There’s something nobody tells you about saving money, and that is most people who struggle with it aren’t actually broke. They earn a salary sometimes even more than enough, but month after month nothing is left. If you ask them the answer is usually about expenses, emergencies, or some unexpected bill that came up. What you don’t hear much is people talking about habits and self-control.
You see, saving isn’t just about income. If it were, every high-income earner would be rich by now, but it never works out that way. It’s more of what you do every time you get paid. I remember my first year out of college when I finally got my first real job, boy the excitement of getting paid was on another level. Before the end of the week I would buy stuff I never needed just because I thought I deserved a treat after years of hustling in school. This continued for months, and every time I checked my account at the end of the month it was basically empty. No one explained to me that saving is actually more about a decision you make ahead of time not something you do with whatever is left.
The truth is, if you don’t pay yourself first there will never be anything left to save no matter how much your salary increases. I realized it was always one thing or another. Sometimes family requests, “urgent” outings with friends, and that feeling that life is passing by and you have to enjoy it now before you get old.
That’s the trap, trust me.
If you don’t put your money aside the day you get paid, it will be gone before you even realize it. What helped me, which well it's the obvious advice, I started doing an automatic transfer to my savings the moment my salary dropped. It’s not magic it’s just discipline and nobody has it by default, you train yourself to do it.
If you’re still struggling it’s probably not how much you make, it’s your habits. Try it once and see what changes.
Credit
My thumbnail was generated using Chatgpt 4.1 model. Everything else is mine.