Retirement Savings: This Week’s Challenge

While retirement may be years away, the time to save is right now. But even if you’re saving regularly, the future is uncertain, and inflation is a guarantee: every dollar saved is a valuable leg up!

Challenge yourself to find $50, or even $100, in savings this week by identifying and cutting creatively from your budget. You may surprise yourself! For example, try to cut spending in one of these three areas:

• Strategic Entertainment: Are you scheduled to go out to dinner with friends soon? Maybe, next time, suggest your meet-up be a candle-lit potluck in the comfort of your home. And while we all deserve rest and recovery after a long week of working, challenge yourself to rewards that lean toward frugal rather than extravagant. It can be tempting to plan a much-needed weekend getaway, but if the trip requires you to go deep in credit card debt, the eventual financial stress has the chance to undo all your relaxation! Consider instead saving up over time for that well-earned trip.
• Goal your Groceries: When it comes to your own regular eating habits, ask if the convenience or comfort costs you are paying now are worth risking financial instability in your retirement. You don’t need to avoid restaurants like the plague, but you may find if you pack one home-cooked meal each day, instead of eating out, you will be making noticeable savings. And don’t forget, not all groceries are created equal; while healthy eating will help us experience a vibrant future, this diet does not necessarily require us to break the bank! Don’t trust the hype or price tag behind every product.
• When to Spend: While sale signs used to be the only temptation for shoppers, now, the situation has worsened: those sales can be accessed right from our computers and smartphones. Online shopping can be a time-saver, but it can also be misleadingly easy to spend a lot of money, very quickly. Remind yourself you deserve a relaxing retirement that will last for years, and that the item you are about to click on likely won’t have the same fulfilling longevity.

To learn more ways to prepare for retirement, visit the Syncis blog at https://www.syncis.com/blog/.