On October 31 of every year, we observe "The World Savings Day” across the globe with the aim to inform people about the idea and importance of saving both from the perspectives of individual benefit and overall economic progress and maintenance of financial stability.

The World Savings Day was established in Milano, Italy in 1924 during the last day of the 1st International Savings Bank Congress (World Society of Savings Banks) where the Italian Professor Filippo Ravizza declared the day as the "International Saving Day".

While savings has been, is and will always be an important necessity more than spending given the uncertainty and unpredictability of future; the importance was felt and experienced first-hand this year probably more than ever before.

The pandemic dramatically altered our thought process and attitude towards it in the past couple of months. While dealing with the dismal reality of job-losses, stopping of work/businesses, paying off debts etc. a complete lock-down across the world accompanied with rapidly growing infections triggered the threat of economic recession worldwide.

The threat also came with warning of near-impossible short-term recovery unlike any other worldwide phenomena experienced the earlier decades. This was enough to turn some households into full-on "thrift mode” almost overnight.

So, now more than ever we all have to deal with the hard question of ‘how we build on this situation both at an individual and policy level’ to have a savings culture across the country (ies), as this can no longer be pushed under the carpet but has to be dealt with upfront.

Somewhere, it has also pushed all of us to take a hard look at our ‘material’ priorities over the real ones to be able to make right picks and choices as far as leading just a normal life is concerned! 

Every individual has their own reasons, limitations and excuses for not saving. The truth is,  no matter how much ever we earn there will never be enough money to save – savings unlike spending will never come naturally to us and will always remain a forced habit, hence, people tend to falter on it more often.

The tendency to save has to be a deep-rooted psychological need and desire to be financially stable. In order to cultivate a saving culture one must inculcate consistent saving habits into their life, and the earlier to do this, the better. Here are some of the common practices that an individual can adopt and acquire for succeeding over a period of time.