Saving for Your First Million? I Thought It Was Impossible—But It's Not!
I remember writing in my five-year vision that I wanted to become a millionaire. It was August 2021—a time when money was tight, and every peso counted. Despite that, I set my sights on hitting my first million by 2026, determined to turn that vision into reality.
With barely enough savings that year, scrimping and saving here and there while running a business and doing side hustles, I kept that vision in mind that one day, we would save our first million. 3 years after writing that goal, we were able to obtain our first million--I thought that was the end of it, but it was just the beginning of our journey to financial independence.
So, Here's My Tips for Achieving your First Million Pesos:
Set your intentions about obtaining your first million.
First, you have to have that desire to obtain it. Write the reasons why you want to have it. Knowing your why behind wanting to have it will motivate you to keep taking action toward the goal.
Write a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goal. Write how much you want to have, how you will take action, and when you want to get it.
Diversify income streams.
As much as I wanted to focus on ONE THING, we couldn't obtain it if we focused on either employment or business at that time. My husband and I worked together to achieve it: full-time job, part-time projects, and a small business.
My husband worked in a full-time BPO company, while I worked on a part-time basis as a content writer. From our personal work income, we were able to allot for our family’s needs and expenses. Above all, we optimized our brand by selling online and joining several bazaars. From our business income, aside from paying ourselves and our employees salary and aside from buying more assets like products, we also keep some money for “business savings” which we will later on invest to another business.
Separate business and personal money.
This is only applicable to small business owners. We don't get all business profits, but we only give ourselves a livable salary; the rest will be for the business expenses and savings. Once we decide to acquire a new property or make a new investment, we allocate funds from the business rather than dipping into personal savings.
Allocate where your income goes.
Know where your money goes. Categorize it and plan how much you will need to spend, save, keep, and invest.
You can categorize it based on your current needs. Our categories include:
-Tithes and Offerings
-Utilities and Mortgage Fees
-Food/Grocery/Essentials
-Emergency Fund
-Insurances (Kaiser Insurance and Sunlife)
-Investments (MP2)
-Education
-Others (Travel, Shopping, etc)
Get encouragement from others.
Instead of joining entertainment groups where you idly discuss other people's lives, I get inspiration from groups who are vulnerable enough to share their wins and habits about making money.
They say that the first million is the hardest. Why is the first million the hardest? This is the time you need to develop the right mindset and discipline. It's true for us--I thought it was really challenging as we barely saved during the first years of our marriage. Once we achieved it, we didn't say, "We did it!" or feel that that was the end of it; we thought it was just the beginning of our road to financial freedom.
Others say that the first million is the hardest, but the next ones will be easier. I asked other people and they said it’s true. Is it true for us? Hopefully, yes. By the time we want to save the second, third or fourth millions, perhaps, the habit of saving and investing has been established, and compounding interests will yield more savings.
Finally, one financial tip that I learned from Morgan Housel’s book “The Psychology of Money” is that when you have more ego, you have less savings. In the book, it stated: “Saving is the gap between your ego and your income.” Consistency and humility are key factors to obtaining true wealth.
