It’s easy to come up with excuses for not putting money away, but the truth is that there is no good excuse for not saving money. Take a look at some common, and dumb, excuses for not saving, and why they shouldn’t be considered valid:

I’ll be earning more in the future, so I’ll save then

The truth is you never really know what’s going to happen in the future. Expenses might grow or you might not end up making as much as you originally thought.

A better approach is to put a little now into a savings account and increase the amount if that pay raise comes through next year, [Bob] Morrison, [principal at Downing Street Wealth Management LLC], says. “Try to live on last year’s income with today’s expenses,” he says.

Saving and investing don’t earn any return

Low returns on savings accounts and volatile stocks may not be encouraging, but they’re no reason to not save money. According to Robert Schmansky, founder of Clear Financial Advisors LLC:

“It’s not fun to look at savings accounts and see how little they’re earning,” he says. “But you have to realize the purpose isn’t necessarily to earn a lot of money. It’s to be there when you need it.”

I can tap my home equity if I need cash

This was not a reliable strategy for people who used this as an excuse during the housing boom:

“When the housing market went down and the home equity loans went away, they were left without that emergency fund and without the home equity. It helps to have a balanced approach,” Schmansky says.

Find more excuses, and rationale for overcoming them, over at Bankrate’s 11 Dumb Excuses Not To Save Money.