Saving Smarter; Essential Tools and Resources for Your Saving Journey
It’s Friday evening, “Finally the weekend is here after a long week!” you say to yourself in your mind, as you board a matatu headed home. The matatu isn’t full yet, and the conductor is shouting “Watu wanne Roysambu!” knowing full well that there are around 11 seats that still need to be filled.
“Bombastic side eye,” you say to yourself and remove your phone from your bag, “Let’s see what has been happening on Instagram today.” Two people enter the matatu and take their seats, one next to you, the other on the opposite seat.
You open Instagram and Sherryl, your friend from home, is the first story you come across. “Sherryl usually posts memes now and then, that should keep me busy and entertained,” you say and click on the stories.
But Sherryl has different plans today, she has decided to take her Instagram community through how she managed to save for a house makeover with?Chumz. You feel a little knot in your throat as you read the words save and Chumz.
Each passing story makes you even more uncomfortable as you click on it. It’s a whole struggle, you’re trying not to look awkward in a matatu that now actually has four seats left, but each story brings up a turmoil of emotions in you.
It brings up a turmoil of emotions in you because you haven’t been able to save or invest successfully, your?Chumz App?is in your phone with unachieved goals. “But I budget and try so hard to find extra coins to save and nothing. What could be going wrong?”
What could be going wrong is that you may not be having the right tools and resources to help you save. Contrary to what is out there, saving is more than just taking a chunk of money and placing it in your?Chumz goal. There are a lot of dynamics that go into it that make it easier for you to save. These dynamics include knowing how to budget,?budgeting effectively, and having the knowledge to help you make sound financial decisions.
In this article, we will explore a comprehensive selection of essential tools and resources that can revolutionize the way you save money. Whether you’re just starting or looking to optimize your current saving approach, these tools will provide you with the guidance, organization, and motivation you need to stay on track.
1. Online Courses
There are so many online courses on different topics that you could take on to help you save smarter. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The presence of so many online courses and your thirst for financial knowledge can make you want to go ahead and just learn all of them at once. Hold your horse curious financially.
You may need to take a step back and intentionally look at your current financial situation, and determine, what is it that is a challenge for me at the moment? Is it budgeting? Probably I’ll take a?budgeting class. Is it your personal finance management skills in general? Then take a?personal finance management class. The options are endless!
Here are a couple of different online financial courses you can check out:
2. Online webinars
By leveraging online webinars, you can access valuable information, gain motivation, and receive guidance that supports your saving efforts and helps you progress toward financial freedom.
Online webinars frequently offer practical tips and strategies in money-related topics. Presenters are often experts in their fields and may share specific techniques for cutting expenses, acquiring goods from Alibaba as an entrepreneur, maximizing your savings potential, or identifying opportunities for additional income. These insights can provide you with actionable steps to implement daily, helping you indirectly save more effectively and efficiently.
Some webinars are free, and for others, you may have to pay some amount of money to attend them. As with online courses, you may need to identify what area you are weak in financially to benefit the most from them.
3. Social Media Pages
Social media is not just where you go to get the latest gossip and memes from Sherryl, yes you. You can also curate your feed so that you get financial tips and insights. When you get to follow industry thought leaders and financial experts on their socials, you can learn from their experiences and gain a deeper understanding of financial concepts.
Here are some pages both on Twitter and Instagram you can add to your feed:
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4. Podcasts and YouTube Videos
Here’s how podcasts and YouTube videos can help you save smarter:
5. Personal Development Books
There are so many aspects, tips, and tricks that you can pick up from personal development books that may or may not be about finance that can help you save smarter.
Let’s put this into perspective and use the example of Atomic Habits by James Clear. The book is about developing habits, not anything related to money.
But, you can use the principles from the book to help you develop the habit of saving or budgeting.
A book on networking may help you land better and higher-paying jobs and opportunities. See what I mean?
At Chumz, we do hold this to be true, and as such we have an ongoing Chumz Book Series on our?Instagram?and?Twitter?pages where we share different insights on different books. Join us and share what you have learned from the same books.
6. Finance Blogs
Last but not least is finance blogs (like the Chumz Blog * wink wink*). Personal finance books offer a wealth of knowledge about various aspects of personal finance helping individuals develop a solid foundation of financial literacy and understand the principles of managing money effectively.
Once you learn how to?avoid impulse buying,?you can set aside that 400 that you were to use to put that top to your savings.
Learning financial discipline?on the other hand ensures that you direct that Ksh 400 to your savings and not go ahead and impulse buy something else.
7. A Savings App
We couldn’t of course conclude this article without including a very important aspect of saving smart, a saving app.
Using a savings app such as Chumz, (see what I’m trying to do here *wink wink*) you benefit from the convenience, automation, intentionality, and experience it provides.
With the?Chumz app, you get reminders such as the weekend reminder and a cup of coffee, that well, remind you to save the little that you have. The app also allows you to set specific saving goals and track your progress toward them. Moreover, the app has prompts such as save on spend and round down, all of which encourage you to deposit a certain amount of money in the app, based on your money transactions and spending habits.
Such features help you stay disciplined and focused on your saving goals.
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In conclusion, saving money is a vital component of financial well-being, and numerous tools and resources are available to assist you in your saving journey. By harnessing the power of technology and leveraging these resources effectively, you can optimize your savings, track your progress, and make informed financial decisions.