How to

Build your savings faster

By knowing yourself and your financial standing, you can take some simple actions to speed up your savings and unlock your dreams a little faster.

Know your current financial situation

If you want to build your savings faster, you’ll first need to check in on your current financial situation. Check out our guides to tracking your spending habits, building a financial plan, and determining your net worth to help you ensure that you’re making the best financial decisions for your unique situation. Once you understand your current financial position and have a sense of how much you can save, you’re ready to consider some of our tips to help you build your savings faster.

Stick to your budget

Once you establish a personal or household budget, stick to it. Things always come up and require additional funds, so make sure to plan for these kinds of incidentals in your budget. If you have a monthly allocation for unexpected expenses built into your budget, you’ll be able to keep your savings intact when those surprises come up. Bonus: if you don’t end up needing to spend your incidentals fund during a given month, you can redirect those extra funds to your savings account and save a little more!

Set up a pre-authorized plan

A fool-proof way to save on a regular basis is to set up monthly, bi-weekly, or even weekly pre-authorized payments that direct money from your chequing account to your savings or investment account. By automating the process, you’re taking some of the pressure off managing your own deposit schedule. Ultimately, you’re also building up a larger nest egg by allowing for higher interest payments on smaller amounts that are deposited sooner than if you deposited larger amounts infrequently.

Spend less than you earn

It sounds simple, but it may be the most important lesson in saving your money and it’s one that’s hard for many to apply. If you consistently spend more than you earn, you won’t be able to save money. To stay within your budget and still have some money left over to save, you should prioritize using, instead of credit, whenever possible. You should also track your spending and put extra cash flow toward debt. Make these things a priority and you’ll be well on your way to saving more in no time.