The Money Charity lets us in on how to build an emergency savings buffer with just a penny a day.
For 30 years, The Money Charity has been the UK’s financial capability charity, with a vision of helping people of all ages and all stages of life to increase their financial wellbeing by managing their money well.
We do this through delivering financial wellbeing and financial education workshops and webinars to engage groups of people with seeing their money as something they can harness to achieve their life goals, rather than something that controls them. By helping people to not only develop their skills and knowledge, but moreover to recognise their underlying money attitudes and behaviours, we empower them to find ways to make the most of their money throughout their lives, so they can make the right financial decisions for themselves and their families.
Engaging people with saving is a big part of The Money Charity’s vital work and one we see as an essential step for every individual to improve their financial wellbeing. That’s why we’re enthusiastic supporters of UK Savings Week.
Everywhere we deliver our sessions whether that’s in workplaces, schools and colleges, or charities and community groups, the benefits of starting and developing a savings habit is a foundational message. Saving gets people planning for now and the future, preparing them for facing good and bad circumstances, the expected and the unexpected, as well as enabling them to afford to take advantage of opportunities. As a recent study found, saving can help people relax more, feel more optimistic about the future and even to sleep better! But with almost half of UK households either having no savings or less than £1,500 in savings, it’s clear that too many people don’t, or in plenty of cases perhaps can’t, get going with saving.
The primary challenge for most non-savers though is often just getting started. Even putting aside the smallest of amounts can be habit-forming, changing money behaviours which then give those new habits time to prove their worth. We often get our workshop participants thinking about the 1p challenge, where on Day 1 you put aside 1p, then 2p on Day 2, 3p on Day 3 and so on. Across that first month, you’ll finish with £4.65, not too stretching. But come the end of one year, you’re looking at a savings pot worth £667!
This UK Savings Week, if you like the sound of what we do, why not find out more? Whether you work for an organisation that shares our values and is looking for a charity partner to support, or you’re interested in our workshops for your workplace, a charity you support, or even a school or college you’re linked with, you can find out more or get in touch on our website. We’d love to hear from you!
