10 Top Tips to Maximise Your Savings

Where To Start?

Saving is not something that most of us find easy, but a few tips can help you save a much higher percentage of your income and create a substantial nest egg. Automatic savings schemes can help discipline your financial habits, while living slightly below your means can help maintain a financial buffer. Even simple tricks like keeping a jar for spare change can deliver significant sums.

The average British worker will earn over £1 million over a working lifetime, yet most people only have a few thousand pounds in savings. Saving isn't easy when you have bills to pay, but there are ways to make it easier and ensure that more of that money ends up in your bank account.

Regular Savings

Establish regular savings habits. Look at your account to see if you have spare money in your account. If you do, put it in a savings account. Don't break into the savings account unless there is an emergency or you need the money for an investment such as house purchase.
Have a deposit account at a different bank from your current account. You can use our directory to find best banks in dubai to have an additional savings account. That makes it more difficult to transfer money, so you are less likely to dip into your savings.

Use regular savings schemes to take money automatically out of your bank account and invest it in a deposit account or in unit trusts. Most fund supermarkets have schemes set up to take from £50 a month. A regular scheme is a particularly good way to save because you'll benefit from "pound cost averaging," wherein you buy more units when the price is low, so that over the long term, you have a lower cost per unit and a higher profit.

Budget to save

Look for cheaper deals on insurance and utilities. If you get a better deal, work out the difference between your old outgoings and your new bills, and arrange to pay the equivalent sum into your deposit account or into a savings scheme every month.

Most children have a piggy bank for small change. Set yourself up a piggy bank but use it for 1- and 2-pound coins. Tip your pockets or purse out when you get home each day, and you'll soon have enough to take £50 or £100 to the bank.

Sweat the small stuff

Small cash outgoings such as a coffee on your way to work, bus or tube fares, or an extra treat with your lunch can soon add up to a sizable sum. Just try recording everything for the next week or month to see whether you could make a big boost to your savings by cutting out some of these daily disbursements.

Make a sacrifice

Look at your big outgoings for the year. Is there any one thing you could cut? It may be easy to cut a gym membership you don't use much (take up jogging instead). You might replace your car one year later than usually do. Or you might take a cheaper holiday.

Use supermarket cards

Use regular patron discounts at cafes or sandwich shops, coupons, internet voucher codes, and special offers to minimize your outgoings. When you have done that, put the amount you saved straight into your deposit account.

Save Some Money

If you're lucky enough to get a pay rise, try to live on your old salary and put the post-tax increase straight into your deposit account.

Monitoring

Monitor your deposit accounts and unit trust investments to make sure you are getting the best return on your nest egg. Take a look at the interest rate you're getting or the performance of the fund every six months and work out if you could do better elsewhere. A small difference on interest rates may not sound like much, but over 20 or 30 years, it can make hundreds of pounds' worth of difference.

Not all of these tips will work for everyone. You may find it hard simply paying the bills to start with. But learning good financial habits and having a positive attitude toward saving will pay off in the long term.