“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can” Arthur Ashe
Self-care is increasingly becoming a social norm in Lesotho, from self-care Sundays, mental health wellness retreats, book clubs and fetch my body 2021 for the fitness enthusiasts. I believe that taking care of our personal finances is also a form of self-care, starting with building and growing our savings. With the Global Money Week (GMW) that started on Monday, 22 March 2021, under the theme of “Take care of yourself, take care of your money”, I am particularly excited to discuss the importance and benefits of saving money.
The misconception many people have is that we need a lot of money to start saving, which is not true. On several occasions, I’ve also heard people make statements such as “I do not have a lot of money to save” or “I am not sure where to save my money”. “Hopola hore ha li na motloha pele”, you too can start saving money from just M100.00 a month. What is important however is to start, be disciplined and consistent. In the table below, I discuss different ways to start saving.
It is also important for us to clearly define our savings goal using the S.M.A.R. T approach. (Please refer to our previous article ‘Get your head on the game to remind yourself of what S.M.A.R.T approach means) Saving money requires discipline, determination, and consistency, especially because we are still in a global pandemic. Although we’ve moved from the purple to the blue level, let us continue taking care of ourselves, mask up and keep saving money so we can build Leruo.
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