"Put it away for a rainy day", "A dollar saved today is an experience for another day".These old adages are sensible, level-headed approaches toward personal finance. However, the world changes daily. Sometimes methods of self-preservation we use in our every day lives become outdated, right under our noses. The processes we use to plan for our future become the past, and we are suddenly left wondering, where did our ways go? Why are things changing so rapidly, so much so that even the way we save for our future doesn't work anymore?

Well, for starters, money is not the same today, as say, 20 years ago. Gone are the days of physically putting away money, with e-banking and online investing becoming the social norm. It's no surprise really. Accessibility is the name of today's game; if it can be done from the push of a button- people will find a way to make that happen. Our obsession for innovation is driven by our excessive need to make our entire world seemingly autonomous, in a sense. This, in turn, tends to give the boot to any ways we accomplished tasks in the past. 

In many families, parents have brought us up with the mindset that saving bit by bit will eventually get us to where we need to be. That if we "save our pennies", essentially piggy-banking our way through life, we'll have exactly what our parents ended up with. While this may not be the case in all situations, from personal experience, I can say this is how most of my fellow youth have been raised to think. However, the way we view money shifts as our age increases. As kids, money is the last thing on our minds. We viewed money as something great to work towards, something we could use to obtain the simplicities of youth. Convenience store food, the latest video game, all things easily obtainable, and not too expensive. When we become adults, and start realizing where money comes from, our view on it changes.  What was once something we all had no issues with, suddenly becomes this dreaded thing  we somehow cannot live with or without. The need for money did not change. The only thing that happened was the realization of how the world really operates- around money. Everything costs something. And with this realization comes another one. If everything revolves around money, and we have to work every day just to have money to live- we can't be working when we are 70 years old. We need to save some, in order to retire. This is where things tend to get hairy for a lot of young adults. 

History has shown that the "piggy-banking" method did work, for people in a time where disposable income was more of an added bonus rather than an obstacle to work around. If people had any money left over after paying off their dues, it would go into a small savings account, or into a mattress, quite literally. Either way, it was a lot simpler to just put money away, and leave it alone. Nowadays, everyone and their grandmother has a debit card, and it's even as easy to use as tapping it and walking away. Without a physical transaction, all the little chunk change we end up with- it all goes nowhere. Added into the next total after a deposit. Forgotten income, if you will. This forgotten income adds up.

That 3 dollars you had left, that you spent on that clearance fidget spinner or what have you- that's 3 dollars you won't have when you retire later down the road. Small, almost seemingly pointless purchases are exactly where this forgotten income goes to. If it gets forgotten about, it won't be saved or spent properly. Saving, in any way shape or form, will save yourself in the long run. However, with physical cash falling to the wayside of electronic financing, we need to take action and adapt to our changing environment. Retirement at a younger age is achievable, however now is the time to look at our methods and the changing conditions of our world and adjust accordingly.