Inga Mayakovskaya
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Find money for the right thing today it’s not a problem: if there is nowhere to intercept before the salary, or a serious amount is required, you can. But you take someone else's, and you give, as you know, your own. Not to mention interest and other costs.
Is it possible to save money without getting into debt? How to save money smartly?
We control expenses - we save money correctly
Accounting family budget
is the first task. Especially if you plan to accumulate funds not on your own, but in the status of a family person. Cost control involves accounting for all monthly utility bills, purchases and additional expenses. 
Key costs and how to save on them:
- Rent bills, electricity, internet, telephone.
At this point, especially to save, of course, will not work. Although, if you really try, you can reduce the cost of electricity by timely turning off the lights and unnecessary appliances (+ energy-saving light bulbs), and water (by installing meters). As for the phone with the Internet, you can choose the best tariff for your means. For example, if you call from a landline number once every two months, then "unlimited" is useless to you. - Clothes, shoes.
Outerwear and shoes do not need a monthly update. Yes, and from the twentieth blouse in the closet, as well as from the 30th pair of tights "in reserve" and the next set of underwear according to the scheme "What a beautiful! I want, I want, I want!”, you can do without. Before you buy a thing, think about it - do you really need it, or does the apocalypse not come if you leave it in the store? Wait a day or two. A week is better. Most likely, you will find that you can do just fine without it. Another option is to open a separate account specifically for clothing expenses and only withdraw funds when absolutely necessary. - Food.
The same item of expenditure for which funds should be allocated immediately a month in advance. Otherwise, you run the risk of sitting on Chinese noodles for the last week before the salary. The second nuance (and the most important) is children. Living in your lonely pleasure, you can easily save on food - drink tea without sugar, do without spices, sauces and frills, etc. But children need good nutrition. Therefore, funds for food should always be. - Transport.
With regular trips, it is more profitable to buy a single travel card, instead of a taxi, you can use public transport, and you can walk a couple of stops to point A on foot (at the same time, shed a pound of extra centimeters and supply the brain with useful oxygen). - Unexpected expenses.
Funds for medicines, in cases of force majeure (a tap dripped, an iron broke, a toddler spilled coffee on a working laptop, etc.), urgent “donations” to the “school fund”, etc. should always be on a separate shelf. Life, as you know, is unpredictable, and it is better to be safe from unexpected "gifts" of fate. Read also: - Entertainment, recreation, gifts.
If you set yourself a goal - to urgently save up for a really necessary thing, then you can wait a little with entertainment. Or remember the entertainment that is available even with a minimum amount on hand.
All monthly expenses enter in notepad . Summing up, you will see - what you could perfectly do without, what you can save on, how much money you need specifically for life, and how much is left after deducting these obligatory expenses for the “piggy bank”.
A nice bonus: the question “Where is the money, Zin?” there will be no more - everything is calculated and fixed. And remember: this is not about becoming a mean and main miser in the area, but about learning how to allocate funds wisely
.
How to save money - basic principles, options and recommendations
- Calculate - how much money comes to your family piggy bank every month. Even if the work is piecework and at home, the average income is easy to calculate. Add up all incomes, including both spouses' salaries, pensions / benefits (if any), "hacks" and "covens". Divide the funds according to the obligatory expenses (see above), and hide the remaining money in the piggy bank that is closest to you - in a stocking, under a mattress, in a bank, in a passbook, in a safe or in a family sugar bowl over there in that corner of the sideboard.
- Going outside (especially for groceries or shopping for stress), leave exactly that much cash in your wallet so that you have enough for the essentials according to the list (write the list in advance). The rest is “under the mattress”. Extra funds in the wallet - the temptation to spend. And do not go to the store with a plastic card. With a card, it is impossible to limit oneself in desires - “and you also need sweets for tea”, “oh, but there is only a kilogram of powder left”, “you should buy sugar in reserve, while there is a discount on it”, etc. “Plastic” - only to withdraw cash!
- Pay yourself and only then pay everyone else. What does it mean? Receiving a salary, we do not have time to hold it, dear, in our hands. First we pay ZhEKs, then schools and pharmacies, we leave an impressive part in grocery stores etc. And only then we scrape together the crumbs from this pie for ourselves. Do the opposite (after all, you deserve it): when you get paid (bonus, allowance, etc.), 10 percent immediately (before you get shaken up for new classroom chair covers and increased plumbing rates) save! Preferably, immediately to the bank at interest. This will limit your access to funds (you will not be able to withdraw them at any time under the contract), increase your income (not much, but pleasantly) and provide the resource that will gradually grow and grow stronger.
- Decided to hoard? Save up! But do it regularly and no matter what. That is, every month, 10 percent of all income should go into the "box". Don't have enough money for a server for the holiday? Or a gift for a child? Or bills for utilities grow up again? Look for additional way earnings. But do not touch the egg-pod: they set aside money - and forgot about them (for the time being).
- The only reason you can get money out of a piggy bank is opportunity to increase these (education, image and other items "for the future" do not apply here). But there is necessary condition- monetary airbag. It is equal to monthly income multiplied by 3. This amount should always be in your piggy bank. Everything above - take and increase.
- If a piggy bank constantly tempts you to buy a hammer, and the money under the pillow rustles so seductively - bring funds to the bank . This will save you nerves and save yourself from temptations. The main thing is not to invest money in the first bank that comes across (which will go bankrupt in a month) and not to peck at the "dreadful interest" of the next "MMM". The rule “a hen pecks grain by grain” has not been canceled. Better small interest and confidence in the safety of funds than cosmic interest "for seed" and parting with your money.
- Learn to value yourself, your work and money , which, unfortunately, no one pours on you from above. When buying a thing, calculate how many hours of work it will cost you. Is she really worth it?
And one more piece of advice: never borrow, take out loans and do not intercept from your parents
until payday. Learn to make do with what you have and tighten your belt for a period of forced savings.
I know what I'm talking about. I - financial analyst. This means that I help people and companies figure out what they have with their money and how to manage it. For example, I helped the editorial director of The Knife transform from a person who loses money - through stupid spending or simply crumpled pieces of paper that fell out of his pocket - into an experienced user of a personal accounting system who knows how to save and make long-term deposits. I also saved her from a deuce in mathematics at school, but that's another story.
Why keep a personal budget
If you are interested in this issue, then you have a problem related to money. Are you counting the days until payday? This means that your expenses exceed your income: simply put, you are living beyond your means. Do you want to save up for an important purchase, but over and over again ruin the piggy bank for some not-so-necessary things? Poorly planned "program" spending. Due to the size of the “minus”, a credit card has turned into a pile of existential bricks, pulling you by the pocket to the very bottom, do you take on debt to pay off the loan and again in debt to pay off the debt?
If at the same time you seem to have a decent salary the size of "enough for everything", but for some reason you still do not have enough - most likely, it's not in your wallet, but in your head: it's a mess. This problem is primarily solved by the ability to manage the budget.
What is a "budget"
In the classical sense, the budget is your plan of income and expenses (or your company or maybe even your state) for the year. Usually it is made up for a year, this is relevant if you want to make a major purchase or, what the hell is not joking, for some reason decided on a mortgage. But if you faint at the thought of annual reporting or your task is to stop eating one buckwheat after spending your paycheck, you can start by analyzing and planning the month. But for more long term than a year, it makes no sense to make plans: the share of uncertainty increases to an uncontrollable level, since your personal situation or the country's economy can change dramatically beyond the horizon of the annual perspective.
How to analyze your finances
To budget for a year (or a month), you need to know how much money you will earn in a year (or month) and how much you usually spend. To find out, you need to have statistics of income and expenses for some previous period. And for this you need to fix the flow of money - salary, repayment of debts, one-time fees, regular receipts from a rich uncle and planned winnings at the casino (just kidding, don't gamble to make money). And write down expenses: how much you spent on regular items like food and housekeeping, what regular apartment bill you pay, how much you spent on transportation, endless treatment for a cold, craft beer on Fridays, trying to “walk away” it in the gym, etc.
If you pay in cash, then in order to fix your expenses, you will have to remember your grandmother's evenings in the kitchen with a pile of cash receipts and resignedly repeat her fate. Try to record expenses with a quill pen for entourage.
Joking aside, getting rid of cash isn't always easy, and paying in cash is hard to remember. Therefore, it is better to keep receipts.
If you use bank cards, and non-cash payments are your main method of payment, then you already have a basis for budgeting, even if you did nothing for this. In a mobile application or Internet banking, you can usually download a statement and copy all the entries already collected by cost group into an Excel spreadsheet with a budget. True, not every bank issues this information in a digestible form, but the largest and most popular allow you to use this data without any problems. You will receive the average amount of income and expenses by month and year. This will allow you to start planning.
I have always worked in Google spreadsheets and set up all the calculations manually, but now there are already good mobile application solutions. For example, the CoinKeeper app can help you analyze spending and estimate your budget, but the free version is very limited in use. My favorite is Zen Money, the application saves time and synchronizes itself with my Internet bank every 20 minutes (for a person accustomed to manual accounting work, this is simply mystic!) - all that remains is to make rare cash payments, after which checks can already be thrown away . Still there convenient system corrections if something doesn't fit.
Step one: calculate income
First of all, plan income, it is easier with them, especially if you have a fixed salary. If you are a freelancer, find your average monthly salary.
When planning, proceed from the principle of prudence: we hope for the best, but we keep in mind that the reality will be more modest. That is, it is better to plan income slightly lower than expected, especially if there is some degree of uncertainty (and expenses are slightly overstated, in case of unforeseen expenses).
If you have an annual bonus, the payment of which you have no doubt, be sure to include in the budget. If in doubt - do not take it into account, let it be your reserve.
Step Two: Examine the Costs
Knowing how much income we have, we can understand the spending limit that we must fit in order to keep spending reasonable - and to learn how to save.
First of all, I recommend to draw up a cost structure. If you have already switched from cash to bank cards for the most part, you will come in handy again. mobile app, in which expenses are grouped into categories: pharmacies, cafes, books, transport, supermarkets, etc.
Analyze, build on this list, which categories you spend on most often, but you don’t need to use a highly detailed structure, it will only complicate the work on the budget. Enough 6-8 categories.
My main ones are: groceries and household goods, rent payments, health and beauty, sports, clothes and shoes, travel and entertainment, gas and car expenses, education. Separating, for example, food and household goods from a common check in a supermarket is a chore - so it will be easier to combine purchases from one store into one article.
Once you've figured out how much you're spending on what, make a spending plan for those categories for the next month (or year, depending on your level of panic before having to plan). Start with the most obvious and must-have recurring expenses based on your statistics. And be sure to remember about one-time payments like property tax, car maintenance or insurance premiums. So you will understand how much you will spend in any case - “for life”, as they say.
Step three: compare income and expenses
Compare what you wrote down in terms of expenses and income. If the estimated costs exceed the estimated income, then it is worth taking a close look at each item and see if there are any extra expenses.
That is, do you really want to spend 5,500 rubles a month on coffee with you because you are too lazy to bring your mug and a pack of coffee for 800 rubles to the office, or is it not?
It's worth considering.
What to do?
Understanding exactly what and how much you spend is useful, even if you have some amount left in the balance every month. You may suddenly find that, without even knowing it, you have been spending 20,000 rubles a month on cafes and restaurants since your salary was raised - although daily expenses were somehow completely invisible. You have free money - but you disposed of it as "superfluous".
So that money is not spent on something that you, as it were, “did not choose”, you need to follow the “spree” articles, specifically limit them - and either spend the freed money on a category that is more useful to you, or start saving them.
Sometimes just counting your expenses can open your eyes to misallocation of spending and change your life. This happened to me with coffee, I could not believe that I was spending 6,000 rubles a month on a habit that makes me nervous and causes insomnia. No, I love coffee - but a few cups a day turned out to be superfluous not only for my body, but also for my wallet.
I used mine professional knowledge(and some knowledge of neuroscience) to trick your inner coffee spender and get income from it.
Every time I want an “extra” coffee, I open the bank’s mobile application and transfer its cost to the savings account of my debit card. But this is not just saving money: banks give a percentage of the invested amount for keeping money.
Every month I get a percentage of my coffee not drunk - and at the same time a dose of dopamine, an encouragement for a reasonable financial behavior. And since I can invest this money, and the coffee I drink leaves my body without any benefit, the pleasure from the piggy bank exceeds the pleasure from bad habit.
How else can you save
Even if you don't have a small bad habit that costs you dearly, regularly saving a small amount of money can provide you big investment. My friend with four younger brothers and sisters, for example, when I told her about the possibilities of saving with a debit card, opened a savings account for each child and asked relatives to send 500-1000 rubles a month, then to divide the amount equally between the children.
For each family “cell”, such a contribution was imperceptible, but in a year the children were able to buy a computer, a piano, a monitor, subscriptions to the pool and science classes, and a ticket to a fashion camp - which their parents would not have mastered without contributions.
True, the interest on savings accounts is usually lower than on the card balance, but on the other hand, accounts provide more opportunities and convenience in use: you can name them, set a goal, visualize it by adding a motivating picture, and calculate the time it takes to achieve it. For example, you want to collect 30,000 rubles in six months - mobile bank will suggest you save 1250 a week (and he will be right) and will show how close you are to the goal.
Voila, you have learned to save!
The next level of savings is the amortization of large purchases, that is, the gradual reimbursement of the cost of the purchase so that a hole from the meteorite does not form in your wallet and so that the “wound” in your finances gradually heals.
Suppose you were smart and bought an iPhone for only 50,000. You know that it will last 3 years for sure. Divide the purchase amount by 36 months: it turns out about 1,400 rubles - this is how much it costs you to use a smartphone worth 50,000 monthly with a service life of 3 years. This procedure is very similar to the usual “postponing” for a purchase, but it’s not just the accumulation that is important here, but the very meaning of this procedure: you realize how much the item of purchase costs you per month and evenly gradually part with the amount of money that is commensurate with the cost of using it subject.
For the first time, such a procedure with a budget is difficult to understand: I just spent the money, why should I pay again?
But as you approach your next purchase, you will realize that for 3 years you have been paying for the use of an iPhone - and therefore the money for a new one has already been accumulated. After buying the next one, you again begin to “amortize” its cost: divide the price in proportion to the period of use.
Ideally, do this with every major purchase. So you can not only accumulate, but also evaluate the real value of things that we use daily. But this level of financial literacy is not for the faint of heart.
Why a bank card helps to save up better than a glass jar
Remember the main rule of the financier: money must work. If the bills are under your mattress, you are well done for resisting the temptation to squander them. But if you don't make a purchase soon that will help you earn money (for example, don't buy new tool for your work), or do not put it at interest - the value of this money will gradually fall.
The Central Bank of Russia predicts inflation of 5–5.5% in 2019: this means that each of your blue papers of 1000 rubles depreciates by 15 kopecks every day.
You don’t just have to immediately rush to play on currency differences, buy shares or ask the bank to saw off a piece of a gold bar for you. Start simple and safe tool- debit card.
To decide which bank card to choose, you need to compare who offers what percentage.
If certain conditions are met - you do not go to zero, and you always have a certain amount on your card, you spend a certain amount of money from the card every month or use other bank products - the bank may offer an increased rate on the account balance.
For example, if you spend more than 3,000 rubles a month from a card, Tinkoff will give you 6%, and in Alfa-Bank and VTB, you need to spend more than 70,000 and 75,000 rubles, respectively, to get the same income. Card income is mainly credited to the daily balance, so it is beneficial to keep money on the card for as long as possible and pay for large purchases at the very last moment - this way you can get interest on a larger amount.
To get even more benefits, you can make your own debit card salary. This gives some advantages: lower interest on loans and mortgages and higher interest on account balances and deposits.
Life hack: it is not necessary to be employed on a permanent basis in order to have a “salary” card! Some banks assign your card the status of "salary" if you transfer the required minimum amount of funds monthly with a note in the payment "salary" - even if it is a transfer from one of your cards to another.
If income allows, you can have several of these "salary" cards in different banks, which in the future may provide you more benefits when choosing a bank for a loan: premium conditions will be in several banks, and Raiffeisenbank even offers 1% on top of the income on the card balance for this.
What is cashback and why banks return money to us
In the matter of paying for goods and services, the card is more profitable than cash because of the cashback - this is the percentage that the bank returns to you at the end of the month from purchases paid by the card.
Banks, of course, are not crazy enough to just give us their money. To understand where it comes from, you need to take into account that there are three heroes involved in a purchase paid for by a card: you, the seller, and the bank, which transfers money from your account to the seller's account.
The seller pays him a commission for using the bank's services - and it is this part that the bank returns to you so that you feel love, care and more willingly bring your money to the bank (it's profitable!).
Basically, banks return 1-3% of the amount of payments and offer several categories of increased cashback. Tinkoff, for example, returns 1% of all payments, and also offers to choose three categories once every three months, from which there will be an increased cashback of 5%: these can be pharmacies, entertainment, restaurants, cars, transport, books and much more more.
Let's say in January I chose the category "car services" because I plan to soon undergo an expensive technical inspection and I'm going to get 5% of its price back on the card. guess desired categories I am helped by my budget, in which large purchases (5% of which often turn out to be a significant amount) are planned months in advance. Banks are not fools and do not slip categories of increased cashback that are beneficial to you, so for a profitable large purchase it is useful to wait until the “carousel” of the offer reaches desired type goods.
Alfa-bank offers different cards with one (or two) categories of increased cashback. For example, the Cash Back card allows you to receive 10% at gas stations, 5% in cafes and restaurants, and 1% on all other purchases.
Raiffeisenbank promises to return up to 3.9% for any purchase - however, in points that can only be spent on the rewards catalog. This condition makes their cashbacks not liquid enough. It is much better if the reward for purchases is the replenishment of the current account with real money.
VTB will pay you from 1% to 2.5% depending on the amount of purchases: up to 15,000 - 1%, up to 75,000 - 2%, over 75,000 - 2.5%. Various options can be connected to the card, for example, 10% for the category "Auto" or "Restaurants". The VTB multicard became the best bank card of 2017 according to Banki.ru, because it is a Frankenstein monster sewn from a debit, credit and salary card at the same time. Using it, you can change one of the many options every month, such as increased cashback, increased income on accounts and deposits, and many more.
If you now feel that you want pills for greed - and more, then get a few cards and pay with them, choosing the most profitable one depending on the category of spending! It just needs more attention.
It is important to know about categories that sometimes they are not taken into account by the application correctly, so always check how the transaction went. If the purchase falls into the wrong category, you will not be credited with cashback, but this is not the fault of the application, but the problem of classifying your purchase based on the place of purchase. For example, when I had an increased cashback for equipment, I bought a smartphone in a communications store - the purchase went into the “communications” category. I quickly saw this and informed the bank, enclosing a check. The purchase was recalculated to me in the "electronics" category, and at the end of the month I received my cashback on the card.
There is another great life hack with cashback: pay by card in cafes and shops for retrograde friends who still use cash. Friends will not lose anything by giving cash to you, and you will also receive cashback for them.
If you are preparing to buy clothes and shoes, equipment, to sit in a restaurant on a grand scale, check the bank's partners in the application who offer the services you need at a big discount when paying with a card. It can get big if you're careful.
The card makes life easier
If you are a financial bungler, then the card will save you from losing money, crumpled pieces of paper falling out of your pockets or “disappearing” into something, you don’t even remember what. If you are a technophile who always forgets your wallet with a smart watch, then they can become your bag of gold, leaving your pockets and thieves on the tram empty. I don’t lose money, but I connected my card to a smart watch and don’t try, as before, to put a hundred in sneakers before a run, so that I have something to buy water on the way back.
Well, in addition, the card helps to solve the most unpleasant routine matters of adult life. If you are just starting out on the path of paying electricity bills, utility bills, and car fines and the prospect of looking for papers in the dirty mailbox and trudging to the bank to pay seems to be an existential problem for you, relax and turn on automatic payments.
Since you are storing money on the card, let it be charged on time for all the bills necessary for survival: you will just receive a notification, not late fees.
It sounds, maybe, a little boring. Budgeting, of course, requires discipline - but it's not at all as scary as you imagine. It takes 10 minutes a day in the evening to write down the expenses for the day. But control makes it possible to plan - and this, in the end, is the freedom that we all strive for.
Having his savings, a person becomes more protected from any unforeseen situations. Agree, when you have a small amount of capital in your account, you feel more confident. And if there is nothing in the bosom? Maybe it's time to start saving for a brighter future.
At first glance, there is nothing complicated in this. Received a salary, part was postponed and so on in a circle. But not everything is so simple. For many, this will be difficult. It will be tempting to spend money now and not save anything for later. Or you can run your hand into the savings already accumulated on the “just necessary in this moment purchase."
We save for a specific goal
It is very difficult to save and save money just like that without a goal. It even seems like useful thing, as a financial airbag is inherently intangible and you will not receive any rewards from it. If we compare a person with trained animals, who receive a piece of sugar for each action, then at the end of the path (accumulations) he should also be rewarded for his labors.
Therefore, a specific goal is needed - why are you saving money. Let it be new tv, a trip to the sea or even a car. You must know what all this is for. And what will you get in the end. This will be great motivation for you.
We determine the timing
Second important step is timing during which you plan to achieve your goal. Deadlines should be realistic and at the same time not too long.
If you plan to save up to buy an apartment in 2-3 years, and you yourself get 20-25 thousand, this is an unrealistic time. On the other hand, if you decide to save up for a TV worth 25-30 thousand for 2 years, saving 1 thousand per month, with a 100% probability you will quit this business halfway through - the period is too long.
Choice correct timing will greatly spur your motivation to save. Knowing that in, say, six months I will go to the sea, to force you to stick to the plan.
Monthly installments
Knowing what we need and how long we plan to achieve this, we can easily determine the amount of our monthly "donations". Let's say if you plan to buy a new laptop for 42 thousand in six months, you should save 7 thousand rubles a month. If such an amount is unbearable for you at the moment, then you need to increase the period, for example, up to a year.
Can you save 3.5 thousand monthly? Then great.
Prioritization
As a rule, a person wants everything at once. Here it is important to determine what you need first. Chasing two hares at once, you will not catch a single one. How does this apply to us?
You need to define for yourself no more than 2-3 goals. Or better yet, just one. After all, if you simultaneously save up for a TV and for a new fur coat and for a trip to the sea - the accumulation period will increase significantly. It is better to first save up for one thing that is most important to you.
Cost control
Successful and rapid accumulation of funds is impossible without compiling a personal financial plan(although accumulation is also part of this plan). Cost control is one of the most important components in this chain. You must analyze all your expenses and determine where and what your money is going to. Next, we identify those expenses that can be reduced or even eliminated altogether.
Going to cafes, restaurants is an unnecessary expense, while burning a significant part of your budget. Some of this money can be used for other useful purchases.
After analyzing your spending, you will be surprised - how much money you have wasted nowhere, on all sorts of unnecessary little things. At ordinary people the share of such expenses is from 20 to 30% of their income.
By optimizing your expenses, you get a certain amount of free money, which you can just set aside in savings to accumulate for your goal.
At the end of the road
Approximately one month before reaching the deadline, monitor the market for the cost of the product (service) you are purchasing. You can always find any product at a price lower than what you originally planned. Why buy in the nearest store, if, say, you can order online or find the same product sold at a discount on a promotion in another store. Thus, you can save at least 10-15% and even more.
It is likely that you will immediately buy this product, a month earlier than planned. (you will receive a discount just equal to your monthly investment in the piggy bank).
As they say, the wolves are full and the sheep are safe.
Let's consider all of the above with a specific example.
Your income is 30,000 rubles per month
You are planning to go on vacation to the sea in a warm country (GOAL)
This pleasure will cost you 96 thousand rubles.
You can save up for 1 year - putting aside 8 thousand rubles, or for 2 years - putting aside 4 thousand rubles. (DATE)
Saving for 2 years is not an option, you think. I want to go as quickly as possible. But ... .. saving 8 thousand monthly is too expensive for your financial condition. Almost all of the money is gone. And practically nothing remains. You can put aside 5 thousand, no more.
After analyzing your expenses, there are certain expenses (about 3-4 thousand) that can be called "excessive" and which you can do without (Expense Control).
As a result, you can painlessly set aside 8 thousand a month every month.
In about a month, you begin to look at the cost of tours for various tours. agencies. A week passes and suddenly, lo and behold, you are offered the same ticket with a 20% discount, worth 77 thousand rubles. You have the money (11 months x 8 thousand = 88 thousand), you immediately buy it.
Goal achieved!
- “extra” expenses were optimized, which allowed you to find additional money;
- you saved 19 thousand rubles;
- reached the goal a month earlier;
- and most importantly, you passed the test, walked towards your goal for a whole year and did not turn off the path. You are well done!
If you have already started saving money, congratulations - this is a smart step towards a secure future. Ideally, your money "airbag" should be enough for six months of life without financial receipts. But even if every month you make a profit and increase your savings, this does not mean that your strategy is perfect.
David Blaylock, a financial planner, analyzed the common ones and gave some tips for improving them.
Strategy #1: Save What's Left
So you pay your monthly bills, maybe spend some on entertainment, and then whatever's left goes into a bank account. Knowing that you, in principle, have money, you can spend more than you should, and then spend the funds intended for accumulation. Also, it's hard to set a specific savings goal for yourself, because you can never be sure how much you'll have left after spending all your money. Instead, you can try another method.
So how should it be?
The very first bill you need to pay after your paycheck is your savings account.
Make it your rule and treat it as a mandatory and most important part of payments (of course, if you have enough money to pay all other bills).
Create an automatic money transfer from your bank card to a savings account at the beginning of the month or from each cash receipt. If you just set up such an automatic money transfer and forget about it, after a while the amount of accumulated funds will surprise you greatly.
Strategy number 2. I transfer money to a savings account
So, you are regular - that's great. Yes, and a savings account plastic card- it is very comfortable. But here, too, there are downsides.
If you run out of money, you run the risk of withdrawing your savings or even spending them on an unexpected but very welcome purchase. And, most likely, you will, because it is very easy to withdraw money: it is always within reach, you don’t even have to go to the bank, just use an ATM.
So how should it be?
Open a bank deposit for 6 months or a year. This way you will definitely not spend money intended for storage. Just don't invest everything. Leave some in a regular savings account for emergencies.
Strategy number 3. All my savings are in one account
When you have only one savings account, it seems that the money in it accumulates quickly and there is enough for everything. If you're only saving for one thing, like an apartment or a vacation, then you're fine. But if you have several goals, one bank account makes it difficult to calculate and you do not see concrete progress. It is more difficult for you to understand what is enough money for, and what will have to wait.
As a result, it turns out that, having spent savings, for example, on a vacation, you leave nothing for a new car.
So how should it be?
It is better to have several accounts, each of which will be dedicated to a specific purpose, for example: “home”, “vacation”, “child education”. This will make it much easier to calculate your finances and see real progress.
Strategy #4: I save big when I can.
Some people do not save money on a permanent basis, but save large amounts at once when a lucky opportunity occurs. In this way of accumulation, feelings of abundance and guilt alternate. The last one is when you have to take money from your savings. The frustration of doing so can even discourage you from ever saving money again.
So how should it be?
The best thing to do is to set yourself savings goals and work towards them. Decide on a specific amount of money to set aside each month. If it seems to you that it can be increased without compromising the quality of life, do it. But! Contributions must remain consistent and equal.
Strategy #5: I save everything I can
Despite the need to have savings, you should not get too hung up on this and deny yourself the pleasures. They help us stay happy and maintain mental health.
So how should it be?
If you haven't had a month in which you could contribute money to an "emergency fund", put off all other payments and pleasures until you can.
When your six-month "emergency fund" is replenished, Blaylock advises changing strategy. Since small cash savings bring little money, it is worth considering longer-term savings with good interest.
In order to raise a sufficiently large amount of funds, you first need to figure out what you are spending the money that you yourself earn. In addition, you should decide on those expenses that you can refuse and which you cannot. To accumulate money, you will have to save constantly, from each income. If you don’t start putting it off, you won’t be able to collect anything.
As practice shows, each person has the opportunity to give about 10-15% of his income for savings. If you need to collect a fairly large amount, you will have to save about 30% of your income. And with a sufficiently high income - up to 50% of the earned funds.
How to save money for an apartment
Saving money is just a way to forego some purchases today in order to afford large enough spending up to the purchase of your own property. The ability to spend money wisely also allows a person to significantly improve his own financial position. If you are used to spending everything you earn and cannot save money at home, then it makes sense to use banking services. You can also withdraw money from your account at any time, but this is fraught with interest loss. Yes, and money on deposit is not the same as money in your wallet, which you can just get out of there and spend.
How to save money as a teenager
A teenager can also raise money for a big purchase. For example, expensive mobile phone or a tourist trip with class. He, however, will have to clearly separate those expenses on which he can save: not updating his wardrobe for some time, reducing the cost of lunches at school due to the fact that he will cook for himself at home. Besides, in Russian Federation teenagers from the age of 14, with the permission of their parents, can find a part-time job in their free time from study. If you calculate everything, you can understand how long it will take to collect money for the same iPhone. Parents, in turn, should encourage such aspirations of the child - in adulthood, he will also be careful with money.
How to save money for a car
If you want to buy new car, but do not consider the possibility of obtaining it from the bank (which definitely does not contribute to savings, although it makes it possible to get what you want here and now), first of all, decide how much you need. This will allow you to understand how much money you have to save monthly to afford a car in six months, a year or a couple of years.
For example, you plan to purchase a Ford, the cost of which is about 500-600 thousand rubles. Today you have half the required amount (or you plan to sell an old car for 300 thousand). In addition, the family has certain savings in the amount of 100 thousand rubles. That is, you still have to accumulate another 100-200 thousand. The only thing left is the question of urgency. For example, in order to save the required amount in 6 months, you need to save from 17 to 34 thousand rubles every month. For a year - from 8.5 to 17 thousand rubles.
Accumulate big money
Saving money is just a way to forego some purchases today in order to afford large enough spending up to the purchase of your own property. The ability to spend money wisely also allows a person to significantly improve their own financial situation.
It is difficult to give any advice on whether it is worth denying everything to yourself for several years in order to accumulate a significant amount of funds. However, bank loans are not an option, since overpayments on them are much more significant. Is it worth saving money for a deposit? Many banks offer conditions that do not even always cover inflation. However, investing is not for everyone either. You just need to choose your own way of accumulating funds, which will be really convenient for you. It will also be possible to accumulate a lot of money if you already have a sufficient reserve stock that you can put on a deposit, live on interest from it and give all your earnings to accumulation.
Ways to save money
Try to immediately remove from your expense items those that you need very secondary. Unjustified spending today is just denying yourself a big purchase tomorrow. Learn to save, and you yourself will soon see how many expenses you previously made in vain and how much you don’t really need.
Train yourself to eat at home (not spend money on snacks in cafes), buy groceries in supermarkets, or wholesale stores, where prices are an order of magnitude cheaper than market prices, refuse to buy too expensive clothes (it's just clothes), use various flea markets if some goods can be bought in good condition, but used.
Never buy anything impulsively. As a rule, things acquired spontaneously, then turn out to be completely unnecessary to us.
Where to save money
To save money, you need to learn how to control your spending. The easiest way to save money is to do it as soon as you receive it. wages or any other type of income. Determine what percentage you will save and deduct them systematically. You can do this with the help of auto payment: the bank itself, when accruing funds, some percentage of them will automatically be transferred to the savings account.
The second way to save money is to find ways to earn more or get additional income to the main one. The main thing is to see how much you need monthly and focus on it.
Advice from Sravni.ru: Be guided in spending only by your own common sense. Learn to respect yourself and your income: don't blow money down the drain. We live in a consumer world. Most of the products people spend money on don't really need them. Try it and you will see for yourself.
