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We all know that good financial management is important. It helps to prevent you from falling into debt and it ensures that you have the money you need to lead a good and healthy quality of life. But you do need to look further ahead than simply managing your money well at the moment. As time passes by, there will come a time when you stop working or when you want to retire. You may face circumstances where you suddenly need access to large sums of cash – incidents or accidents or health related situations. At times like this, it’s good to have savings behind you. But how do you go about creating a savings fund? The following tips and tricks should help!

Reduce Your Outgoings

It’s all good and well putting your disposable income into your savings account. But did you know you can contribute even more by reducing your outgoings and adding the money you save from these purchases to your savings account? There are countless ways you can reduce your spending on a day to day basis. Use price comparison sites to check alternative energy providers and insurance providers to see if you can get a better deal anywhere else.

Invest

If you’re looking at things in the long term, you may want to consider investing your money. You can see returns on it over the years and withdraw or sell your investments later down the line when you’re ready to benefit from the money they’ve made. Of course, few of us are familiar with investments, so this can feel like daunting territory to get involved in. When it comes down to it, you have two main options. First, you might want to try investing yourself. You will have to read a lot, learn a lot and use tools like the best investment apps to help you along the way. Your second option is to call in professional help. There are plenty of people who specialise in investments who would be more than happy to help for a fee.

Set Clear Goals

If you have something you want to save for in the shorter term – for example, if you want to go on a lavish holiday, you’re saving for a wedding, or have something else in mind – you need to set yourself a clear saving goal. This can help you to keep your progress on track and ensure that you have the money available in time for whatever you need it for. First, determine how much you need to save. Next, determine how long you have to save it. Then, you can figure out how much you need to save each month to hit your goal. Setting clear targets will really help you.

Consider Automated Saving

Some banks have features that actively help you to save. You can take advantage of these. Examples include rounding up on purchases, which means that whenever you make a purchase, your bank will round it up to the next pound, then put the extra money aside in an additional savings account. Others allow you to set up plans that act in a similar way to a direct debit, deducting funds from your account and placing them in a savings pot.

Hopefully, some of the steps outlined above will really help you to hit your savings goals!