Work and Wealth Watch: ‘I’m earning well but have no savings. Where do I start?’

Up next on MaltaCEOs.mt’s Work and Wealth Watch series where Money Coach Luca Caruana gives his expert responses to all your questions related to money, work and wealth. Want to see your own questions answered on MaltaCEOs.mt? Send your questions on info@moneycoachinghub.com

Dear Luca,

For the past three years I have been earning a relatively high income – almost double to what my friends earn.

To give you a bit of context, I am 29 years old and have for the past 2 years been spending everything to finish off my apartment.

The apartment was practically finished around mid-last year (though as you might imagine there is always something to spend on when you have your own place, but the big things were done). Yet, the strange thing is that although I initially thought the money I was spending on the apartment would now be available to save and start building both an emergency fund and some investments, each month no money is left.

I am actually quite ashamed saying this… everything is being spent, and there always seems to be some kind of big expense that takes away money that could be saved.

Would this be a lack of control from my side? Is there a method I am missing?

I am acutely aware of this, and it is making me feel helpless at the end of each month with the knowledge that I barely saved anything.

In comparison, my friends who earn a much lower salary than me, manage to save a decent amount.

So, the question is – what am I doing wrong?

Thanks

High Earning Struggler

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Luca Responds

Dear High Earning Struggler,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I understand what you’re going through. In fact, a similar thing happened to me around three years ago. At the time I had just paid off my car loan, which was EUR 200 per month. The plan was to put the money I used to pay for the loan into savings.

However, the mistake I did was not to allocate it immediately. I let months pass until I asked myself, how come there seems to be no difference in my savings?

The EUR 200 allocated itself across my expenditure seemingly out of its own free will. And the main reason for that was that I didn’t take action immediately.

Now, I have made it a rule to always pay myself first.

In your case you can start by dedicating a small percentage of your income to savings in the beginning of the month. Even starting with EUR 50 is significant, as it is the start of a new habit. Once you have done that regularly for three months, try adding to that amount for the following three months.

From the experience my clients and workshop participants had using that system, there were some incredible results.

Also take a look at what you’re currently spending on and ask yourself – what are the needs and the wants? That makes a huge difference. We tend to think that the wants are actually needs, but when we dig deeper we tend to get different scenarios.

I hope that helps.

Luca

The Money Coach, from the Money Coaching Hub

CEO & Founder of Monipal

Measure your Money Health in 1 Minute: https://moneycoachluca.scoreapp.com/