World Savings Day 2021: Date, Theme, History & Significance

World Savings Day or World Thrift Day highlights the necessity of savings in every individual’s life. Savings encompasses many essential factors that generally mean ‘economising’ or ‘reserving’ a part of our stock to look forward to a bright future. Savings help us secure our future, along with preserving resources by avoiding wastage. World Savings Day is celebrated on October 31st every year.

World Thrift Day 2021

World Thrift Day is an event to raise awareness about the importance of savings for individuals and national interest. “Make hay while the sun shines” is an age-old quote that remains faithful even today. We have to earn well and save enough when we are still young. To cherish our old age, we should have milestones and goals to meet ourselves and our families’ financial needs. Responsibilities apart, we should also care for our health and plan a private fund for all the unforeseen circumstances that life throws at us.

History of World Savings Day

The World Society of Savings Banks started the World Savings Day for the first time on October 31st in 1924. The day was formally begun by Filippo Ravizza, an Italian Professor who also named it the “International Savings Day”. Mr Ravizza declared this eventful day mainly to bring awareness amongst the family groups to save for their future, to save for their children, medical emergencies and unforeseen circumstances. There are particular examples where governments celebrated savings day within their countries much before World Savings Day came into existence. Spain began celebrations within its land in 1921, and Germany followed suit a couple of years later in 1923.

Significance of World Thrift Day 2021

It is necessary to save money for children’s education needs and bring hope for a secure future. Information on the need to save and the various areas available for saving were some of the information to be told to the common public through this day. Today, World Thrift Day has taken on a more significant role with commercial participation across the globe. Financial security is essential for a bright future. Saving money and investing them further in suitable commodities yield good returns, thus creating a sizeable contingency for one’s future.

People save money for many reasons. It could be for their old age, retirement, children’s education and marriage, buying property, jewellery or expensive vehicles, or conquering an unfulfilled dream in their lives. Saving brings a disciplined habit of setting aside a monetary sum at regular time intervals and creating a contingency pool for standby.

World Savings Day 2021 Theme

Here we discuss some past year themes that have fascinated the world towards saving:

• The World Savings Day 2020 theme was “When you save a bit, big things follow”.
• 2018 presented a questioned theme – “What do you wish for?”
• 2017 had a beautiful theme in place – “Know and Plan your finances to live a better life”.

The theme for 2021 is much awaited, and exciting ideas and innovative ways are called in worldwide to suggest novel ways to celebrate the day. A theme is usually a representation of an event, an idea or a scheme that helps us carry out the designated activity in a much more colourful and attractive way. World Saving Day themes are usually concentrated around money, investments, funds, savings and pooling monetary resources. They help communicate the message of saving money, helping oneself allocate a sizeable amount periodically for the future.

Celebration of World Thrift Day 2021

Among all the events celebrated worldwide, World Savings day can quickly be acclaimed to be the oldest. Saving induces responsibility in a person. This responsibility is needed for the self, family as well as social position in society. World Thrift Day is not about a day’s celebration, but it’s a consistent practice for a lifetime. We should save in whatever possible ways we can and make a pool of contingency for later use. Some of the common forms of celebrations include:

• Children should be encouraged and educated to begin with small savings. Parents can celebrate world savings day by gifting new piggy boxes to their children and introduce them to the concept of savings.
• Poster making competitions are held at various places to highlight the need to save and reserve assets for the future.
• Schools and colleges spread awareness among children by arranging debate competitions, quizzes, essay writing and college/poster making events.
• Financial institutions introduce attractive schemes to their customers to encourage them to indulge in more savings.
• World Savings Day also gives banks and other credit societies the reason to spread awareness through campaigns and promotional activities.
• Many volunteers do film shows that actively encourage customers to make the right saving choices and not lose money on corrupt practices such as gambling and online lotteries.
• People circulate printed copies of educational material about good and trustworthy saving instruments.
• Investment companies encourage people to invest in smart choices through various initiatives wisely.
• The government does a large part of active campaigning by publicising a host of measures that have been in place for a very long time. Awareness and publicity generation form a large part of actual savings as people need to be drawn towards attractive schemes and be told explicitly about the need to save.