Why “Save Money” is the most important advice for your 20’s

I recently came to an important realisation that I want to pass on. It’s linked to the old saying that you’ve probably heard before:

“When you’re young, you have time and energy, but no money. When you’re middle-aged, you have money and energy, but no time. And when you’re elderly and finally have time and money, you no longer have any energy.”

Despite what I sometimes think in my own head, I still consider myself firmly in the first category of ‘young’ (!) and I definitely agree that money is the main barrier to most things that we desire to do in our youth.

Quite a lot of people my age (25) are still commitment-free and conscious of how much freedom and flexibility they have at this stage of their lives. But we’re also an impatient generation, who aren’t convinced that waiting decades is the best recipe to the long-awaited treasure troves promised in the proverb above.

ln light of all this, my key realisation was: I owe so much to my grandparents for harping on at me when I was younger about the importance of saving and because of this, I am able to quit my job and start an exciting new one (I owe money for a course which will now leave me with no income for a month).

I can only praise my grandpa for his years of experience and wisdom (god if he reads this haha), and be grateful that he passed on this advice.

Back when I left school and set up my own business, lots of grown-ups around me warned me about the importance of saving early for things like retirement, and why I should open up a pension pot etc. But now I realise that the real wisdom was not solely in saving for my retirement at all (which is in like a million year’s time!), but in saving money to give me the opportunity to do things now, whilst I’m still in my “youth”.

During the past couple of years’ since I have taken my saving very seriously I have managed to put enough money aside for holidays, for the house buy/move, to be able to buy things and do things to the house at the drop of a hat and to now, be in a position to be able to quit my job and still have plenty of money to float me for the next month.

I save part of my salary each month and also put all my blogging money away too. Any bonus I accrue never gets spent and always get’s put into my savings account. Afterall, I’m not used to having this money every month anyway!

If I hadn’t been saving up, then I wouldn’t be able to take this fab opportunity with this new job.

Saving gives you the opportunity to not only do things like buy a house or a flat and get onto the property ladder, or buy your dream car that you’ve always wanted…it also gives you the opportunity to visit new places around the world, which in your 20’s, I would highly recommend!

I only got the chance to discover my love of traveling nearly two years ago now, and it was one of the best discoveries ever. Seeing more of the world has opened my eyes to so many wonderful things such as different cultures and cuisines (shout out to all you foodies!).

One thing that James and I have decided to do too is to get some further financial advice. We’ve talked about potentially using some of our money to invest in something other than property, so I’ll let you guys know how this goes! It’s something I’ve always thought about doing in the back of my mind, but never got round to doing it….watch this space 🙂

Financial advice is definitely a topic that isn’t discussed enough in the context of millennials. I love following Martin Lewis who is a Money Saving Expert and basically, a lot of info that I know about money has come straight from him!

Do you have any money saving tips? Let me know in the comments 🙂