The Top 7 Reasons Saving is the Most Important Part of Adulting

June 01, 2017

I recently celebrated my 38th birthday, which I guess officially puts me in my late 30’s. As I reflect on the past couple decades, I find myself thinking about how the effect of saving money early on really made an impact on my life and helped me to “adult” better. For all those lucky kids just getting started with adulting, here are my top 7 ways that saving money from day one will help make it easier:

Saving money = more life choices
  1. “Finding yourself.” You may still not know what you want to do when you “grow up” and that’s okay. In fact, I didn’t either — my first job interview after college was to sell newspaper advertising. Your early career years are a time to explore different career options. That means you’ll make a lot of mistakes. Having savings gives you the freedom to say “no” to a job or boss you hate in order to pursue something you’ll love.
  2. Security. You may land a great job but find that sometimes things don’t work out on the employer’s end. As the last one hired, young people are often among the first to be let go. Think of your savings as the lifeline keeping you from mom and dad’s basement. Having what our CEO calls “FU money” also means the freedom to walk from a job when you need to.
  3. Travel. One of my closest friends from college took a year off to travel the world shortly after graduation. If you’d like to do something similar, now is the time to do it before you’re tied down with obligations. Having money in the bank will make that a whole lot easier.
  4. Marriage. Unless you plan to elope, weddings are expensive. And even if you do plan to elope or not marry at all, the cost of attending other people’s weddings can really add up too. Having money set aside allows you to make the most of these happy occasions.
  5. Buying a home. An Australian billionaire recently stirred up controversy by blaming millennials’ inability to buy a home on their fondness for expensive avocados and coffee. He has a point. An increasing number of young people are putting off buying a home because they don’t have enough money for the down payment and closing costs. That means continuing to pay rent and helping someone else build equity instead of yourself.
  6. Starting a business. Even the most brilliant business ideas aren’t typically profitable right away. In the meantime, you’ll still have bills to pay. That pressure for a quick buck could lead you to short-term thinking at the expense of the long term growth of your business.
  7. Financial independence. Don’t think of it as “retirement” but as getting to the point where you work (or don’t work) as you want to. The sooner and the more you start saving, the sooner that day will come. Some people have even taken this to the extreme and retired before 40!

Don’t think of saving as deprivation. Think of the money in your bank as representing freedom. The more you have in there, the more options and freedom you have to live your life the way YOU want to.