Gaining strategies
You may be wondering why there is so much pressure to save money. If you have enough to pay for everything you need, why worry about saving money every month? We are all exposed to have a problem at some point in an event that involves the use of a lot of money to solve it. A breakdown in your vehicle or some problem at home, an injury. If you have savings for these cases the expense won’t affect your finances and you will solve everything faster. Doesn’t that sound good? It also allows you to solve unforeseen health emergencies. Remember to fix these issues promptly can be the difference between life and death, and if you are not prepared it can lead to more problems. We created this WebQuest to help you reflect yourself about the importance of saving money, select ways of saving money, explore new strategies that would make saving a habit in order to help you reserve a portion of your income that will be used in future plans. You will have to do 3 tasks that will help you achieve your saving goals. All the tasks are accompanied with helpful links that you can use so you can finish them.
- Your relationship with money
Reflection on how you see money and what is your relationship with it. For some, money is something as valuable as health or love. Surely, they have congratulated you on the new year wishing you "health, love and fortune". For others, money can be something "dirty". It is necessary for living, but it can corrupt you if you want it in excess. There are also those who say that money is something irrelevant.
- Ways of saving money and strategies on short and long-term savings
Remember that while you are in the process of eliminating a debt you must learn to live with less, and this requires effort, discipline, responsibility and some sacrifices. The good thing is that there are many economic alternatives such as saving and/or homemade products to use at home or activities to do during the weekend that become equally fun, allowing you to save money without drowning in debt. By setting spending goals, most people discover that they can save money regularly more than they think. Set savings goals, explore and describe strategies that would be helpful for saving money efficiently.
- Interest rate and its affection on your savings
When people decide to save, the interest rate is always put in the last place. For most people, decisions about saving depend on their individual circumstances. Students for example, because of student loans have lower chances of savings, but someone in their 40s or 50s may want to save to have better pension. The interest rate doesn´t affect that much in order to change someone´s individual plan. Someone who is close to pension for example, won´t increase their spending just because the interest rate is low and it works the same for other people who have a large amount of savings who may not want to spend all their income.
- Your relationship with money
When you pay attention to your relationship with money, you can gain some important insights into yourself. Throughout a collage , poster or any other way you prefer, present the following:
Self-Concept & Fears - Are you confident about financial matters and ready to take risks or always afraid of running out of money?
Mindset - Do you always think that there is no enough money and a lot of expenses?
Past - Most of us are hurt around money when we were children e.g. if our parents didn’t have enough money to sign us into a dancing/sport club
Aspirations - Does money affect what you believe you’re capable of?
The following links will help you explore your relationship with money.
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/money-problems-and-poor-mental-wellbeing
- Ways of saving money and strategies on short and long-term savings
Saving can become a truly difficult habit to fulfill when temptations abound around us day by day. Spending money on some products we can make at home is also slowing down our saving process. Beside this, weekends could also become the worst enemy of our portfolio, since we tend to have a lot of free time and eager to try something different, out of the routine.
It is important to ask yourself a few questions: Why do you want to improve your financial situation? Why do you want to save? Answering these motivational questions will also give you a proper attitude towards money as a means of saving. Short-term savings are important when deciding a percentage of your salary for a year for holidays. However, when you decide to open a long-term savings account, you should be aware that you will not touch that until you reach your goal.
Think about some ways that would help you with your money saving and present the outcome through a short comics or other creative way.
https://www.businessinsider.com/ted-talks-that-will-make-you-smarter-about-your-money-2016-2
https://medium.com/kaizen-habits/kakeibo-how-the-japanese-art-of-budgeting-can-help-you-save-money-7f393c1f7224 - Interest rate and its affection on your savings
Even though when the interest rate increases it is encouraging people to start saving, the link between interest rates and saving is not really obvious as there are many other factors that affect the percentage of income saved. Through this task you need to think about the following questions: What are the factors that affect the saving ratio? Can unemployment be an encouraging reason to start saving? Is the type of saving bank account affecting the interest rate?
Check the following links to get some help.
https://www.thebalance.com/where-to-keep-your-savings-1289904
https://www.eulerhermes.com/en_global/economic-research/insights/how-europes-falling-interest-rates-have-driven-savings-higher.html
After complete this WebQuest, I can:
| Reflect about the importance of saving | ||
| Recognize the difference between short and long-term savings | ||
| Select ways of saving money | ||
| Analyze the role of saving in the economy | ||
| Compare risk and interest rate | ||
| Select saving products to aim different objectives | ||
| Implement strategies on daily basis regarding saving | ||
| Decide which saving products suit best | ||
| Be more confident about financial matters |
*If you answered NO to more than half of the statements, you should go through WebQuest again and acquire more knowledge and skills if you answered YES to almost all questions; congratulations on your great success!
Coffee at an expensive shop, fancy dinner every weekend, getting taxi because you were lazy to walk – it’s lost money that accumulates. How many times did you use your savings on these things?
Now as you finished this WebQuest you are able to reflect yourself about the importance of money and to start spending them smartly in order to save for future. You also learned about the difference between short and long-term savings and how to compare risk and interest rate. You became aware that everything you crave is the best motivation to save a little of what you enter, either by salary or income. It is much better to consume responsibly in the present and save fixed amounts today, than to live spending more than you earn and always be over-indebted. This WebQuest helped you realize that every saving will allow you to live in peace and give you the security and financial independence you need to meet goals. You know that the habit of saving must become a lifestyle that provides peace of mind in unfavorable seasons.