Keys to Financial Success: Dedication & Perseverance

With all of the gloom and doom economic news lately, there are a lot of reports on how to save money, especially on the morning programs. I love watching those segments.

I was just watching this report on the Frugal Family Challenge on Good Morning America Weekend Edition. The financial planner who was helping the family that ended up saving the most said something interesting: "Saving money is more about dedication and perseverance than it is dollars and cents." I really believe that's true.

One of the financial planners we saw at the CFP Board's clinic the other week told us that financial planning and saving money isn't "rocket science," but it just takes "time, thought, and organization." I believe that's true too.

It's easy to just buy the first thing you see on the shelf at the first store you enter. It takes more time to shop around. It's a breeze to pay your bills but never think about the total you are spending. It takes thought to create a spending plan and stick to it. It's simple to walk into a store grab a few items. It takes more organization to plan a shopping list around sales and coupons.

However, if you persevere and stay dedicated to saving, you'll benefit a lot.

Here's my little secret: there are days I don't feel like making a grocery list (with sale items and coupons) or walking downstairs at night to turn off the TV, router, and cable box at the power switch or logging all of my receipts into my financial software. I can be so lazy. But I usually dig deep, suck it up, and just do it! And it pays off when I realize what we are able to do -- save for the future and do fun things now like travel, despite living in an expensive area on average salaries.

And that's my motivation: save for fun!

Sphere: Related Content