Growing up as a child, my dad would buy me these piggy banks and he would leave a pile of change on my desk right next to them for me to add to my savings.
Today, we are living more and more in a cashless society. I don’t know how relative a piggy bank can be today.
This was a normal thing for me, I would have collections of piggy banks, all sorts of sizes and colors just filled with coins that I had collected over time.
Most of them were filled by my dad, as he would come home with pockets filled with change from his laundry business.
Growing up, we would sit together each day he got home from work and we would drop all the dirty change on the floor and we would load each coin into the piggy bank.
I was never motivated to add change to these piggy banks as I saw it as a very tedious and boring way of accumulating money. But I did enjoy the moment to sit with my dad and get our hands dirty.
Like most kids, I wanted the big dollar bills. I saw those as a much cooler way to accumulate money. Dollar bills added up quickly and I could put them in my wallet and just watch my wallet get fatter and fatter with purchasing power.
It wasn’t until I became an adult with a family and a plate full of responsibilities that I realized there is a deeper understanding that laid right in front of me this whole time. An understanding that could shift anyone’s mindset towards a higher level of self improvement and not just financially.
Let’s dive into understanding how a simple piggy bank savings method can improve your mindset:
1. A Piggy Bank Fosters A Healthy Relationship With Money
We all want money in life, some more than others. This can lead most people down a dangerous road. The reason I say this, is because money is such a motivator for most of us, that how we obtain it makes all of the difference.
Working as a banker, I often ran into clients who didn’t know how to manage their money as well as they should. They had a family and responsibilities, but when it came to making sound financial decisions they couldn’t dial in.
I learned that most people have built the wrong relationship with money. They started a job, received their paychecks for their hard work at the end of the week, and by the time Monday rolled around, those same clients were coming back to me not only with no money left from their paychecks, but their debt had increased—in one week!
Creating a piggy bank helps you to foster a different relationship and mentality with your money.
You gain so many new perspectives simply by the process of dropping pennies, dimes, nickels, and quarters into the bank.
2. A Piggy Bank Teaches You Humility
A heavy piggy bank soon results in the cracking open of that porcelain and getting to work so you can exchange those coins for dollars.
If you are stuffing your piggy bank the old fashion way (with coins), then you know there is a process involved in order for you to get that money into your bank account or exchanged for fresh green dollar bills.
You need to sit down and sort the coins in denominations and then get to rolling them into paper coin rolls.
Rolling coins into paper coin rolls is a dirty and tedious process. Your fingers will turn black from the dust of all of the coins and the only way to fill those rolls up is by dropping them into each roll a few at a time.
Prepping your money in such a fashion really brings in a sense of humility and understanding.
There are plenty of people out there who don’t have access to money the same way we do, and if they do, it’s not much.
A piggy bank creates humility and gratitude and these are great principles to live by, especially when it comes to your money mindset.
3. Patience Is A Virtue And A Piggy Bank Teaches You To Be Patient
Building wealth is a gradual process.
Anyone can make money, but building wealth is a totally different ball game.
Building wealth comes with a strong understanding of the virtue; patience.
Patience is important in the game of life because you need to learn and understand that it will not always be your turn.
You will get your shot, but that shot may not be right now.
This translates into sitting tight and waiting your turn. Now, what you do while you wait for your turn, is what is going to determine your overall success.
You want to be preparing. You want to be putting in relentless work ethic because we never know when our turn is coming up, all we know is that we will get our opportunity.
Everybody gets their shot in life, multiple times. It is only those few who spend every day putting in work that get to seize that opportunity.
A piggy bank teaches you that if you just stack coins, each day, little by little, eventually you will get that opportunity to crack that thing open and collect your reward.
4. A Piggy Bank Forces You To Gain Appreciation For Starting At The Bottom
Today we have a generation that wants to start at the top.
If you want to make it in life, you have to gain the mindset of working hard and working your way up from the bottom.
This applies to anything you choose to take on in life.
If you want to build a marketing agency, you need to first learn and educate yourself, and then begin to implement what you have learned and slowly get the ball rolling until it translates into a sale.
The same goes for wanting to start a social media following or getting a job and growing within that role to receive a promotion.
We must learn that in order for us to become effective as a society, we must learn to control our emotions and understand that everything has a starting point and an end point.
It becomes our duty to learn how to decipher each one.
5. We All Want Results Quickly, Learn To Start Slow
Results are the outcome of your effort, discipline, and consistency.
In order for you to see results in something you must first become committed. Without true commitment you will never become the best version of yourself in whichever endeavor you choose.
When you start a small piggy bank savings, you truly see your commitment over time. It acts almost like a mirror of your character.
Do you show up each day and drop some money into your piggy bank?
Or, do you just forget about the over all goal because of the tedious process that is required?
By having a piggy bank, you will see that there is a process involved in building your relationship with money.
By the time you get around to cracking open your piggy bank and reaping the reward of your commitment and discipline, you will have gained the understanding that the process can be sometimes be quite slow before you get your desired result.
6. A Piggy Bank Helps To Build A Relentless Mindset
According to a government census, more than 50% of people by age 65 are behind on retirement savings.
Saving money is no easy task.
It requires a very disciplined mindset and a relentless one at that.
When you first start a small savings, you quickly realize just how little you are starting off with, in comparison to where you imagine it growing into.
The growing of savings doesn’t happen over night. Retirement money doesn’t appear out of thin air.
There is a slow and gradual process that is involved and that process takes months, years, and decades before you reach your end result.
In order to truly build a retirement plan, you must cultivate a relentless mindset and a never ending pursuit of your goal, until your end result is achieved.
7. The Real Results In Life Come One Penny At A Time
There is no doubt today, that my greatest take away from saving money in piggy banks is that every penny counts.
When you chase after a goal, every pursuit counts and this is broken down yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, and even minute by minute.
Your actions always matter and the way you act on your journey is going to be the driving force behind your success.
Today, most kids will never know what it is like to even start a piggy bank, let alone crack one open and roll coins into paper rolls and take them to the bank in exchange for dollar bills.
However, which ever way you see most relatable to start a savings, do it.
Don’t wait. Don’t procrastinate.
Building a savings is a great way to teach yourself different life skills and a strong way to improve not just your financial confidence but to also build a deeper connection with the subject of self improvement.
It’s all of the little things that matter most on your voyage towards finding success. Don’t let those small important steps slip through the cracks.
