There are three basic reasons why most people fail to save and invest for their future; lack of know-how, lack of discipline, and lack of resources.

 The first one should be easy enough for you to solve, the second may be tougher, and the third might seem impossible to hurdle at the present time.  Nevertheless, if you put your mind to it, there is no reason why you can not hurdle all of them. 

Lack of Know-How

The fastest way around this problem is to read on the topic.  The internet is loaded with tons of information regarding all types of investment vehicles.  If you find the jargons difficult to understand, call a financial planner or advisor and they will be happy to help (sometimes for a fee though).

Lack of Discipline

Instilling discipline on your self is not an easy task.  When you are use to a certain type of spending habit changing it will take some time and a lot of will power.  The trick is to slowly develop that saving habit until it becomes second nature to you.  Keep in mind that INCOME less EXPENSES is not equal to savings.  Even if your income increases in the future, chances are your lifestyle will move up as well hence, depleting all the extra income.  The best approach is to pay yourself first by following the formula INCOME – SAVINGS = EXPENSES. 

If you are lucky enough to work for a company that promotes personal investing by providing their employees with a savings program through salary deduction, enroll in that program.  By simply authorizing your employer to deduct from your salary, you are instilling discipline on your self.  If your company does not have such a program, try suggesting it to the HR manager.  You can also join formal organizations or cooperatives that advocate savings.  Just make sure you choose trustworthy organizations.

Lack of Resources

Now this is a tough one! Following the formula that we stated earlier should give you some amount of savings regularly.  The real problem comes when you look for investment vehicles to invest in.  Most of these investment instruments require a certain minimum amount to start with and these amounts just might be out of your reach. Among the viable instruments available to investors, mutual funds probably have the lowest minimum requirements (P5,000 to start an account and P1,000 additional; for most  mutual funds in the Philippines).

If the P5,000 minimum is still a bit high for you there are ways to hurdle that problem.  A company sponsored savings program can be very helpful on this regard.  Some of these programs pool the resources of the employees on a mother account under the company’s name hence eliminating the initial investment requirement.  If something like this is not available to you, you can always open a joint account with friends, relatives and other people that you trust explicitly.  If you can get together with four other individuals that also want to save, you can meet the minimum requirement by putting up P1,000 each. You can actually do this every month or every so often as long as everyone agrees to it.  This is also a great solution for students who want to start saving at a very early stage; certainly something for the parents to push for.

You can probably come up with hundreds of other reasons not save. Certainly, spending is so much more fun than saving. Nevertheless, if you put your mind to it and slowly develop that saving habit there is no reason why you can not secure your financial future today even if you think you have nothing to save.