We love excitement and variety, new experiences, feelings, etc. Every time money comes into our hands, we have two options. Save and invest or spend. Saving money seems so boring while spending seems so exciting. Since we tend to move toward activities that give us pleasure and away from activities that we associate with pain, we tend to spend more than we save.
Here are seven common reasons why saving money seems so boring:
- We don’t see the end result of our savings efforts anytime soon. The future seems so far away. We don’t get instant gratification, while spending gratification is instant. If you save, it takes time for a reasonable amount of money to accumulate, enough to motivate you to keep saving. With spending, you can immediately start enjoying what you paid for the moment the money changes hands.
- Saving looks like self-denial or self-deprivation. While you save your money and comfort yourself with what you already have, your friends have fun with their new acquisitions and toys. Sometimes they make you feel uncool and greedy. When non-savers have so much fun, you start to wonder if it’s worth saving, especially when they start to look better financially than you do. The spending arena seems to be where the fun is.
- Saving does not improve your image or make you look rich. You may not see, feel or touch the money you are saving or investing. There is nothing to show for your efforts. Others may wonder what’s going on, why haven’t you traded in your car for a new model or traveled abroad for that vacation, etc. There doesn’t seem to be much going on around you while you’re saving. The grass looks greener on the other side of the fence.
- People tend to like you more when you spend freely, especially if you’re a man. You become more popular and make more friends. Cutting back can cause you to lose some friends and alienate yourself from some social circles.
- Inflation can reduce the value of your savings or a market downturn can reduce the value of your investment portfolio. This makes you feel that it is better to spend your money and see where you spent it (regardless of the fact that it will end in chaos years from now) than to try to build a secure financial future that you are not sure of. .
- When you can’t keep your hands off your savings, it gets boring having to start all over again. Sometimes you give a friend a loan who never pays back, and you start to wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to spend the money on yourself in the first place instead of saving it up and giving it away.
- Easy access to credit makes saving boring. Why deny yourself and save now when you can have fun with your money and borrow for emergencies and investments?
Cultivating a savings habit requires a large dose of personal discipline and the delayed gratification that comes with personal growth and development. Cash flow is the life blood of any business and personal finance. If you’re asset rich and cash poor, a setback or financial crisis may cause you to sell your assets at bargain prices. Having cash puts you in a position of strength and acts as a buffer in the event of a financial emergency including layoffs etc. Saving can be as boring as foods that are good for you but may not taste so good at first. If you cultivate the habit of saving, it soon becomes fun, while giving away your money for things that will soon end up in the trash becomes a painful exercise.