Save Money or Sink

Life is all about probability. Every event in our life is uncertain until it actually occurs. You must have heated “Saving for rainy days”. There is a probability that rainy days will come in our life or may not come. We have to be prepared in case it happens. If we don’t save for rainy days it will be difficult for us to survive and we may sink into debt. To avoid such situation we must prepare ourselves and save money to survive during the tough time. It’s like Do or Die situation when you are short of money. Do or Die = Save or Sink.

Since our childhood, we have been taught how and why we must save money. The concept of saving is what we get in inheritance along with the valuables. We must save for two reasons: 1) To survive during rainy days. 2) To survive when you are financially inactive.(Retirement)

Why is it important to save money?

Putting some money away regularly is the best way of saving up for expenses like a holiday, house purchase, wedding expense. It is also a good way to ensure that you have money to pay off emergencies like hospitalization, a sudden car breakdown.

Think of the time when you will retire, whether you will have enough money to survive and maintain the life style you are living. You may need to sacrifice some spending in order to be able to have comfortable retirement life. The most common way to save for retirement is pension fund. But there are other ways you can invest and save for retirement.

Here are some of the most common reasons why you must save.

Fund for rainy days

As I mentioned above, life is full of probability. There may be a day when you lose your job. In such situation, you need money to survive at least for your day to day expenses. If you don’t have saved up money you need to borrow it from somewhere. It is not a good idea to borrow as it increases the burden. Since having no option you have to borrow to survive. If you don’t have enough money to pay off you will sink in a debt.

Fund for emergency

You might need money to pay off emergency expense like urgent repair for your home or you need to replace a household item like refrigerator or washing machine.

If you don’t have an emergency fund you will have to use your credit card to meet such expense. Credit cards attract higher delay payment interest and penalties, so paying off credit card dues must be your first priority. I have a friend who is stuck up in vicious circles of credit card debt. He has a habit of paying minimum dues only. So interest amount on dues is piling up and it became a huge debt which he is not able to pay.

Fund for future spending

You might want to save them for the future goal of purchasing a new home, wedding, retirement planning, new car etc. This is big ticket items and you need huge money to accomplish these goals. Regular saving of even small amount can help you to achieve these goals. There are investment avenues like mutual funds which can be started from small amount will help to create wealth.

Conclusion

If you don’t save for uncertainty in life you don’t have a choice but to sink into debt. Saving should be your priority and not an option. There is a thumb rule of 50/30/20. Which says you should spend 50% of your income on necessities, 30% on savings, and remaining 20% on leisure. Here saving is a priority after necessity. One shouldn’t ignore savings as an essential part of the monthly budget.

Don’t sink even if you know how to swim.