Five techniques to help you reach your savings goal: MoneySmart

A new ASIC MoneySmart poll has shone a bit of light onto the strategies of fruitful savers.

By polling those who are confident in their savings achievements, five strong trends emerged.

These were the five factors:

• 78% say they know how much money is needed
  
  
• 75% say they have a clear savings plan
  
  
• 73% say they regularly review progress towards their goal
  
  
• 72% say they have a specific saving timeframe
  
  
• 43% tell family and friends

It’s clear that tangible goals are stronger than general “save when possible” mantras. Being accountable to someone and setting yourself measurable targets are crucial.

“Savers who regularly review, remind themselves and publicly commit to their savings goals are those more likely to achieve them,” said MoneySmart’s senior executive leader Miles Larbey.

The majority of those surveyed were saving to buy or renovate a home, with 48% choosing this option. Meanwhile, 47% are saving for a holiday, 46% are saving for the future, 33% are saving an emergency fund and 13% are saving for a car.

With this in mind, ASIC launched a free app today, called TrackMyGOALS. It can be downloaded on the App Store or Google Play.

The app allows you to set your goals, your pay frequency, the total amount you are trying to save, allows you to track your progress and provides alerts when you need to add to your savings account. It appears to work best for long-term goals, but adding on a posh dinner out in a month could work as well.

You can have a number of goals set, and customise the colours for easier identification.

“There are also daily tips and, to help users stay motivated, they can visualise the outcome by uploading a picture of their savings goals,” said Larbey.

Here are some images from Property Observer’s playful trial run. It’s simple and easy to use (although it’s worth putting the cost before the date, as otherwise it looks to put your total cost goal as the amount you want to save per week.

Whenever you add money, you click on the goal, select the ‘add’ function, and type in the amount you’ve put aside. This then adds to a ‘history’ page, where you can track the amounts you have put into savings.

Our favourite feature is the ‘timeline’ function, that can serve to remind you both when you need to pay for something and to get you excited about reaching your saving goal.