What to do when you have less than 4 digits in your savings account?

One way which is more of a "push" rather than "pull" would be to print out that receipt with savings. Use it as a motivation for the changes that you would want for yourself. (For me, I kept a bank receipt where there is less than $20 as amount available. The ink has mostly faded, but can still make out the figures), so that anytime you have to make a decision, you can look at the receipt and ask yourself, will it lead back to this situation?

Some things to look at.

Income - can you increase it? If your income is fixed, are there other sources that you can tap on/start to build slowly, but surely. Bank interest, dividends, etc can be considered for a start, with rental, royalties, and business income later on if needed.

Expenses - this is really personal. Really have to split between what is needs and what are wants, temporary vs permanent. (All types of insurance necessary according to your needs, or only some insurance?)

At this point, the biggest problem to overcome this insufficient savings would be peer pressure. This can come from various sources, such the classmates (because of the image protrayal of being cool) and colleagues (Be seen as a team player), to loved ones such as partners and spouse to family members. Another possible area to disrupt savings would be loans to others. One way would really be to limit how much you want to lend to others, regardless of who they are. It is always easy to lend to others, but when it comes to collecting back, it is another story. ​​​

Everyone will probably be in the same situation as you before. It depends on what age you are now too! If you are still young, I suggest you find a part time job to earn some income for your daily expenses (If your parents are not paying you any allowance). Also, do you best to save a portion of your money every month, to force yourself to not spend so much.

There is no easy shortcut to this unless you want to head to the casino and start gambling (I am just kidding). You will definitely need to sacrifice some of your money you spend on entertainment if you want to save up!

2 ways you can do this: increase your income or increase the amount you save, or both!

It's probably easier to increase the amount you save first. Use an expense tracker, and review it at the end of each month to find out which are your needs and wants. Make a plan to reduce the spending on your wants, and stick to it!

To increase your income - if you are a student, consider teaching tuition or working part-time jobs. If you are no longer a student, upgrade yourself, and go for interviews often to improve your interview skills until you eventually get an offer that offers you a better prospect than your current!

I believe everyone or almost everyone here has said it - save, save, save! I know it can be extremely demoralizing seeing your bank account balance - I started with less than 1k in my account when I was a fresh grad - but just remember, it’s ALWAYS better late than never. So, begin today! :)

A habit I’ve forced myself to consistently do every month - once my pay is in, I will set aside my monthly expense amount (say, 1k or 1.5k for months I expect to spend more) and transfer the rest into a higher yield savings account, such as Jumpstart. (For me, I also set aside some other $ for investments, or giving parents allowance) So the only amount I’ll touch during the entire month would be that 1k. This has been rather helpful for me so far :)

And, download an expense tracker to keep track of your expenses - this will give you a real-time view of how much you’re spending every month and do make sure you commit to recording all of your expenses regularly, so that it’s accurate. Seeing the actual amount of your individual spendings feels VERY different from just wondering where all your money went to at the end of the month.

All the best!