when saving money

It can be a challenge to remain motivated, and different things will work for different people. But make sure you set clear goals, track your progress and keep yourself accountable.

Every step you take towards saving is a step towards a more secure financial future. Keep your eye on the prize and while it might take a while you’ll achieve your goals if you set your mind to it.

How do you stay motivated when saving money?