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It's usually the case in life that to achieve something monumental we have to start with achieving something small. To illustrate this, if you set out to eat an elephant, you'd have to start with one small mouthful. Or to think of it in a monetary context, most people who become millionaires have to start out with more modest salaries and work their way up to the millions bracket of wealth.

When it comes to accumulating a big savings nest egg, therefore, the first step invariably is to start putting the pennies (or cents) away and trust that the pounds (or dollars) will follow. Becoming a successful saver is also largely about developing a discipline for saving. Getting into the habit of putting a few pennies aside, perhaps into a piggy bank, will get you into the routine of saving. You'll probably be pleasantly surprised at how much all that loose change can add up to, over time, but the bigger benefit is that you will find that this drive to save will carry over into saving larger sums of money.

The title of this article talks about "financial freedom" and it's interesting to delve into why saving pennies might lead specifically to financial freedom. Financial freedom will mean different things to different people. For some, it will be the ability to give up their day job and be able to enjoy a carefree life of leisure. Many of us are thinking of this form of financial freedom when we pay into our pension or other forms of investment. For others however, financial freedom may simply mean being free of the obligation to pay off debts to banks and credit card companies. There are many people who feel weighed down and oppressed by the debt that they find themselves fighting to service, never mind pay off. Getting rid of that debt would be the best short-term financial freedom that they could imagine, and would then free them up to think about a better long-term future.

Seen in this context, saving a few pennies here and there isn't just about adding to your savings account. It is also about reducing your monthly costs and reigning in the temptation to put more money on your store cards or credit cards. The fact that you can see a visual representation of your efforts, in the form of a bulging piggy bank, should provide a daily reinforcement of the forward strides that you are making.

I referred at the start of this article to the act of attempting to eat an elephant. This of course is something that you shouldn't do as it's immoral, unless you're a hungry lion perhaps?! However, as a metaphor, it works well to provide a mental depiction of the scale of the task that you are trying to achieve. Financial freedom is a big task, just like eating an elephant or climbing a mountain. To help in your quest for financial freedom, therefore, why not put up a picture of an elephant and mark the total amount that you aim to save. Then you can mark off the portion of the elephant that you have eaten as you progress towards your stated savings target. Certainly, having targets and monitoring your performance towards them are absolutely vital components if you are to be a successful saver and achieve that dream of financial freedom.

Learn more about this author, Simon Wright.
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