Whitehall savings goal sets example for everyone

Here are some tips to achieve your own savings goal and improve finances.

11:02 07 June 2013

Many of us probably wish that we could make claims such as the one made this week by the government concerning surpassing the Whitehall savings goal by about £2billion.

 

Regardless of your financial situation, it feels great to be able to say that you’ve met a savings goal, and it feels even better to know that you’ve surpassed such a goal. Here are a few tricks to setting your own savings goal and achieving it:

 

• Realistic goals-you know what your income is, and what your expenses are. Don’t set a savings goal based off a promotion you applied for, or another job that you would like to get. You need to set these goals within your current budgetary boundaries. If you are fortunate enough to receive that promotion or other job, you can revise your savings goal at that time. Setting an unrealistic goal may cause you to lose your willingness to save at all.

 

• “The plan”-you can’t just stop at your savings goal and call it good, especially if you have a rather aggressive goal to meet by the end of your week, month, or year. No matter what your goal is, try to break it into manageable parts or steps. Don’t forget that sometimes you might have minor emergencies to take care of such as car repairs and leave a bit of an allowance for that when you do your initial goal setting. Otherwise, revise your plan if that happens to try and reach your goal at the deadline. 

 

• Length of time-one year is a decent amount of time for a savings goal. You can devise a five or ten-year savings goal as well, but it’s much easier to manage if you break those into yearly goals, and then monthly. That way you have a manageable amount to save and you know where you stand throughout the year.