Wealth Management – Financial Planning Magazine

10 Most Effective Money Saving Habits You Can Do

jadewilliams — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 03:20:00 +0000

No matter how ambitious your financial goals are, you can’t reach them if you don’t have a realistic saving plan. Unfortunately, this is something most people are unable to achieve. With increasing life demands and money slipping into unnecessary expenses, it is not hard for you to end the month without saving a cent.

So, which are the most effective saving habits you can do? Well, there are many money-saving habits that have been tried and found to work extremely well. If you have been trying to save money in vain, this guide is for you. We have rounded up 10 most effective money-saving habits you can do:

1. Open a Savings Account

The first step to saving money is opening a savings account. The mistakes that most people make is keeping their ‘savings’ in their current account. Some have their homes as their saving accounts. Start by opening a savings account. Having a saving account helps you to avoid temptations of withdrawing the saved money or using when things get tough. In some cases, the bank provides a specific period when you can get access to your money. That’s one of the best strategies to start a saving plan.

2. Have a saving Goal

Don’t save for the purpose of having some savings in the account. You need to have very elaborate saving goals. What do you want to do with the money you are saving? Do you want to buy a house or a car? Are you saving on advancing your education or travel tour? The trick is to have a convincing saving goal. The goal should motivate you to save more money into the savings account. If you don’t have a goal, then you will not have the motivation to keep setting aside more money for savings.

3. Start Small

One of the biggest mistakes that people make is thinking that they can save a huge chunk of their monthly income. That is wrong and does not work. Such an approach will get you disappointed. Starting small as you build your saving capacity is the best strategy. If you get paid on a weekly or monthly basis, save something small off your income. Even if it is 2% of your net income, you are saving something. Be consistent and keep adding more money into the account as you adjust your expenses.

4. Try Automatic Transfer

The most difficult part for most people, especially those saving for the first time, is depositing money into the savings account. So, the best trick is to set up automatic transfers. It allows your bank to send money to your savings account automatically. You can set up automatic a weekly or monthly transfer depending on your payment schedule. What you will be receiving is your net income, which makes it easy to manage your finances. This is a strategy that everyone having problems reaching their saving goals should try.

5. Budget Your Saving

If you want to avoid automated transfers and take control of your spending, then budgeting your savings is a perfect strategy. Budget saving includes putting savings as part of your budget. What you need is to prioritise savings. Have it as the normal bills such as the energy bill and make sure that have deposited it into your saving account as among the first bills. So, make sure that you have written saving on the priority list of your budget.

6. Plan Non-Spending Days

Another money-saving habits you can do is to set aside non-spending days in a week. If you usually take coffee and snacks every day, then you can skip such spending for two days a week. If you spend most of your evening drink, then you can have two days of walking in the park or watching a movie every week. Put the money that you have saved into the savings account. It is a money-saving habit that can make a huge difference.

7. Save On Everyday Items

Saving on every item you buy every day can make a huge difference in your savings account. For example, you can make a huge saving in the long run if you save on groceries. Using coupons or buy one get one deal saves a lot of money in groceries. Do you know that if you can save $10 per day on items, the figure would translate to $520 savings in a year? Well, that’s the kind of difference you can make.

8. Save Extra Money

If you get extra money from your work, act like you received nothing and put it in savings. If you get a promotion at work or your salary is raised, don’t adjust your life by making it more expensive. A promotion makes people go for bigger cars or move to more expensive neighbourhoods. So, you can make a huge impact on your savings account by saving the extra money you receive.

9. Avoid Paying For Services You Can Get at Home

By paying for services you can get at home, you are wasting money. Why would you eat out when you can cook at home? Do you know that you can save more than 50% on your food budget if you start cooking at home and packing lunch? You can also save a lot of money of your brew at home and bring some coffee to work in a thermos. In addition to that, you can forgo gym membership and start running or exercising at home.

10. Retirement Account

For all the kinds of saving that you are doing, a good saver must always have a retirement account. This is one of the key saving tips that most people ignore until it’s late. Most people, especially the young ones, forget that they will get old and lose gainful employment. So, whether you are saving to buy a car or house, don’t forget to open a retirement account where you will be putting a small percentage of your monthly income.

Conclusion

If you have been trying to save money in vain, these are 10 money-saving habits you can do. They have been tried and found to work extremely well. Therefore, you have no reason for not saving money. Try any of these strategies or combine a number of them, and you will see a difference in your savings account.

The post 10 Most Effective Money Saving Habits You Can Do appeared first on Financial Planning Magazine.

10 Expert Tips On How To Make Budgeting More Fun

jadewilliams — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 04:05:00 +0000

Budgeting can be one of the most boring things when it comes to financial management. In fact, most people cringe when they hear the word ‘budgeting’. That’s because it denies them the luxury of using their money in order to achieve certain financial goals. Therefore, it is one of the crucial financial tenets, and thus, it shouldn’t be boring.

The good news is that there are many ways you can make budgeting fun. If you have been unable to budget consistently because of boredom, this guide is for you. We have put together some of the best ways of making budgeting fun to achieve consistency. Here are 10 ways of making budgeting more fun:

1. Use Budgeting Apps

Technology has made almost everything we do much easier. Budgeting is one thing that technology has made easy. There are tons of applications that can help make budgeting fun. What these apps do is organising your finances by offering automated money managed. Some of the apps, such as Mint, comes with tools that track your spending against your budget. Once you have set up the budget, these apps will alert you automatically whenever the spending goes above it. The top budgeting apps are easy to use and make budgeting fun.

2. Set Your Financial Goals

The budgeting process must be goal-driven. Otherwise, you cannot go far without getting bored due to a lack of motivation. So, you need motivation to budget consistently. Having financial goals is one of the ways you can add vigour into the budgeting. The goals don’t have to big, but they should be realistic. For starters, you can start with saving a $1, 000 emergency fund. So you will need to have savings as part of the budget. The fund will act as a motivation towards saving. Next, you can start saving to buy a house.

3. Reward Yourself

Whether you are budgeting to save money for either a house or car, etc., you need to set milestones. For example, if you need $20,000 to buy a car, then you set four milestones of $5,000. Once you reach every milestone, you reward yourself with something like dinner or new clothes. You can also take a cheap vacation after reaching the next milestone. This will be a big motivation that will keep you in the plan.

4. Make Budgeting A Family Affair

If you have a family, then you must bring everyone on board. Every member must participate in the budget process for it to be inclusive. Otherwise, leaving some of the members out will make the process quite difficult and boring for them to implement. For instance, your spouse may not understand why you have suddenly stopped eating out. You should also discuss the goals and agree on what you need as a family. This will make budgeting more fun as everyone will have their eyes on the goal.

5. Make Budgeting Attractive

Making the budgeting pretty is another trick that helps to avoid getting bored. Imagine writing your budgeting in an old book. Well, it will not last for long because there is nothing attractive about that budget. The best way to go about it is making the budget as pretty as possible. If you are writing it down, use a colourful and engaging book. You can also use budget spreadsheets which are bright and easy to use. There are also many worksheets that you get on the internet that will help make budgeting pretty.

6. Make Budgeting Easy

One of the common mistakes that people make when budgeting is complicating it. A budget should be easy and simple but must capture all the relevant details. It should not be stressful or else; you will get bored really quick. Some of the key elements that make budgeting easy is having a schedule. The schedule should be easy to incorporate into your everyday life. Make it simple by having fewer categories. If you have it on your computer, create a new folder for it.

7. Change Your Perception

You need a positive mindset when it comes to budgeting. Most people that lack consistency in their budgeting usually have the wrong mindset about the whole thing. They do not really believe that they will successfully commit to the budget. So, if you have this kind of thinking, then you will definitely have a problem achieving your budgeting goals. Therefore, you need to change your negative perception of budgeting. See the reasons why you need it and more so the goals you have set.

8. Don’t Punish Yourself

Regardless of the financial achievements that you are looking for, don’t punish yourself in the process. That’s another big mistake that most people make. Because you are saving to buy a home does not that you start denying yourself some of the good things. For example, you should not stop going out for dinner with our spouse or family completely. What you need to reduces the number of times you eat out to save money. Similarly, you should stop drinking but reduce the number of times as well as the number of beers.

9. Make it Predictable

If you want to budget successfully, then you must make it predictable. It should not be something that comes up on any day of the month. This is a critical point, especially if you are bringing every member of the family on board. For example, if your budget monthly, then everyone must know when the day the budgeting is done. If you budget on the last day of every month, make sure that you have stuck to that. With that, you will ensure that everyone is psychologically ready for it.

10. Join A Community

Last but not least, is joining a community. Everything becomes fun when you are many. If you have friends whom you share the same budgeting goals, then you can form a budgeting group. There are also many saving groups on various social media platforms, such as Facebook that you can join. You will be amazed by how budgeting becomes fun with such communities. Additionally, you will find members in these communities with stories of successfully budgeting. So, you will have a lot to learn from such members.

Conclusion

The key to budgeting is making the process fun. Otherwise, you will not go far without getting bored. Simple and easy budget and setting goals are some of the key elements that make the process fun. Do not punish yourself as this will make you hate budgeting in the long run. It is also important that you seek professional advice from your local financial planner.

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