Saving for something ...

This is a relatively new concept for me - savings. I remember as a child, my parents encouraged me to save. We had representatives from a bank coming to school and as I kid, I brought money to 'buy' stamps that went into my account book. Guess that was how they taught us how to save as kids by making it fun. But other than that, I don't remember any lessons on financial literacy and adults just kept saying that I should save, save, save but never how.

And it's only as an adult, I am learning how to save. And it's been a painful process. But thankfully, am in a situation that I am able to put aside some money each month from my salary. I still have not figured out exactly how much I should save. I started at 10% and gave myself a goal to increase the amount to 15% of my salary at my next pay increase. And this April, I managed to increase the amount to 15%.

I have mentioned before that I set up separate bank accounts to help me organise my money better and am able to save properly. I have different funds such an as emergency fund, and ordinary savings. I also have the 'five dollar' savings and my 'gold coin' savings in my Ox Moneybox. Recently, included travel fund. I have never travelled using cash. Past practice has been to sign on my credit card for the trip and while on the trip, continue to sign on the card. Then I would pay it off slowly, while accumulating the interest.

What I have done now is identify a place that I may go at the end of the year and then work backwards to see how much I need to put aside each month. This is where it gets tricky, what if I cannot put aside enough money by the time it's time to travel? Do I postpone the trip? Should I tap on my ordinary savings?

I know I shouldn't tap on my other savings since I have put aside a separate budget for travelling. I wouldn't want to cancel or postpone the trip because I can only travel during certain time of the year due to work. Then it would make sense to consider another trip that I can afford. With the economy not fully recovered, travelling to nearby countries would make good sense.

So what I am doing now is preparing three plans for three different places I can consider travelling within the budget that I have figured out. There is a travel fair on this weekend, that could be another place to check out for great deals. Am really looking forward to travelling and it will be even better when I can afford to travel with money set aside for it.

Auspicious way to save money ...

I have been looking for an ox money bank for the longest time (okay, since this year's Chinese New Year) and I finally found one last weekend. I think they were clearing stock (probably was sold during Chinese New Year with 2009 being the year of the Ox and all) because it was cheaper than the original price. So grabbed two - one for my friend's birthday (which was in May but I had this in mind and didn't see it til now so he had to wait) and one for myself.

Why is he getting this money bank? Well he's born in the year of the Ox and I read one of the fengshui book that what will bring him wealth is an ornamental ox with money or wealth symbols on it. This one fits that perfectly! Was definitely worth the wait - three whole months!

As for one for myself. I am born in the year of the Rat and my secret companion is the Ox, and an Ox is suppose to bring me luck. So this is meant to bring me luck and hopefully wealth *grins* Yeah, pushing it a while but why not.

We have decided to put only 'gold' coins in this, 'gold' here refering to the local one dollar coins. This is another way (other than putting aside five dollar notes) of saving made fun! These days, I have to think a little bit more when I pay for anything so that I can either try and get back five dollar or one dollar change. Let's see how long it will take for me to fill up the money bank and any guess how much I can collect in one Ox? Here's to the Year of the Ox!!!

What is your purse-onality?

I recently finished reading Sheconomics by Karen Pine and SimonneGnessen - easy enough book to read and got some ideas from the book that I am going to try out. There was an interesting bit about what your purse say about you - moneywise at least. So am sharing it here for your reading pleasure ...

Does the style of your purse reflect your attitude to money?

• Is it smart and business-like?
• Funky and frivolous?
• Is it maybe a bit young for you (and reflects an immature attitude to money)?
• Or is it a designer copy because image is all-important?

It's a green patent croc-print Furla purse that I got during a sale. It's not a high end luxury or designer item, neither is it a designer copy. It's a little funky to be cause it's an unusual shade of green and the croc-print is not too 'mature' looking either. For me, it's not about spending a lot of money for a purse just because of the label, but rather buy an item of quality so that I can use it for a longer period of time, instead of keep replacing them, as I may need to for a cheaper, lower quality purse.

Are the notes crisp and stored flatly, all facing the same way? Do you have them in order, lower denominations going up to larger ones?

• Or are they just stuffed in, jumbled with receipts, tickets and old shopping lists?
• How much clutter is there?

Looking into my purse now, my notes are flatly stored and I usually use the older looking notes first. They are facing the same way and are in order, starting with the lower denominations, ending with the fifties. I used to have a lot more receipts, tickets etc. But in the last few months, I have been clearing the receipts daily when I record my daily expenses. So that helps. But I still have other stuff in there that I can still get rid off (name cards of people that I meet, discount cards etc) that makes my purse still bulky (but much better than before).

Do you have a small amount of change?

• Or is it bulging with coins - perhaps because you break into a new note every time you buy something?
• Or have you never bothered to remove those foreign coins after last year's holiday?

I used to have foreign coins in my purse but not any more these days. I have different ziplocks for the different currencies from previous holidays which I keep separately from my coins in my purse. I don't have a lot of coins because I try to use them up first so that I do not have to lug them around. And it's nicer to have more dollar notes than coins in my purse!

Does it contain just one credit card and one debit card?

• Or have you got a full set - every type of credit card and one for almost every store you've ever visited?
• Do you have to perform a juggling act with them whenever you pay for something?

Before, I used to have several credit cards. But these days, I have one credit card, one charge card (which I will choose to use over the credit card since I will have to pay the full amount at the end of each month) and a debit card. I also try and use more cash these days, where possible. And if I sign for an item (because I may get discounts), I put the cash aside immediately so that when the next month comes and I have to pay for the bill, I already have the cash and do not have to dip into that next month's budget. Seems to work well this way for me. I wasn't able to do that before because I would normally not have enough cash in the first place.

Is there emergency proof?

• Is your name and address in your purse, to increase the chances of getting it back if lost - or even in the case of a medical emergency?
• Is only essential information kept there? E.g. PIN numbers are never stored with the cards they relate to.

I made a mistake some years back when I had the PIN number in there because I needed to transfer some funds. Biggest mistake ever because on the same day, somebody helped himself to my bag as well as the money in my account. Since then, I never put my PIN number anywhere in my purse. And I have my identity card in my purse, which I have to carry around anyways so it should be safe if anyone needs to identify me based on what I have in my purse.