Be a Better Saver This Year

LONDON, May 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

The beginning of the year is always a blur, before you know it, its summer. All your plans to go to Paris for two nights, to enjoy a long weekend in Portugal or to take a two week holiday backpacking around the islands of Croatia fizzle away as you realise you just haven't saved enough.

At the end of each summer you wished you'd done more, you make a promise to yourself that next year you will save, next year you will travel more and then next summer comes and goes. You might have made it to Glastonbury and taken the family to the Lake District but the desire to see new places and experience new cultures still burns hot inside you.

Of course, a trip abroad may not be what you dream of but what about a new car? Or redesigning the kitchen? Is there a new family member soon to arrive? It is also important to put aside emergency cash as the future holds both good and bad surprises. It is never too late to begin saving!

NatWest offers a few solutions to help you save in 2014. By combining their Saving Goals Tool and Budget Calculator, you should have a clear indication of how much you will be able to save. Being realistic here is key to your success.

The NatWest Budget Calculator helps you identify your saving potential by requesting details of your income and expenditure. It is an interactive tool where you are able to amend the details. It is particularly helpful when it comes to working out where you can cut costs. Maybe you spend a lot on coffee house lattes or daily newspaper deliveries in the morning and could, instead, turn to home-made coffee and online news.

Figure out your realistic savings goal each month, then check out the NatWest Savings Goal tool, which has been given a 5-star rating by the Fair Banking Foundation for 2013/2014. The tool allows you to set goals in your current account and tracks the progress.  Once you have entered your saving goal and target date into the tool you will need to choose a category and goal name.

There are different saving plans to choose from, and the goal tool makes it very easy to try out different options in order to achieve your goal. Just to keep it simple, only one goal can be running at a time for each savings account.

Through the NatWest online portal you can track your saving goal progress, check if you are ahead of the game or behind. You can also change the saving goal plan, if the one you chose does not suit you.

There are a number of resources these days to help you save, it's just about finding the one that suits you best.

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