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Nowadays we’re continually hearing of how things are spiraling downwards. Opening up the newspaper – or indeed just looking at the front page – and we are greeted by a whole host of recurring phrases: “recession”, “credit crunch”, “price hike”, and – dare I say – “depression”. What you should really be wondering, is that with all of these financial problems that we’re supposedly heading into, is it really worth putting money away for an uncertain future?

The main problem we’re facing is that prices just keep going up and up: petrol and oil, food, road taxes, the list goes on. Inflation is defined as a rise in prices for goods and services over time, which appears to be what we’re facing now. So, surely in effect, this means that what we put away and save now will buy us less in the future? In order to avoid serious financial issues, you have to be just that step or two ahead of the rate of inflation, to make sure that your money is actually worth something, and you’re keeping your head above the waterline of an ever-deepening pool.

One way to save is to just be extremely careful with your money, not needlessly wasting it on frivolous things, but planning to a certain extent what you intend to do with it. But even being careful can have its downsides for the misinformed or just plain unlucky. Banks can lose money, stock markets and shares can crash, and what seem like sure-fire investments can go awry – often all at the last minute.

As I previously mentioned, some people might say that trading on the stock market will yield a solution to financial worries. However, the harsh reality of this is that unless you’re an expert trader with all the right knowledge, you might even end up with a loss. In fact, almost anyone that’s invested over the last few months has lost roughly 20% of those investments. If they’d done something other than investing at that time, they’d be 20% better off. Therefore, I’d probably only recommend this route if you have a lot of experience in this field, and can afford to make mistakes.

Taxes are yet another hurdle to the earnest saver. No matter what tax band you’ve been placed in, you’ll still have to sacrifice some/a lot of your potential savings to the government. This, on top of inflation and rising prices, makes it incredibly hard to save a decent amount of money, thus resulting in people living in a hand-to-mouth fashion in that whatever they earn immediately goes towards their own sustenance, and are unable to save anything worthwhile.

Even savings accounts are under fire here. While it may be true that you won’t have to pay tax on any interest earned, the truth is that most – if not all – savings accounts probably aren’t even able to keep up with the rate of inflation. Yes, you might be earning money, but unfortunately for the majority of us, you won’t be earning enough money.And of course the same can be said for current accounts with their minimal amount of interest applied to your account each month.

So really, unless we have six-figure salaries, in the future it might be too hard to save enough. If we have to work so painfully laboriously just in order to save a modicum amount of our income, one might imagine it would be better to live in the now and spend it right away, than to save over time, only to find out it was all for nothing.

In this current financial climate, the stock market, interest rates, and speed of inflation all contribute to an investing potential which looks woefully unappealing. People save for a reason, and the reason they usually give is so that they can have “financial security in the long run”, but as has just been stated, even the future itself isn’t as secure as we used to think. But perhaps it might even be more prudent to cut open a mattress and stuff it with money, for at least then you’ll know where your money is and how much is there. Or perhaps wandering around the living room of your home and searching behind the sofa every now and again will yield better financial returns than most other options available to the average saver.

However, I can recommend this, the single best way to save money I know without having to resort to other, more complicated, methods: DON’T SPEND IT. You don’t need all those meals out, you don’t need to buy the most expensive pet food or own the most expensive pets. All of those useless status symbols that people seem to collect, they’re unnecessary. We’re talking about financial security here, without a thing as simple as that then you, your family, your cat, and maybe even your dog are going to be in serious trouble. People get carried away with credit cards and loans all the time because they see it as something resembling “free money”. There’s no such thing, and what’s happening is that people are just spending more money than they actually have access to and then are completely taken by surprise when a bill comes through the door asking for payment.

In the end, you’ve got two options: to be a pessimist, or an optimist. The pessimist will take these comments at face value and fall into a depression themselves. They’ll lose the incentive to save, but will continue to spend and may even end up borrowing money, making the whole situation worse than before. Or you can be an optimist and realize that you have a reason to save, because it’s a challenge and that you’re looking far enough into the future that you can envision your efforts paying off. You might make mistakes, sure, but who doesn’t? If you’re careful and choose your options wisely, never risking more than you can afford, and never spending more than you have, then maybe you – and eventually the economy – will come out on top.