Money can consider as a pretty sweet deal. Saving money at 19 is hard. Especially when you have friends who are going on weekend trips and friends who buying out new clothes regularly. Though it is so difficult to save money, it is not impossible. So, founder activity love to share the helpful guide “how to start saving money at 19”
The age of 19 is not too early to become financially stable. Because, though you are at 19, you may have big dreams. Whether it is a new iPhone, bigger goals like buying your first car, or whatever you hope. Your parents would help to achieve those dreams, but saving your own money and achieve your dreams, is the best thing you can do. Before getting into the point, let’s see the difference between Saving money and Investing.
Difference between Saving money and Investing
Do you know the difference between saving money and investing? Before you save money as a 19 years old one, you must have knowledge of them. In fact, there is a huge difference between saving and investing. They play different roles in your life.
Saving money is the process of storing cash in extremely safe accounts or securities that can be accessed or sold in a very short amount of time.
Investing money is the process of using your money, to buy assets that can generate a return over time.
Why save money?
So, you are 19 and why do you need to save? In fact, you are never too young to start saving and investing. starting to put money away now will turn into a habit as you get older. The earlier you start investing, the more money you will gather over time. Actually, saving doesn’t come naturally. If you want to be a successful saver, you should be disciplined.
Once you get into saving money, you may be able to understand how hard is to make money and save money. It might be too late by the time you find out. As a young individual, you might feel it’s unnecessary to save money because all your financial needs are taken care of. But, it will soon change. So, as you getting older it will hard to live a stable life without saving. So, here is why do you need to save money at your young age?
Learn by doing
As you are a young investor or saver, you have the benefit of learning from your success or failures. Not only that, but you can also learn from others by asking them about their financial techniques, skills, and what route they took to be successful. You have years to study the markets and refine your investing strategies. So, you can better prepare for your savings plans. You can try out different saving techniques and learn more because you have time as you are at your young age.
You have enough time
As a young individual, you have a time advantage. Starting to save at a young age will be better as you will have enough time when compared with those who start to save in their thirties or forties. Take the time advantage and make your life successful and impressive at a young age.
You will end up wasting less money
Once you commit yourself to save as early as possible you will make a habit not to spend money on unnecessary things. Likely, set up a budget and try to cut out things you don’t need. In fact, try setting monthly goals. Writing your goals will give you more control over your money as you will force yourself to reach them. The less money you waste, the more you save.
Additionally, there are a lot of advantages to saving at a young age. In fact, saving in your 19 gives you the advantage over those who wait until the last minute. You don’t need any qualifications or financial background to become an expert at managing your finances. Moreover, the key to being a successful saver is to start now and the money you save at a young age adds up quickly.
However, this is how teen can save,
Steps to start saving money
As you are now in your 19, you may new to saving money. So, as a beginner, you may have to face problems with how to start saving money. Following simple steps will help you to start saving money.
- Set up a saving account
- Separate spending money from savings
- Keep tracking your expenses
- Ask your parents
- Spend smartly
Set up a saving account
Set up a savings account is a old sight out, but it is good sign of saving money. Whether it is for each day, each week, or month set savings target and stick to them.
Separate spending money from savings
If the cash runs out from you, you might think you can spend the money that you have made in your savings account. But, don’t spend them. At least, don’t touch them.
Remember, your savings are only for the essentials and emergencies. They are not for instant expenses like food, shopping, and so on.
Keep tracking your expenses
Tracking your expenses is very important for saving money. To do this more effectively, you can keep a book to note your purchases. It will give a record of your spending. Keep your all receipts and write down all your spending, with your bills. With the help of this, you will be able to understand whether you have been spending more than you should be or not.
Further, you can enter the date of your expenses and divide your money into categories. From this book, you can understand how you spend your money and how many silly expenses you have done with your money.
Do you think writing down is an old school system? Then you can use new technology for this. Loo for apps that will give you cashback on your purchase. Fetch Rewards is one app that will helpful for you to track your expenses and set your goals.
Ask your parents
Asking from your parents will be helpful in trying to save money. You can ask them to match your weekly or monthly savings by contributing something to your account. At first, they would not satisfy bout you. But, with time, they will help out you to save money, after you showed them that you are serious about saving money.
Spend smartly
This doesn’t mean, you have to spend alone. You can share the costs with your friends, siblings, and others you can. On trips, magazines, books and the costs, you have to spend you can share with your friends.
Another fact is, try to collect more and ore gift cards and coupons as you can. they are a very effective method for spending smartly.
Tips to save money
In fact, there are many advantages in saving money at your young age. It will help you to establish a lifelong habit and a greater opportunity to earn interest. Instead of above steps, consider using following tips to to save money.
- Make a creative saving system
- Setting goals and habits
- Less spending tips
- Earn and Save more
Make a creative saving system
Instead of saving in ordinary systems, make a creative way to save. For instance,
- Get four jars:
To build up your savings, you can use the four jar system. Get four jars that have big enough opening to put coins through. - Label the jars:
After you get four jars, label them to different goals, such as “spend”, “save”, “give”, and “grow”. - Decorate your Jars:
This is to make saving money more fun, try decorating your jars with pictures that inspire you. - Use these jars to decide how to use your money:
When you get some money decide how to divide your money among the four jars. When you decide your money, keep your savings goal in your mind.
Setting goals and habits
A simple and easy tip to save is setting goals and habits. The truth to be told, one reason why people don’t reach their financial goals or aren’t able to save money is that they don’t know what they want to do with the money. Why do you want to save? To buy a laptop? for college? or whatever.
Choose a savings goal. Once you know what you want to do with your savings, you can figure out how much you should be saving each week or month.
Less spending tips
Spending less is a factor that is very hard to follow. In order to spend less, follow some special tips.
- Save before spending:
Once you receive money, whether it be a gift or your allowance, take your savings out right away and set them aside. It will ensure that you don’t spend money you intend to save. As well as another important thing is, when you save before spend, you can spend the rest as your wish. - Carry a small amount of money with you:
This will be a very useful tip when you tempted to spend money on unnecessary items or make impulsive decisions when at a store. Whenever you go somewhere, don’t carry too much cash in your wallet. As well as do you have debit or credit cards? Then try to avoid bringing them everywhere. - Spend money on the things that matter:
When you are spending money, make sure to spend your money wisely. In fact, spending money on your future is almost wisely.
Try to earn more
Actually, earning more is the best thing. Then, you can spend on what you prefer. Earning more gives many chances to save more.
- Take on odd jobs for neighbors and friends
- Sell stuff
- Save unearned money
In fact, saving money is simple. But, usually isn’t easy. Many teenagers have a problem with how to properly manage your small income and save from it. Not only the teenagers, just as people with higher incomes do not do anything for themselves because they do not have knowledge on how to manage their money. But, those who know it well do more than others with less income. So, take some effort into saving and it will be a priceless thing because you are at your young age.
Saving Schedule
Here’s how to manage the money you need to achieve the goals you want to achieve within one year. Even I, as an adult, currently using a similar cash flow template that I have created. The sheet is made by assuming the goals of the average person. You can edit this as your wish and according to your goals.
Main Schedule
Actually, this is the major part. Here are the things we plan to do during the year. The amount of money needed, and when they will be working. Here are some of the one I found to be important,
- Buying a new car
- Going a trip
- A life event
- Renovating your existing home or taking into a new one
Here’s just an example from that I did and you can make changes to it according to your wish.
Copy to your Google Drive and Edit it : click here
Estimated Cash Flow
This is also the main part. Here, you just need to calculate your cash flow. Though you are 19, you may have income ways. And that’s why you are looking to manage your money and save from it. So, in order to do that, estimate the cash flow that you expect to earn each month. But, make sure to put here a practical amount. Or not, it will be useless to count the lies that you cannot achieve.
You can see here the Cumulative Row. It is the total amount that comes in when we add the monthly income with the amount of money we currently have.
The predicted Cash Balance is the amount of money that is expected to be left over after completing the work planned for the relevant month. When planning a job, try to keep this row as positive as possible. Being this row negative means we have to borrow from somewhere.
Actual Funds
Now all you have to do is put in the actual details. This way, we have 2 bank accounts. Here are the details of the money we actually have on hand. Update these after every bank transaction. With internet banking, you can easily check your balance.
Schedules In/ Out
Here you can see, the below details of the money we owe, the bills we owe, and the expenses we owe. For instance, For Inward we can put the money in the withdrawals of PayPal, the money that is being cleared in Fiverr.
Accordingly, when you make a schedule like this, you can keep your head clear and easily reach any big goal. In fact, unnecessary and unexpected questions will not come with this schedule. Also, at the end of each year, you can make a good review of the work you have planned and the goals you have achieved and plan for the next year even better. This will be a great help to you, as you are at your young age.
related(Beware of Bad Advice: Educate Yourself
If you don’t learn to manage your money, then other people will find ways to mismanage it for you. Some of these people could have bad intentions, like unscrupulous financial planners. Others may be well-meaning, but not fully informed about your circumstances, like relatives who make blanket recommendations about the importance of owning your own house—even though the only way you could afford to buy right now would be taking on a risky adjustable-rate mortgage.)