How I started saving money

I was always a big fan of computer fighting games. When I was four, I played on ZX Spectrum games like Saboteur, Conan and especially I loved Yie Ar Kung Fu. Spent many hours on it. On my best friend’s Atari, we played together International Karate and Bruce Lee all the time. My love to martial arts, kung-fu and fighting games remained for a present day, but it is not the subject of today’s post.

Let’s go to the middle of 90’s. I don’t remember the exact date or even year (probably ‘95 or ’96 and I was thirteen), when, on some kind of geek show, I saw a review of Virtua Fighter 2 on Sega Saturn. That was a thing. I was positively stunned and I had to have a Saturn and VF2 on my own.

At this time in Poland, Sega Saturn cost 999zl. What I had in my pockets was something about 50zl, but no more. Of course I didn’t have any sources of income. From time to time, my parents were giving me small change for my outgoings.

I decided to keep saving as much as possible to eventually buy my beloved Sega Saturn. I remember I stuck a piece of paper on the wall near my desk and I wrote how much zlotych I am short to Saturn. Each time I saved few zlotych, I updated my counter. That was really motivating.

The idea of saving was great, but my sega-saturn-fund was growing very slowly. Definitely too slow. Time passed and when I was somewhere in the middle, my urge to Saturn somehow passed away. A brilliant example that it is good idea to wait some time before purchase, especially if it concerns more expensive stuff.

Ok, I didn’t want Sega Saturn, but the idea of saving money was really fun and I kept a goal to gather 1000zl.

Again, it was going very slowly. Without such a reward as Saturn, the second half of my first thousand was going even slower than the first one. But it was OK for me. No need to hurry.

The day has finally come. I had a 1000zl in my locker. So, what now?

Very soon I turned 18 and I was able to open my own bank account. I put my money there and I was very happy. That time the inflation ratio in Poland was really high. Unfortunately I don’t remember the exact number. However, at that moment I didn’t care about that at all. What was important is that on my personal account I had slightly over 10% rate of return. Each month, my 1000zl was giving me a free ticket to the cinema. Great. What was my next thought in my head? I want to save another 1000zl and put it on my account.

…and that is how my saving habit started.

photo credit: trungson