Savings: The most difficult and yet needful culture to cultivate

The first part of this article dealt with some secrets and benefits to saving. This final installment tackles two important questions on the mind of every potential saver: “How much should I save?” and “Where Should I save?” With low incomes and economic conditions, the decision to cultivate a saving culture is as difficult as pulling one’s hair from one’s nose.

And the threats to overcoming the inertia to begin saving are: settling on the amount to start with and deciding on where to put one’s cash. Finding the answers to these two nagging questions means you are ready and set to begin your saving journey.

How Much Should You Save?

Start small – One key reason most people are unsuccessful at continuously saving is that they want to start with big amounts of money. Quite unfortunately, that is a sure way to abandon your goal of savings because it is not always that you will have big amounts of money to save.

The secret is to start small and maintain that momentum until you are ready to increase the amount of money you save. At this pace, you will not feel the sudden impact of ‘losing a part of your income.’ When you become accustomed to consistent saving of a fixed amount of money, however small, you are well on your way to essentially setting yourself up for wealth creation.

It has been said that saving 20 percent of your gross income is a safe start. This is 20 percent of your total income, and not your take-home pay. This amount might translate into around 35 percent of the paycheck and this could be too high for most people.

If this appears too high for you and is likely to make a significant impact on your budget, it is recommended you put aside about 10 to 15 percent of your gross earnings in your savings account.

Where Should You Save Your Money and what savings options can you choose from?

Making the decision to save is a good start but settling on where to save is an even more important choice to make. After the recent financial sector clean up, there are a number of financial institutions in good standing around the country where you can deposit your money.

It is important that you conduct some checks on your choice just to be doubly sure. Banks are your safest bet because of recent regulations which include insurance protection for your funds.

There are many opportunities and options for saving. However, the choice of which savings option or product to use is dependent on the goals you have for saving.

For instance, at FBNBank Ghana Limited, there are the Prestige Savings Account, Savings Account as well as the Young Super Save Account among others to choose from.

While the Prestige Savings Account has a combined feature of a savings account and a current account, the Savings Account is an account into which customers can make deposits at any particular time and withdrawn at the customer’s choosing via the FBNMobile App, over the counter or by using any of the bank’s on and offsite ATMs.

The Young Super Save Account is meant to inculcate in children, the habit of saving.

One of the rewards for saving money is interest earnings on the investment, but usually, one does not earn interest on a regular current account.

The easiest way to make your money work for you is to save in any of Ghana’s savings options. Remember that it is through saving that we create wealth and protect our future.