I am very passionate about money, and I don’t mean spending it. No, when it comes to that passion, I am all about trying to save as much as I can. Money has this really interesting ability to flow away from those who are irresponsible with it and flow to those who are responsible. At 17, I didn’t know very much about the concept of saving money and it ended up hurting me. Here I am 8 years later thankful that I didn’t have to learn that lesson now and that I got all of that irresponsibility and rebelliousness out of my system. Anyway, here is my top 5 things you can do to save money.

1: Have a long term game plan. We often view life on a day to day basis, but how many of us actually sit down and think about where we will be in life 5 or even 10 years down the road? It is an interesting question to think about and it is one that should always be thought about.

2: Buying stuff on the basis of want versus necessity. No, I am not saying that you shouldn’t go out and buy yourself something every now and then, but this is something that shouldn’t be done all the time. Whenever I look to buy something, I usually ask myself, “Do I really need this right now or at all?” or “Can I live without it?” Also I keep track of not only how much money I have in my bank but also what bills I have coming up to see if I can really afford to get what it is I want. This leads me into my next point.

3: Budgeting your money. I can’t even begin to count the number of times my mother would ask me,”Where did all your money go?” The worst part of it was I could only respond with “I don’t know” because I really didn’t know. I was spending with no regard for keeping track of it all. Dave Ramsey says it best when he says, “A budget is simply telling your money where to go.” It is a way of you staying on top of your finances and seeing where it is your money is going without you being broke and not knowing where all the money went to. It also teaches you to live on less than you make.

4: Free (or cheap) alternatives. A lot of times I can go around on the internet and find software that works just as well as commercial software and the best part of it all is that it is free. Perfect example of this is Photoshop and its free alternative, the GIMP. Sometimes being an early adopter in something new is not always the best option. Take for example the iPhone. Not 2 months into its release and there is a price drop, and a huge one at that. Being patient and waiting for the right time to buy most often pays off in the end.

5: Investing. I have only started to look into this about a year ago and I am happy that I am doing this. On a monthly basis, I put money into my retirement account so that it can grow and mature until I am ready to draw it out. In an age when we do not know if “Social Insecurity” will be around much longer, it has become more imperative that we take a more proactive approach to our own retirement. In other words, take this matter into your own hands because you are the only one responsible for your own financial future.

~Tony