You know who I think would approve of the savings snowball?

Scrooge McDuck

He’s definitely who I’m picturing as I write this.

Lately, sometimes I struggle a little bit to know what to write about because I’ve been pretty hardcore on this personal finance journey for the last 8 years, with an additional 4 years before that of not being particularly bad with money but also just not particularly good either.

It’s why I write so much about the importance of financial literacy and despite my incredibly awkward public speaking skills always jump to share the knowledge I’ve gained (especially with college-aged arts students, I’ve got a special place in my heart for ya’ll).

Most of my issues came from just not knowing what to do.

It’s a super privileged place to be but we all are where we are.

So today I guess I want to talk about a positive perk that can happen when you’re just in an uninformed place and you put some effort into figuring out your finances. And then you stick with it.

You get the reverse of a pile of debt.

You get a savings snowball.

See, I found when I talked with those college kids over the years, the idea of exactly where to start and what to prioritize was a very common part of the conversation.

You clearly can’t do everything. And for some folks, that can make you feel like what’s the point in doing anything?

But little bits can add up over time, and especially with savings goals – someday you hit the goals.

So let’s say I’m 25 and aiming to have:

• A year of expenses in emergency savings
• A down payment for a house
• A vacation fund
• A new car fund

And I want to max out my IRA and HSA every year.

(This hypothetical person looks a lot like me at 25.)

Most of that seemed hilarious. At the time I had just opened an IRA and was contributing about $50 a month to it.

I was able to squeeze $100 here and there intermittently into the emergency fund, which, while I knew my long term goal, my first goal was to save $1000.

Once that goal was achieved, I started to look at what I could possibly put towards these goals and started chipping away. It took like 5-6 years to make any noticeable difference, BUT

I realized I started to hit the goals. And over those years, I was regularly able to creep up the amount I was saving, despite wildly varied income. And once a goal was achieved, it freed up some more money to put towards other goals.

Until I found myself in the long dreamed for position of “extra” money. Money to invest. Or money to have fun with. Or money to help others with.

Or money to build a giant pool of gold coins and swim in it… (not the path I took, but you do you).

The main point is that the initial squeeze, especially on an early career salary, does lighten up – possibly in less than 10 years. Which seems like ridiculously far away in your 20s but from a late 30s viewpoint… those 20s were like yesterday and I’m really glad about anything at all that I’ve been able to sock away to make this decade (and hopefully the ones after) go a bit smoother.