In Search of the Way to Save

Looking to the stars - Calvin & Hobbes

Personal finance is personal. Rule-of-thumbs may be a good start, but it surely isn't for everyone. I certainly have my own way to budget, and out of all the apps I've looked through to help me, not one found to be a perfect fit. I then stumbled upon an iOS app, earmark. It's a social saving-spending app for you to set the top five things you'd like to buy and share it with everyone, including status updates when you forego spending to save for said five items. Pretty neat.

Three things I like about this:

1. Clarity. It would help me take a step back and remind myself that I have saving goals to achieve. In moments of need of clarity, I think this app would help me when my mind start playing the justifying-a-purchase games.
2. Motivation. We are social beings and our motivations sometimes require that social interaction. "Not buying this for that trip, proud of myself", and then receiving a supporting reply from a friend, "you go girl! let's make it to Makkah". Seriously, saving for hajj is hard...
3. Communication. Sometimes other people make our personal spending plans. Hanging out, do this, eat that. Those things add up.When we make it known to friends we're saving for something, it makes communicating personal intentions and rejecting an offer a lot easier.
4. Behaviour. People get easily hooked on social media outlets. If we get hooked on the app, we get hooked on our goals, we will achieve it.

What I don't like, but they might actually be right, is;

"We hate budgeting. 

So does everyone, ever.

We hate budgeting. So does 99.9% of the population.

We also like spending money. So does 100% of the population. 

Earmark helps people who hate budgeting save money while spending it."

I like that I've set myself a budget. It's life changing. But I guess for those who haven't, this app might actually work. For myself. I don't know. I don't have an iPhone. What I'm interested in most is whether I can apply earmarking [designate (something, typically funds or resources) for a particular purpose.] for myself.

So, what I'm proposing to do is to:

1. Unify my goals. I'm going to follow the findings that people become better savers when they have a single goal (pdf link). So I'll unify a single goal to the items I'd like to buy with a goal of higher calling or a long-term based goal like retirement.
2. Partition. Increase the chance of success of earmarking by separating the money physically, especially if the money has a visual reminder (pdf link). So, create a custom printed wristlet, or wallet (2), with a picture as my reminder.

Now, if I have a wallet for zakah, what are my visual cues...

"Is the description of Paradise, which the righteous are promised, wherein are rivers of water unaltered, rivers of milk the taste of which never changes, rivers of wine delicious to those who drink, and rivers of purified honey, in which they will have from all [kinds of] fruits and forgiveness from their Lord, [...]"

47.Surat Muĥammad (Muhammad; 15)

"He will forgive for you your sins and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flow and pleasant dwellings in gardens of perpetual residence. That is the great attainment."

61. Surat Aş-Şaf (The Ranks; 12)

One way ticket to Jannah. Insha'Allah.