The third Monday in January (this year the 20th) is considered to be the worst day of the year. Some time has already passed since the Christmas holidays, the short days and the weather outside don't put us in a good mood, and there's still half a year until summer. But instead of giving in to the gloomy mood, let's already plan a summer vacation.
Buying a vacation well in advance allows you to take advantage of many so-called "first-minute" discounts. Even if we don't have the money now, nothing is lost. If we start saving regularly in January, we can collect funds for our desired vacation.
"Our surveys show that up to 33 percent of Poles don't monitor their spending. And it is precisely daily monitoring of the household budget which is the best way to collect money for a vacation," says Krzysztof Kaczmar, President of The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy. "Our dream vacation can be within our reach if we start regularly saving for it at the beginning of the year" - adds Kaczmar.
First, let's estimate how much money we should set aside for our vacation. Also let's calculate the amounts - per month or per week - that we can afford to set aside. Naturally, a goal that is realistic is more easily attainable through consistent effort.
Second, let's choose an optimal way to multiply the accumulated funds. From a six-month perspective, the best choices by far are financial products with a guaranteed rate of return and not exposed to investment risks - time deposits and savings accounts. When choosing the best solution for us, we must take into account not only the interest rate offered, but also the cost of using a given product. We should also keep in mind that the interest rate is given in annual terms, not monthly. Therefore, if we open a savings account of 1000 zł paying 3.5%, we earn 35 zł after a year, but in the case of six-month deposits we can count on getting only half that amount - 17.5 zł.
Third, the key to saving is to start monitoring one's budget. We should take advantage of the so-called "latte effect", a concept developed several years ago by the American David Bach, a journalist and author of financial guides. The latte effect involves monitoring of small but frequent expenditures on things that we can easily do without. We can, for example, cut back on eating outside the home. Snacks and coffee in the city cost 10-20 zł each time, money that we could set aside for vacations. Even if the difference between food prepared at home and what we buy at work is only 10 zł per day, that gives us a savings of 250 zł per month. Also, we should always go grocery shopping with a list and better not when we are hungry. This will prevent a lot of unnecessary spending. Savings can be combined with health. Giving up on sweets and sweetened drinks can save us 300 zł per month, while giving up cigarettes (e.g. a pack of cigarettes a day) can give heavy smokers savings of 400 zł per month. And reducing car use in favor of public transport or a bicycle means another few hundred zlotys saved a month.
According to surveys by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation, only 10 percent of Poles save regularly every month. It turns out that Poles are most willing to set aside money for vacations. Regular saving is easiest to start by setting a realistic short-term goal. Effective saving of money for vacations will give us faith in the power of regular saving and to develop good habits, which can then be used to plan more spending or financial security for old age.
* "Attitudes of Poles towards saving" is a regular survey conducted by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation and TNS Polska.
