Five ways to start saving: It's easier than you think

Saving is a bit like building a healthy lifestyle: It only works if you’re in it for the long haul. (iStock/Photobuay)

Saving is a bit like building a healthy lifestyle: It only works if you’re in it for the long haul. For most us, that kind of long-term discipline requires a plan – one we can realistically stick to.

Trying to shed pounds too fast can easily backfire: We starve ourselves only to suddenly succumb to temptation, shelve the diet and guiltily watch the needle move back on the scale.

Saving without a plan often leads to the same result, says Noel D’Souza, a certified financial planner with Money Coaches Canada in Toronto: “People get overly aggressive and they end up having to pull money out – and then they become discouraged.”

So what are the best ways to start saving and keeping at it?

Pace yourself

Whether you’re stepping on the treadmill or opening a savings account, step one is figuring out what pace is right for you. To know how much you can truly afford to squirrel away, you’ll need to track your income and expenses over several months, says D’Souza.

Besides providing an overall picture of your financial inflows and outflows, a budget will also highlight where you can trim back.

“Are you really spending your money the way you want to?” asks D’Souza. People, he says, are often shocked to find out how much they are spending on dining out and clothing.

Also, be sure to account for all your expenses. Remember to include car and home insurance costs, especially if you pay those via one-off yearly payments rather than monthly instalments. And do include all taxes and tips. Especially in provinces where the harmonized sales tax (HST) is as high as 13 or 15 per cent, neglecting to account for sales taxes means digging yourself into a financial hole, says D’Souza.

Keep it simple

With saving, as with dieting, it’s all about what comes in and what goes out. But keeping your every receipt, just like tracking every calorie, can get tedious and time-consuming after a while. Once you’ve identified your recurring expenses and fixed the bad spending habits, says D’Souza, it’s enough to keep monitoring your credit card and bank statements, many of which categorize your spending.

Set some goals

Whether it’s a beach body or a beach vacation, having a goal keep us motivated. Decide what you’re saving for and then set up different accounts for each goal, says D’Souza.

Most of us need to save for a variety of reasons – retirement, a down payment on a house, our kids’ education – so it’s useful to channel the money into separate buckets. That will help you track your progress in each category, as well as periodically reevaluating your saving priorities.

Avoid temptation

Resisting temptation is good but putting yourself in a position not to be tempted is even better. Keeping candy out of the house is a good idea if you’re known to have a sweet tooth.

Likewise, keep the share of your income that you’ve decided to save out of your chequing account. You can do so by setting up an automatic withdrawal that takes money straight from your paycheque and delivers it into your savings account, advises D’Souza.

That way, “the money is gone before you have a chance to miss it.” Adapting to what’s left over is surprisingly easy, he says.

Reward yourself

It’s OK to have a cookie once in a while, so make sure to have some fun with your savings, too. “Your life can’t be just be deprivation,” says D’Souza, who recommends setting up as least one “fun fund” where you accumulate money for things such as vacations, movie nights or a favorite hobby. After all, restrained indulgence is often the key to perseverance.