How-to Save The Money For Literally Anything on This Planet

“I want a hair transplant. It’s going to be expensive, but I plan on saving up all year for it.”

This is what some random dude brought up to his friend at the bar one night as I sat at their table.

This guy’s plan was to work like animal and save up for a hair transplant. He was willing to do anything that it took to get the money together to finally have thick hair. Not sure how I got involved in this conversation, but I ran away the second that these guys started bragging about how hair is the key to success with women.

Have some confidence and lift your chain a little higher. You don’t need beautiful hair like me to meet women. You don’t need to spend a fortune on a hair transplant to improve your confidence.

However, I’m not here to judge you or to tell you what to do. It’s your life. It’s your money. I just want to help you with saving lots of money. That means that I can help you buy what you want even if I think it’s absolutely absurd.

You can have anything that you want.

It doesn’t matter if you want a hair transplant to improve your love life or a new car to get to your new job. I want to show you how you can afford any purchase that you want to make. I’m not going to tell you what to buy. That’s up to you. I just want you to know right now that you can have anything that you want, NOT everything that you want. You have to be willing to accept this if you want to move on.

Let’s look at how you can save for any purchase on this planet…

Decide what it is that you want.

What does your heart desire so badly? What’s that big purchase that you want to start saving up for? A few questions to ask yourself are…

• Do you finally want to check out a beach vacation?
• Do you want to backpack through Europe?
• Is it a new car that you want?
• Maybe you want an iPad?
• Perhaps you want to take a dating course? I know a guy that charges other guys $3,000 for the weekend to learn how to approach women.

Only you will know what you really want. The point here is to pin point exactly what that is and to stick to it. You can’t have it all and you can’t be too general. If you want an iPad, just admit that you want an iPad and start shopping around. This can be anything that you want. Now you have to answer an important question once you’ve figured out what you want…

Is this really affordable?

Should you really be saving up for this item or experience that you have in mind? There are times where certain expenses just aren’t possible. It’s usually common sense. If you’re a graduate student or recent graduate, you might not be able to afford that Ferrari — yet! Sorry stud. If you don’t have a job or any income, then you’re going to be limited with what you can buy as well. I have two key tips if you want to totally decide if that purchase is worth it.

Start looking around for prices.

What are the prices like right now? Are there discounts? Do prices fluctuate?

If you feel that the price of this item is something that you can slowly save up for, then go for it. If the price is always going to be way too high or if prices fluctuate, then you might want to wait a bit longer. There’s no harm in waiting.

I’ve been putting off my iPad purchase for the longest time. One day I will buy one. Just not yet.

Look at your other expenses.

Do you have the flexibility to even start saving for this?

Would your other expenses in your spending interfere too much?

For example, my passion is trips. I save up for trips. I’m always saving up for my next trip, adventure, or even a one night escape. I’m realistic about this. I know that I can’t save up for much else in terms of a major expense. I’m cool with that. Will you be cool with saving up for your one major expense? Once you decide what you want and figure out that it’s affordable, it’s time to get the momentum rolling. You can also cut out useless expenses that you don’t need. I recommend you order personal checks online to save some money.

Time to run the numbers!

How can I break this expense down into smaller increments?

$5,000 in one shot is a lot. If you break this down over one year it’s not that much. It’s only $13.70 a day or $96.15 a week.

Much more affordable. You can play around with the calculator below.

Type in how much you want to save to see what your monthly goal should be. You can then break this monthly goal down to the week, day, hour, or even the minute. Every minute counts!

How will you now break this expense down into smaller increments? You can automatically deduct money off your paycheck every pay period to go into a separate account or you can literally go out of your way to cut an expense/put the money into savings.

What works for me? I find ways to cut out certain items from my spending. I then use this money on whatever I want to save up for. The other day I cut out a few subscriptions. Next, I’m debating on cutting down my cell phone plan because I really don’t need all of those additional features.

What am I willing to cut out?

What are you going to cut out of your spending? One major expense, a minor daily cost, or a delay of a purchase can really go a long way here. I love to travel and my friends know this. They know that I’m not too eager about spending money on other areas. I would much rather use my creativity to find cheaper alternatives for going out than to pretend to be a baller and go home broke. I’ve also been working on improving how much money I spend on food. It’s not good yet, but I’m getting better.

I want you to cut something right now and then to immediately put this money towards your savings.

Repeat this process for an extended period of time until you have enough money for that hair transplant or Ferrari. The trick is that you MUST cut something. The good news is that you don’t have to cut everything.

Work towards this goal mercilessly.

Now it’s time to get serious about saving up for this purchase.

Cut everything out. Stop wearing condoms if you have to (just kidding of course). If you really want to make this purchase, you’ll find a way. If you don’t want it bad enough, you’ll think of excuses. The other trick is to set a clear deadline. By when do you want to have the money saved for your new iPad? Is it coming up soon? Do you have an annual trip that you want to save for?

Once you have a clear purchase in mind, you can see if it’s affordable. If it’s affordable, you need to figure out how you can afford this. Then you work on cutting out the crap and being ruthless.

Does this make sense? You, my friends, now have to power to save up for literally any purchase on this planet. There’s just one more step left…

My challenge to you!

Since you know how to save for anything on this planet, what are you going to do about it?

This isn’t going to be another one of those articles where you just read, close the window, and move on with your life.

[I want you to take real action. I want you to open up a new savings account and put $20 towards that huge purchase. I also want you to label this account (if your bank allows you) so that you know exactly what this money is for.]

What are you going to start saving for? It can be anything. Don’t be afraid to use your imagination.

(This post was originally published on 2/27/2013. I updated it today to show you how you can save up for anything.)