The Savings Journey: Lessons from a 10-Year-Old

The First Awakening

Those were the words that came out of my mouth at 10 years old. I didn’t think much about money when I was a child, but I knew that to have things, I needed it.

The first time I felt its absence was when my friends invited me to play soccer at a court and I didn’t have $1. It was a sad day… but one that marked me profoundly. From that day forward, I would always have my own money.

The First Strategies

I did everything a 10-year-old could do:

• Bought milk for my grandmother and kept the change
• Helped my neighbor weed his lot
• Collected the coins my grandfather occasionally gave us
• Bought a pack of candy and sold it to friends during vacation
• Took out the trash, made beds, and got good grades in exchange for at least $0.10

After sweaty vacations and months of effort, my piggy bank was half full. It was really cool to “feel” the weight of my effort. From there, I got motivated and started saving more and more.

The Lesson of Two Piggy Banks

Always with the help of my cousin and faithful sidekick, we continued the following year. By Christmas, we had filled two piggy banks. We talked and decided to open them and count.

To my surprise, my cousin had saved almost double the amount. But how could that be? If the piggy banks weighed almost the same?

From that day on, I learned two fundamental lessons:

1. The weight of the piggy bank didn’t matter – each coin had different values. My cousin collected many $1 and $0.50 coins, while I had coins of any value in there.
2. The second lesson came later – my father went to deposit my amount in the savings account he had opened at the bank for me. To my surprise, I discovered he hadn’t deposited anything… haha. He said he used it to pay for our apartment. (It’s all good, dad!)

The Birth of a Purpose

From that episode onward, for the next 2 years, I could only think about one thing: that feeling of having money and being able to use it for whatever I wanted was good. And immediately a great desire was born in me… NEVER HAVING TO ASK MY FATHER FOR MONEY AGAIN!

The world turned and I’ll share my experiences with you gradually. But the seed was planted back then. The habit of saving came when I was a child and remains to this day.

What is Savings?

According to Wikipedia:

“Savings is the portion of income or wealth that is not spent or consumed in the period it is received and, consequently, is stored to be used at a future time.”

However, in a world bombarded by advertisements and offers, how do we resist the temptation to save for the future?

Once, a coworker told me: “Man, I don’t know how you manage to save money. I feel like I have to live and end up spending…”. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that thinking. Every human being is free to make their choices, but each one will carry a weight along with it.

Saving is like accumulating deposits for the future (our good and wise old man from Omaha had already said this).

The Reality of Savings

By definition, if you aspire to create future prosperity, you need to have a good savings rate. If the money we use today had no inflation, it would be enough for the common citizen to simply save. Because in a perfect world – without inflation and questionable political decisions – your purchasing power would remain intact.

And your saved money could be used to invest in: you, your family, and your work. However, the world is not perfect and that’s not how it works.

Why Saving is Essential

However, whatever happens, if we want a brighter future without having to count on anything, we need to keep an eye on this metric.

The reality is harsh:

• Retirement is difficult (if not impossible)
• Living as an employee doesn’t balance the monthly bills
• Counting on political or divine decisions is also not an option

What you have left is to prepare yourself. Because your savings rate will determine the quality and quantity of your investment contributions.

The Truth About Wealth

Forget those talks from “coaches” who never washed a dish. Not that I’m better or worse than them for having done it, but I’ve gone from luxury to little and vice versa. I know what I’m saying from experience. I’ve been there. And it’s not good.

Know that in the end, we all have only two assets: time and energy. It’s with these assets that you can make money, which only comes third here.

Therefore, if you focus on yourself – increasing your salary and managing to maintain a modest cost of living, investing rationally and logically, and accumulating receipts for the future (“saving”) – you can reap much more fruit than you ever imagined.

Practical Savings Manual

But how do we do this? Nobody needs to go to college to learn how to save money. Nobody needs to spend hours on YouTube to discover miraculous saving techniques. And you don’t even need to buy a course. Forget that!

Focus on doing the simple things well. Gain understanding and precision about yourself. But if I had to recommend something to study, I would suggest “The Richest Man in Babylon” and that’s it. Nothing more is necessary.

Initially, think that you need to withdraw 10% every month and put it in a savings account where you don’t have access and wait until you accumulate more balance and can use this money for an idea.

Basic Rules:

1. Understand the importance of saving
2. Whatever you earn, save at least 10% – invest it and forget about that money
3. If you earn $1,500 per month, think you only have $1,350 and live with that
4. Did extra work and earned $100? “Lie, you only earned $90”
5. Force your mind to understand that you are now a saver
6. But… don’t be stingy – be kind to yourself. Live well with the 90% that remains. Eat, drink, and live in the best way possible with the money you have left

Conclusion

In summary, your focus should be on developing yourself and keeping watch on your savings rate, because it will dictate your growth pace. It’s not rocket science. It’s just the basics done well.

When you feel secure and comfortable, start increasing your savings rate year by year. From 10% to 15% and so on. You decide what’s best for you.

The savings journey begins with a simple decision: never again depend financially on anyone. The rest is discipline and time.