At this point in our careers, Boomer-ettes should be making some decent money. But are we saving enough? Is this keeping you up at night? Want to banish those fears? You can do something about it if you try!
Action is the antidote to anxiety! Taking small steps on a regular basis can lead to strong habits. I haven’t seen some of these tips anywhere else. Maybe they can help you.
10 Ways To Save More Money
- Please, for the love of God, stop spending money at Starbucks! I’m sorry, but it’s dumb. It is WAY expensive. Yes you can justify it, yes you can afford it, but it really adds up. If you spend around $5 a day at Starbucks, that’s almost $2,000 a year. Save that money instead!
- Consider a spending fast. A few years back I read about a woman who pledged not to spend any money on clothes, shoes, bags, jewelry, etc. for an entire year unless it was absolutely necessary. I love a challenge and thought I could do it too – and I did! It has led to several years of mindful spending only and I have saved a lot of money with that mindset.
- Do a Life Chart and track your spending. This Life Chart habit of mine will be the subject of a much bigger post soon, but I have been keeping a Life Chart for many years now, and one of the daily boxes is entitled, “Did you buy anything today?” I list every day whether I bought anything other than groceries or basic living supplies. When you know you have to log everything you buy, it makes you pause.
- Shop in your closet. Yeah, go in there. You have beautiful things you aren’t wearing. That’s dumb. I pledged to wear something “new” from my closet once a week for a year, and I almost did it. It was another way to build my saving “muscle.”
- Change your mindset. I don’t ever feel deprived because I am living in abundance – abundant saving!
- Don’t go to the mall. Consumerism is kind of gross – who needs all that stuff? It feels really wasteful when you already have a mini mall in your own closet.
- Buy on ebay. When you do buy, consider buying “used” on ebay. I have bought some really expensive items on ebay for a fraction of their original cost and I can’t tell if they were ever worn once. A $250 embellished Kate Spade sweater for $40? Yes, please.
- Only spend money on what is really important to you. I want more experiences, not more stuff. I love to travel most of all, so I mindfully spend money on that. (There are lots of ways to save money on that too – post coming soon!)
- Hire a financial planner and meet with her all the time. This is huge. I wanted to figure out how much I needed to save to be able to retire, and how to get there. My financial planner and I planned this out years ago and I am ON TRACK – I could retire now if I wanted to. I don’t make ANY major financial (or life) decisions or purchases without talking to her first. All professional career women need a financial planner. Period.
- Use your past successes as motivation. When it seems impossible to achieve some new goal, I look back at the difficult things I’ve accomplished in the past as motivation. If I could do that, I can do this. And so can you!
