The biggest economic stories of the last 2 years were a pandemic no one saw coming and a war in Ukraine no one saw coming.
It always works like that. The biggest risk is what you don’t see coming. The fact that you’re not prepared for it is what makes it so risky.
The biggest lesson here…
… is that you don’t need a reason to save.
Some people save money for a down payment on a house, a new car, or retirement. That’s great, of course. But saving does not require a goal of purchasing something specific.
You can save just for saving’s sake. And indeed you should. Everyone should.
Only saving for a specific goal makes sense in a predictable world. But ours isn’t. Saving is a hedge against life’s inevitable ability to surprise the hell out of you at the worst possible moment.
Another benefit of savings without a spending goal…
… is control over your time. Everyone knows the tangible stuff money buys. The intangible stuff is harder to wrap your head around, so it tends to go unnoticed.
But the intangible benefits of money can be far more valuable than the tangible things that are obvious targets of our savings.
Savings without a spending goal gives you options and flexibility — the ability to wait and the opportunity to pounce. It gives you time to think, and lets you change course on your own terms.
Every bit of savings is like taking a point in the future that would have been owned by someone else and giving it back to yourself.
