Savings and Investment Myths: The Microtermist’s Mirage

The human mind tricks us into believing a number of savings and investment myths. One of its most dangerous tricks is with the thought that one is actually saving money when he or she consistently set cash aside for a few days, say 7 days. It is a very dangerous trick that can destroy anyone financially.

What is Microtermist’s Mirage?

When we build a savings strategy around extremely short periods, we come face to face with what I term the Microtermist’s Mirage. “Microtermist” is another term I created just because it does the best job describing the idea of someone who does stuff for extremely short periods. Add it to your dictionaries, thank you ;).

Remember how it feels when you start working out for a few days and get that feeling that your body has changed, and how you start to think you have arrived? Few days on, you start to cut down your work-out periods and overtime nothing at all. The fat comes and you find yourself rushing back to start the same cycle? That’s what the Microtermist’s Mirage does to you. It lies to you about your progress.

This same mirage rears its ugly head when it comes to managing our finances. It is one of the savings and investments myths that makes people keep saving without ever growing their money, sounds weird right? But if you look deeply you’ll see it happening all around.

Save money to grow it not to blow it.

How Does It Affect Your Finances?

The aim of saving money is to grow the money, which you do by investing your savings over a reasonable period of time. Having micro-term savings, as your core savings strategy, burns the growth process down to ashes. You see, saving money is like preparing for an exam. To come out with flying colours, in the general case, you have to prepare over time. Yes, there are exceptional people who can make magic happen within 7 days. But then, how many people are exceptional? Even the exceptional ones cannot play that card at all times.

The same applies to your finances, and its impact can be really negative. Check out all the times you have saved up for 3 days, 7 days and the likes, and audit how many of the goals you saved up for were actually important. Not so many, right? No need to feel bad about it, we’ve all been there. Before we get to the solution, let me show you some other ways this mirage can affect you negatively.

With micro-term savings comes undue pressure, imagine saving up for a vacation within 12 to 15 days as opposed to doing that over 6 months? A perfect example of crazy. With micro-term savings, you are robbed of the ability to actually plan. Ideally, you should have funds for any goal ready 4 to 6 weeks before the set time of implementing the goal. That way, your savings and daily living expenses won’t clash.

Let’s assume you have a vacation goal. Your funds should be ready at least 6 weeks before the trip. Why? Ticket prices don’t change for the better over time.

Also, with micro-term savings comes negative financial behaviour. You start to save money to blow it, whereas you should be saving and investing it to grow it. Now, you’re probably thinking that I am suggesting you should never blow the money. If yes, then why are you saving and investing right? By all means, please enjoy your money. Just make sure that you allow it to grow well enough, so you don’t end up in a cycle of “spend-suffer-make money-spend…”

How To Replace The Mirage With Real Images.

To avoid that terrible cycle, you’ll need to have ample time to plan and allow your money to make sense. So, don’t you think your finances deserve better than any option that makes you think you’re growing when you’re not? Jump on Cowrywise today and start growing your money truly. We provide you with the discipline you need to put that money to hard labour, so it can earn the returns you deserve.

Download the Cowrywise app here.