Quotations, whether from famous people or accidentally uttered from the mouths of babes, provide a succinct description that captures our interest. As a result, it’s nice to collect quotations that we can refer back to again and again. Collected carefully, they remind us of the things that matter to us. If saving money is one of your goals for 2021, then you might want to choose a few of the saving money quotes below to copy out and place where you can see it regularly throughout your day. While it’s easy to find the most common quotes (“a penny saved is a penny earned”), we’ve tried to give you a range of different thoughts that can inspire you to look at saving money in new ways.
1. On Starting Saving Now, Intentionally
“DIG deep–get deliberate, inspired, and going.” – Brene Brown. Outline your exact intentions for saving money in 2021. Then make a step-by-step plan that can can keep you inspired. Then simply start!
2. On Limiting Instant Gratification
“Because money permits a constant stream of luxuries and indulgences, it can take away their savor, and by permitting instant gratification, money shortcuts the happiness of anticipation. Scrimping, saving, imagining, planning, hoping–these stages enlarge the happiness we feel.” – Gretchen Rubin. If you want to start saving money, it helps a lot to think about it as a pleasure or gift to yourself, rather than as a form of deprivation.
3. On Figuring Out Your Own Money Balance
“Fewer items does not make everyone happier; it’s about finding the balance of items that makes you feel the most comfortable — and the same thing applies to your wealth.” – Marie Kondo. You might want to find work that you love and also make a lot of money. While these things are not mutually exclusive, you have to find your own balance. What does saving money mean to you in comparison with other work and financial goals.
4. If You Had a Rough Financial Year in 2020
“Instead of letting your hardships and failures discourage or exhaust you, let them inspire you. Let them make you even hungrier to succeed.” – Michelle Obama. Many people struggled to save money in 2020. It’s okay. Start 2021 with refreshed perspective and hunger to succeed.
5. If You Need to Refocus on Saving Money
“I’ve become convinced that our lives are shaped less by the mistakes we make than when we make them. There is less elasticity now. Less time to bounce back. And so I heed the urgent whisper and move with greater and greater deliberation.” – Dani Shapiro. If you’re starting 2021 feeling like things are all still the same as 2020, then you might be tempted to let the year slip away without financial focus. Don’t do it. Consider the need to save money as an urgent whisper that you must heed.
6. On Being Gentle With Yourself
“I think I could learn a little patience with myself if I took a view of myself that included concepts like dormancy (instead of laziness), seed planting (instead of just scattered), gestation (instead of doing-something-right-this-second).” – Julia Cameron. This is, again, about reframing things so that you can approach your money-saving goals with a positive mindset.
7. On Going Back to the Basics
“Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box.” – Twyla Tharp, who also said, “If you only do what you know and do it very, very well, chances are that you won’t fail. You’ll just stagnate, and your work will get less and less interesting, and that’s failure by erosion.” First, go back to the basics of budgeting, saving a certain percentage of your earnings, etc. Then when you’ve stabilized that part of your life, get creative about saving money.
8. On Doing What Works For You
“You do not have to be good./ You do not have to walk on your knees/ for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting./ You only have to let the soft animal of your body/ love what it loves.” – Mary Oliver. Saving money isn’t a chore. It’s an opportunity. But only if you figure out the ways to do it that really resonate with your own life and values. Don’t start with the hardest things; start with what you love. For example, if you value the environment, find ways to save energy at home, which will also save you money. And take the steps that are easiest first. They do make a difference.
9. On Having an Eye Towards the Future
“Accept that someday what pains you now will surely pain you less.” – Cheryl Strayed. This is good advice whether it’s for getting through a heartbreak or accepting some of the uncomfortable limitations of saving money. If you want to really tighten the purse strings, you might choose to let go of some of your favorite pastimes and other money-suckers. It will feel better tomorrow than it does today.
10. On Paying Yourself First and Treating Yourself After
“Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.” – Warren Buffett. Back to those basics: pay yourself first. Set a savings goal. If you have some leftover, it’s okay to treat yourself, because you have met your goal.
A bonus related quote with a similar sentiment:
“We are not to judge thrift solely by the test of saving or spending. If one spends what he should prudently save, that certainly is to be deplored. But if one saves what he should prudently spend, that is not necessarily to be commended. A wise balance between the two is the desired end.” – Owen D. Young
11. Practice Gratitude
“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite,—only a sense of existence.” – Thoreau. The more you can focus on being thankful for the things that you have, the more likely you are to stick to your saving money goals. After all, you’re not going to spend on impulse buys if you’re satisfied with what you have.
12. More on Gratitude
Because it will truly make a difference in your approach to saving money.
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” — Oprah Winfrey
13. On Accepting Your Present Reality
“To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is. – Thích Nhất Hạnh. It’s all too easy to let yourself get really overwhelmed with negative thoughts about the trials and tribulations of saving money. Alternatively, you can overestimate how great things will be “tomorrow.” Instead, start right where you are today. Do an honest assessment of your finances and see where you’re at with saving money right now.
14. More on Mindfulness
“Look past your thoughts, so you may drink the pure nectar of This Moment.” – Rumi. Being in the present means practicing mindfulness. This can help greatly as we accept our present reality for what it is. There is something wonderful happening right now if you pay attention.
15. On Accepting The Ups and Downs
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” Jon Kabat-Zinn. 2020 showed us that there are going to be unexpected things in our lives. We can save and plan and plot out our financial futures. And we should. But things might change on us. And that’s okay. We can figure this out.
16. On Starting Over
“That’s life: starting over, one breath at a time.” – Sharon Salzberg. No matter what your savings and financial goals were in 2020, you’re not there anymore. Start today. Where are you in 2021?
17. On Being Generous
“When we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them away to other chiefs and people, and by and by they return them with interest, and our hearts feel good. Our way of giving is our bank.” – Chief Maquinna, Nootka. Saving money is an important personal goal. But don’t let it become so much your focus that you fail to be generous in the times when it is appropriate to do so.
18. More on Generosity
“That’s what I consider true generosity: You give your all and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.” — Simone de Beauvoir
19. Getting Clear About Your Saving Goals
“The goal of an emergency fund is to bail you from going to jail while your savings account is about buying you more options. The role of investing is to give you more time freedom.” ―
20. Know Your Beliefs, So That You Can Live By Your Values
“Your beliefs become your thoughts / Your thoughts become your words / Your words become your actions / Your actions become your habits / Your habits become your values / Your values become your destiny.”
―
What are your beliefs about saving money? Do the inner work to figure out your beliefs so that your thoughts, words, actions, habits, and values can align with them.
Read More:
- 10 Inspirational Quotes from Presidents on Money
- Inspirational Quotes Fromm Martin Luther King Jr. That Can Help Your Finances
- Quotes from the World’s Richest Man
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