Saving Bangalore: How I Am Saving For My Holiday
When you Google “Fun stuff to do in Bangalore”, one of the results leads you to a website with this…
This beautiful building…
Yummy food…
And many other exciting sights.
Why am I searching for fun stuff to do in a random town in India, when I live in Nairobi, Kenya?
In January this year, I decided that I was going to run the Bengaluru Midnight Marathon. This is on my bucket list to run a half marathon in every continent before I turn 35. Why this particular marathon? It’s not one of the big ones, but it happens at midnight – that sounded kind of fun!
These guys seem to be having fun, right?
I set this goal in January because I knew, as a struggling farmer, I was not going to get a bonus or random income to splurge on travel, yet I need to travel. The trip is going to cost at least Kshs 100,000 for the flight, hotel and the marathon, with a little extra for pocket money. I felt this was achievable.
The plan was to save at least Kshs 12,000 in my savings account every month so that I would have my money ready by October.
That was the plan.
Six months later, the reality is very different. I only have Kshs 25,000 (in total!) set aside for my holiday. This money is not in my savings account; it is “far away” in my PayPal account. Ideally, I should have 72,000 bob in savings. I don’t, for two reasons:
- Difficulties saving for a “luxury”
Because my business is still in the hard start up phase, it has been very hard to set aside significant amounts of money for a holiday, which is perceived as a luxury (even though I don’t think of travelling as a luxury). I tried setting aside the 12,000 bob in my savings account, but when things got tough and the farm needed money, I would withdraw whatever I had saved with a promise to refund it – and I never did. This was of course made worse by the second point…
- My savings account was fairly accessible
I have a savings account that I can access free of charge once in 3 months, but if I access it more than once in 3 months, I pay a penalty of 300 bob per transaction. This is supposed to be a deterrent to randomly spending savings. I found that 300 bob is not a big enough penalty. Once, I even withdrew the money in anticipation of an expense that was coming up.
If this money was totally inaccessible, I would have found other ways to fund my mini-emergencies. This is how I have managed to save 25,000 shillings in my PayPal account – because withdrawing money from PayPal takes time and is expensive.
I am, however, still determined to visit Bangalore, so I am challenging myself to save the remaining 75,000 shillings by November without compromising my other savings goals. This means I need to set aside at least 15,000 bob every month from July to November.
Setting financial goals is probably the second most important thing you can do if you want to be great at managing your money – that is, after creating a budget. When you set financial goals, write them down. When you write down a goal it stops being a fantasy, it becomes real. When writing them down, break them into “bite size chunks”. If it’s a 10 year goal, break it down into annual and monthly goals and, if you get paid every two weeks, break it down even further. The next step is to keep reviewing those goals in light of your financial realities. Do not wait until December when you need to make new goals to review current goals. Every month, check up on your written goals to make sure you are on course.
What were your financial goals for the year? Did you write them down? How well are you doing? If you are falling behind, join me as we recalibrate with a view to meet our goals by December.
This article is the first in a series of sponsored posts for the Barclays Savings Challenge. Follow the discussion on Twitter and Facebook and share your own experience by using #AfricaSaves.
