Saving Money: Where to Start?
Whatever your goal, saving money is always a challenge that requires willpower, organization and a lot of planning. Many people find it difficult to achieve financial goals simply because the money earned in the month is not always enough to maintain a significant reserve.
The good news is that, regardless of whether you have a high income or a modest salary per month, you can follow some strategies to start saving money and be able to take your projects off the ground or make big dreams come true. With this article, we want to show you the ways to start saving money once and for all. Check out!
Define your goal
One of the first measures when you decide to save money is to have your goals well defined. Incidentally, that’s a rule for any achievement you want to achieve.
No one chooses to collect money simply to keep it without having a purpose to be fulfilled. Even if you simply want to have a financial reserve for emergency situations, there is a goal to be achieved, which in this case is to be prepared for when you need extra money for some specific need.
Your goals can be from opening your own business, to buying a property, doing a master’s degree or going on an international trip. Everything will depend on what is a priority for you and your personal needs.
So the tip here is to think about what is the point of trying to secure a reservation and thus stipulate a budget and a financial goal. From there, it will be possible to know how hard you must strive to achieve it.
You can even set a monthly goal and that way, be more motivated to save, since goals stimulate us because they naturally make us try harder to achieve results.
Focus on your goal and make it your priority, even if it can only be achieved after a good few years, the results will certainly be worth it.
Analyze your budget and possibilities
After defining your objective, it will be time to carry out a financial analysis and have complete control over the conditions of your budget. In other words, you should analyze all your income, which are the amounts you receive per month, as well as your expenses.
This measure is for you to know what value you can count on every month and what you have been spending your money on. Are there excessive expenses? Are you spending more than you earn? Are there expenses that can be avoided? All these answers will be found from the analysis of your budget.
You will have to take into account all your incomes if you have more than one, and if they are variable, that is, if they fluctuate each month, consider an average of these values.
About your expenses, analyze all your monthly fixed expenses such as water and electricity bills, internet, telephone, monthly fees, grocery expenses, among other financial commitments that you know you will have to meet monthly.
Don’t forget to also think about your sporadic expenses, those that you have from time to time, but that can reflect on your bills, such as paying IPVA, insurance, IPTU, among others. Think about which moments you will have to pay for these expenses and leave this well defined in the study of your budget.
After this analysis, you will know how much money you have per month, how much you usually spend and the amount of money you can invest in savings or in another type of application.
But what if there’s nothing left?
Here’s a great question! You can do all the analysis of your earnings and expenses, at the end of the day, realize that there is nothing left to save and that all your money was used to pay the bills and bear the other expenses of the month.
In that case, you should bet on savings strategies. If what you earn per month and what you spend are exactly the same amount or worse, your spending exceeds your earnings, then it’s time to tighten up a little more to save.
Among the measures you can take to make your money extra even just a little bit at the end of the month, consider:
– Prioritize discounted products and services;
– Eliminate superfluous expenses;
– Seek ways to pay off large debts;
– Postpone purchases that require a lot of spending and can stay for later;
– Adopt the shopping list to go to the supermarket and research well to guarantee the lowest prices;
– Reduce the consumption of energy, water and other services;
– Take advantage of free cultural attractions and events;
– Renew wardrobe pieces only when it is very necessary;
– Substituting products and services in order to pay less without compromising quality.
Following the path of economy, you will be able to balance your expenses and in a short time have more financial stability. That way, it will be much easier to save money and you won’t have to squeeze yourself for it.
Establish your financial commitment
If you really want to save money, you should consider your reservation as a mandatory commitment, rather than something that will only have a place in your financial organization when conditions are favorable.
Those who are committed to saving do not attach to circumstances, but make it a priority, regardless of the situation. Therefore, view the action of reserving an amount as something that is indispensable, such as paying the electricity or internet bill, for example.
It is important to make this commitment for every month of the year, and in the months when you receive extra money, the tip is to reserve an even larger amount. This can be done upon receipt of the 13th salary, vacation, profit sharing in the company or other amounts that may guarantee an extra amount for your savings.
With the financial situation up to date, you may not even need to touch the extra money you receive, so, if possible, go further and save all the extra amounts you receive to accelerate the growth of your savings.
Another attitude that makes all the difference is to separate the amount that will be saved as soon as the money comes in so that you don’t run the risk of spending it on something else.
Replace high interest rates with lower interest rates
Debts with very high interest rates can be a danger to your financial balance and hinder your goal of saving money.
A lot of people get stuck financially precisely because they find themselves immersed in accounts with very high interest rates, which take up a good chunk of their income. If there is a delay in paying a bill, then the situation becomes complicated.
In this way, if you need to resort to credit modalities, prefer alternatives with lower interest rates and avoid overdraft, financing or credit card, for example, since these generally have very high interest rates that can compromise your budget.
In this case, a good option would be loans, since you can find opportunities with low interest rates that will make your life easier, instead of complicating your financial situation. How about having access to excellent opportunities in this regard? Click here and learn about the best loan options and do everything online without having to leave your home.
be aware
This is certainly one of the most important tips that will lead you to reach your goal. To be able to save money, you need to leave the habit of consumerism aside and be very conscious about spending and saving resources.
That idea of buying on impulse or consuming things without need cannot be part of your life if you want to pool your savings. Many times, we get carried away by promotions and spend a lot of money on things that are not necessary at that moment and this is a danger to our pocket.
For those with financial goals, a good economy is never too much and, even if you have a satisfactory income and manage to save money more easily, it is necessary to avoid excesses so as not to lose balance in your budget.
As you’ve seen, saving money and earning a good financial reserve to get that project off the ground, make a dream come true or guarantee a more peaceful future is absolutely possible as long as you focus on your goal and have discipline. By following the tips above, it will certainly be easier to take the first steps and from there, gradually continue to increase your savings.