Too many people believe that they cannot start saving until they are earning a certain minimum income and that this minimum income is slightly higher than their current one. They believe they cannot save unless they earn more than they do at present. Such a belief is nonsense. Saving does not really depend on your income. It depends on what you believe your standard of living should be in relation to your present income. If you earn $100 and spend $99, you are saving, and you are much happier than you would be if you had been spending $101 and putting yourself into debt. It is amounts as small as this $2 or 2 percent of income which make the difference between saving and going into debt. Can you reduce your expenditures by 2 per cent? Of course you can! Even if your income dropped by 10 percent tomorrow you could quickly adjust to spending less money after going through a brief, uncomfortable adjustment period.

Everyone is usually willing to agree that they could live on less money, but all are unwilling to do so because of the slight discomfort it causes them. It is important to recognise that saving sometimes involves discomfort. You cannot get something for nothing, and when you save you are postponing present pleasures for future ones. Anyone can save if he wants to, but he has to make a firm decision that he is willing to follow through with it. If you are willing to make this decision, you can begin saving immediately.

There are many temptations in our society to spend money rather than to save it. The availability of installment purchases of everything from shoes to trips abroad all influence us to spend money at a faster rate than we receive it; we spend money today that we expect to earn in the future. While there is some room for installment purchasing plans, they are undoubtedly used far more than they should be. Another factor forcing high expenditure is the status symbols that can be so easily purchased. For some people, to know that they have $100 per month on retirement is not nearly so pleasing as driving up to the country club in the new car every year.

If you find it difficult to start saving now, wait until your next raise or bonus and start saving it immediately. What you never start spending you will not miss. If you decide to take in a boarder, put a percentage of his rent away every week. If you receive an additional income or lump sum from any unexpected source, save it right away; once it gets in your stream of income you will find it difficult to take it out. If you do not expect any increase in income from any source for some time, you will instead have to cut down your net expenditures. The only way to do this effectively is to take savings out of your income before you take anything else out; to take savings off the top of your income rather than saving what is left over. Decide what you want to save and bank that first. Live on what remains in your pay package. If you find it difficult to save in this way, your employer may be willing to deduct some amount from your paycheck at regular intervals and buy Bonds with it or save it in some other way for you. Whatever method you choose to save, make sure your savings go into a separate account quite distinct from whatever account you use for current expenses. In summary, take savings off the top, get your employer's help if you can and keep your savings separate from your everyday expenses. Remember that saving depends entirely upon your willingness to forego some present expenditures; it is difficult, and you must really want to do it