Be realistic and money saving.

To generate long term wealth, you must take a small step everyday. Every sound financial decision you make will assist you to be in a better financial position than the day before and your life will improve over the long-term.
Be realistic in regards to how much you can save each day, week and month. Here’s a novel idea, PAY YOURSELF FIRST, then pay all your bills and use the extra to live on. Too often we pay ourselves last or forget or are not in a position to pay ourselves at all.You must design a financial plan to assist you to reach your financial goals and stick to it everyday.

There are many ways to save money around the home, shopping for gifts or essential items, and the every day expenses. But the only thing you have to bear in mind is what are those things you are spending on and are they really those needed ones or they are things you just wanted to own. By listing them out, it can be hundred times easier for you to know where you are and not to overspend.

Things you needed
- Daily expenses- meals, clothing, stationary etc.
- Weekly expenses- transportation fare etc.
- Monthly fixed expenses- rental fare, transportation fare etc.

Things you wanted
- branded jewelry, branded clothing, decorative stuffs etc.

One suggestion of mine is you can always buy a 'receipt keeping file' or something that you can file up all your receipts. Below is an example of a receipts keeping file.

It is a very convenient type of file since it is made up accordingly to months. You can start collecting all your receipts, no matter how big or small the amount, just ask the shopkeeper to give you the receipt so to keep your financial accounting easier.

Different types of 'MONEY' along the way.

9,000—6,000 BC: Cattle
Cattle, which include anything from cows, to sheep, to camels, are the first and oldest form of money. With the advent of agriculture came the use of grain and other vegetable or plant products as a standard form of barter in many cultures.

1,200 BC: Cowrie Shells
The first use of cowries, the shell of a mollusc that was widely available in the shallow waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, was in China. Historically, many societies have used cowries as money, and even as recently as the middle of this century, cowries have been used in some parts of Africa. The cowrie is the most widely and longest used currency in history.

1,000 BC: First Metal Money and Coins
Bronze and Copper cowrie imitations were manufactured by China at the end of the Stone Age and could be considered some of the earliest forms of metal coins. Metal tool money, such as knife and spade monies, was also first used in China. These early metal monies developed into primitive versions of round coins. Chinese coins were made out of base metals, often containing holes so they could be put together like a chain.

500 BC: Modern Coinage
Outside of China, the first coins developed out of lumps of silver. They soon took the familar round form of today, and were stamped with various gods and emperors to mark their authenticity. These early coins first appeared in Lydia, which is part of present-day Turkey, but the techniques were quickly copied and further refined by the Greek, Persian, Macedonian, and later the Roman empires. Unlike Chinese coins which depended on base metals, these new coins were made from precious metals such as silver, bronze, and gold, which had more inherent value.

118 BC: Leather Money
Leather money was used in China in the form of one-foot-square pieces of white deerskin with colorful borders. This could be considered the first documented type of banknote.

800 - 900 AD: The Nose
The phrase "To pay through the nose" comes from Danes in Ireland, who slit the noses of those who were remiss in paying the Danish poll tax.

806 AD: Paper Currency
The first paper banknotes appeared in China. In all, China experienced over 500 years of early paper money, spanning from the ninth through the fifteenth century. Over this period, paper notes grew in production to the point that their value rapidly depreciated and inflation soared. Then beginning in 1455, the use of paper money in China disappeared for several hundred years. This was still many years before paper currency would reappear in Europe, and three centuries before it was considered common.

1500s: Potlatch
"Potlatch" comes from a Chinook Indian custom that existed in many North American Indian cultures. It is a ceremony where not only were gifts exchanged, but dances, feasts, and other public rituals were performed. In some instances potlatch was a form of initiation into secret tribal societies. Because the exchange of gifts was so important in establishing a leader's social rank, potlatch often spiralled out of control as the gifts became progressively more lavish and tribes put on larger and grander feasts and celebrations in an attempt to out-do each other.

1535: Wampum
The earliest known use of wampum, which are strings of beads made from clam shells, was by North American Indians in 1535. Most likely, this monetary medium existed well before this date. The Indian word "wampum" means white, which was the color of the beads.

1816: The Gold Standard
Gold was officially made the standard of value in England in 1816. At this time, guidelines were made to allow for a non-inflationary production of standard banknotes which represented a certain amount of gold. Banknotes had been used in England and Europe for several hundred years before this time, but their worth had never been tied directly to gold. In the United States, the Gold Standard Act was officialy enacted in 1900, which helped lead to the establishment of a central bank.

1930: End of the Gold Standard
The massive Depression of the 1930's, felt worldwide, marked the beginning of the end of the gold standard. In the United States, the gold standard was revised and the price of gold was devalued. This was the first step in ending the relationship altogether. The British and international gold standards soon ended as well, and the complexities of international monetary regulation began.

The Present:
Today, currency continues to change and develop, as evidenced by the new $100 US Ben Franklin bill.

The Future:
Electronic Money Digital cash in the form of bits and bytes will most likely become an important new currency of the future.

History of money.

Bartering and Commodity Money
In the beginning, people bartered. Barter is the exchange of a good or service for another good or service, a bag of rice for a bag of beans. However, what if you couldn't agree what something was worth in exchange or you didn't want what the other person had. To solve that problem humans developed what is called commodity money.
A commodity is a basic item used by almost everyone. In the past, salt, tea, tobacco, cattle and seeds were commodities and therefore were once used as money. However, using commodities as money had other problems. Carrying bags of salt and other commodities was hard, and commodities were difficult to store or were perishable.

Coins and Paper Money
Metals objects were introduced as money around 5000 B.C. By 700 BC, the Lydians became the first in the Western world to make coins. Countries were soon minting their own series of coins with specific values. Metal was used because it was readily available, easy to work with and could be recycled. Since coins were given a certain value, it became easier to compare the cost of items people wanted.
Some of the earliest known paper money dates back to China, where the issue of paper money became common from about AD 960 onwards.

Representative Money
With the introduction of paper currency and non-precious coinage, commodity money evolved into representative money. This meant that what money itself was made of no longer had to be very valuable.
Representative money was backed by a government or bank's promise to exchange it for a certain amount of silver or gold. For example, the old British Pound bill or Pound Sterling was once guaranteed to be redeemable for a pound of sterling silver.
For most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the majority of currencies were based on representative money through the use of the gold standard.

$$$
The origin of the "$" money sign is not certain. Many historians trace the $ money sign to either the Mexican or Spanish "P's" for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight. The study of old manuscripts shows that the "S," gradually came to be written over the "P," looking very much like the "$" mark.

Money? What is money?

About money
Money is anything that is commonly accepted by a group of people for the exchange of goods, services, or resources. Nowadays, we use money to buy goods and services and to pay debts. Most people use money everyday and use cash (coins, banknotes) to pay for smaller purchases.
Every country has its own system of coins and paper money. Governments make coins and banknotes from paper, plastic or metal and assigns each a value. These coins and banknotes are then used to make and accept payments.

Why does money have value?
Money is valuable because people believe that people will accept it in exchange for valuable stuff and people are willing to accept it in exchange for valuable stuff because they believe it will hold its value. Which boils down to "money is valuable because people believe it will hold its value".

Pondering around still?

Ever wonder why is money so important to you? Should have knows it by now if you are still not alert about its importance. It is simple, money meant a whole lot in our life, we human need money to live, to buy, to spend and more......
Well take another view, having a bunch of money does not mean one is rich. Only saving can help us become a rich person in a way. But how do you save when you have to spend? This is the challenging task and this has been my goal. This will be depicted in my personal development plan- a 'SMART' goal plan as describe below.

-My SMART Goal-

Specific – I planned to start saving money and to save an amount of $900 by week 13 of this semester. This is to allow me to have extra money to use when it is necessary or in case of any emergencies. A small amount of money is kind of important to me now since I am living alone in place miles away from my parents. I need money at any time, it is so impossible I keep asking for money from them. I need to learn to be independent.

Measurable – There are ways to measure how far I go until I reach my goal. One way is to open a saving account at bank and check on the amount saved constantly. Well opening a saving bank account does has its benefit that is I can gain a certain amount of interest out of my saving.

Ambitious – This is an ambitious goal from my personal perspective. Back then I used to be a great spender but it is another way round now. A tiny little amount of money means a whole lot to me! I have to learn to depend on my own scholarship money only for things I needed. My parents always remind me not to be a big spender but be a great saver.

Reachable – Yes, I do believe my goal is reachable. It is reachable with the correct ways of handling my money via my planned monthly budget. I am confident I can do it to save up a minimum of $900 by week 13. I do not have to stress myself too much on this because I have planed ahead for what should do or not to do with my money.

Time reference – Every week I can save up roughly S$70, there are four weeks in a month so 70x4=280. For a month I can save S$280. Therefore I am able to collect the amount set at the end of week 13.