How to Increase your Savings
Investing is done to help longer-term saving projects increase in value rather than just leaving the funds in a basic savings account (Learn the relationship between risk and value increase here). When saving for something it has be decided how those savings will be handled. In the case of longer-term savings, the only way to get a higher return is to invest some of the funds.
Most things that are being saved for fall into categories depending on how long it might take you to save for the item or event. The reason to categorize the savings is to figure out what to do with the savings. The period between when you start saving and when you will need the money is an important consideration here, so is the amount that you're saving for. If you're saving $500 for a new TV for Christmas, it might not make sense to put these savings into an investment, because they might be locked in for years, hence you will not reach your goal to have the funds available by Christmas. Also, $500 might not be substantial enough a sum to actually start an investment.
The longer your savings will take the more likely there will be an element of investing involved. The reason investing may be involved is because simple savings in a bank don't grow that well or that fast.
The longer the time, the more reason to do some investing. Don't invest the whole amount. Don't invest in something risky. If the funds increase in value really well then take some of the profit out and put it in something safer so it will be available when the time comes.
Long-term Savings - where Investing might help
- your child's college education or even several children's education - average colleges will cost many thousands per year and over a four to five-year period the cost could amount to tens of thousands
- weddings - while some wedding can be very inexpensive, many people want a full wedding and they can cost tens of thousands
- average homes in most areas equate to a couple of hundred thousand and even a modest condominium can cost around a hundred thousand - that means a down-payment that would amount to tens of thousands and even over a hundred thousand
Using our YBP calculators will help figure out a combination of how much you can afford to save per month and how long it will take to save for such large targets. Investing some of the funds will likely help reach the goal sooner.
Savings/Investments over Time
Savings Goal |
What to do with your money? |
| less than 5 years | Cash only savings in a bank account as there likely won't be enough time to safely invest. |
| 5-10 years | Include some investments but with only a portion of the funds. Some safe types of investments will include GIC or bond-based investments. |
| more than 10 years | Include some safe type ETFs as the market is likely to have some good up markets over that duration of time. The important thing to do though is to sell and take some profit from any investments that make spectacular profits because logic and experience tells us that they will go down again. You want the savings to stay safe so they can be used when the time comes to spend the money. That doesn't mean sell all of the stock, just some of it to get some profit. |
In the case of retirement, the timeline could be much longer. In this case, the only decent way to increase your savings is through investing. Read here about several ways to invest for retirement.
Emergency Savings, Home Savings, and Further Education are all medium-term goals and may or may not involve Investing. +++See How to Save for Emergency Savings, Home Savings, Further Education+++