I’m not the only 30-something year old whose parents still worry about them.
For me, it’s always been related to too much time and energy spent working, and perhaps, not enough for socializing and relaxing. I’ve been a hustler since my working life began around the age of fourteen, always looking for ways to work more.
On a recent drive home from work, as I unloaded my excitement for getting back on track financially (read: saving 40-50 percent of my income), my mother interrupted me to ask:
“What are you saving for, anyway?”
I was caught off guard and the conversation fell silent.
When I started this journey, my primary motivation for saving a large percent of my earnings was to successfully orchestrate a career change. Now that I had completed that goal, what was next?
I’m interested in financial independence, but I’ve realized it’s not necessarily motivated by the lure of early retirement. I do enjoy working, after all.
I have several short-term goals: max out my Roth IRA, save for a trip to Iceland, sock away enough cash to cover all of this year’s weddings, my annual car insurance bill, and a healthy amount for the holidays.
Long-term, I’d love to pay off my mortgage sooner than the twelve years I have left.
But these goals are not what motivates me to save, they’re benefits of saving.
I think some people are natural born savers. My mother pointed out that even at a young age, I was caught accumulating random collections of objects, and toting them around throughout the house on my many adventures.
She dug further by asking why I was so afraid of financial instability. My parents had never been irresponsible with money and, in all honestly, neither had I.
It’s less about fear and more about freedom. I’ve always been attracted to the security saving provides.
I hope to never choose a job based on financial compensation alone; I never want to feel dominated by an unnecessarily extravagant lifestyle. Plus, I anticipate my consistent saving will free up time for more creative endeavors in the future.
Even without a specific goal in mind, I feel more comfortable knowing that I have options. For those of us that choose to save aggressively, the reason why is less important than the act of doing it regularly.
Readers: What motivates you to save?
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