Saving a lot of money in a short amount of time is not easy. On one hand, we're fighting the increased costs of accommodation, food, clothing, and on the other, we're battling everyday temptation in a world where pretty much anything can be bought with a single click. In fact, data shows that 61 percent of adults in the US are living paycheck to paycheck and 34 percent of adults living in the UK have less than 1 thousand pounds in a savings account. So in this article I wanted to walk you through four effective strategies that will simplify and fast track your saving process. Let's get into it.
The first strategy is to put small amount of your income aside on payday
If you let yourself spend all of your net income, you'll find a way to do it. But if you take away ten percent as soon as it hits your bank account on payday and put it into another savings account that you can't touch, you'll find a way to make that remaining 90 percent work. And if you think putting ten percent away is doable, try 20 percent, and living on the remaining 80 percent. Try 30 percent and living on the remaining 70 percent, you'll be surprised by what you can do and you might be listening to this thinking that's ridiculous. No way can I make this work. That's where the second saving strategy, I talk about, comes in where I go into more details on how you can make this work, with what you have.
The second saving strategy is to not be a last-minute person.
When I worked my corporate job during the busy weeks and months, I would get a takeout about three to four times a week. I'll be on my way home. It'll be late, I'll be hang and on my way home I'll just order something from delivery or Uber eat so that it's ready for when I got home and I did this week after week because I didn't take a few hours out on a Sunday to meal prep and think about a healthier solution for the week instead. I'm still guilty of sometimes doing this, but planning in advance can save you a lot of money it can save you an overdo with fees because you're setting up some time to check your bank account. It will save you in Uber cost or taxi costs because you've saved yourself enough time to get public transport instead. And planning in advance also gives you options to do better. You can use your reward points to book your next flight. You can get a good quality umbrella instead of waiting until you're caught the rain to buy whatever is available. There are times when last-minute flexibility is useful, but often it costs you money and limits you with options.
The third saving strategy is to utilize saving technology
with almost every habit that we want to stick to or want to try there is some sort of technology that will help make it easier for us. If you're trying to reduce your social media consumption. There are apps like ones that forces you to do that. If you want to improve your fitness, there are apps that will help you do that and in the same way if your focus is to save more money, you want to lean into the technology that's available to help you out with that, there are apps that calculate how much you can afford to save each week and then automatically moves money into a separate savings account or an investment account. There are accounts like Plumb, if you're in the UK, which analyzes your spending to work out how much you can afford to save and then it automatically transfers the money over every four or five days. You can also round up purchases to the nearest pound and then save the difference. So for instance. If you're spending one pound 30 round that up to two pounds and then you can automatically save the remaining 70 p. You want to find the right apps or the right technology that will help you align your habits to your goals and make the process of saving a lot easier. On other areas in our lives we look at what went well, what didn't, how we can learn and improve for the following year.
The 4th point, which is arguably the one that will really make a difference if you stick to it, is doing a year in review.
At the end of each year, we usually do a full evaluation. On other areas in our lives we look at what went well, what didn't, how we can learn and improve for the following year. A great way to save a lot of money in a short amount of time is by doing the same evaluation in detail. Top to bottom with your finances. but think of this monthly budget as you rowing the boat. You're moving forward month by month, whereas a yearly review is you stepping back to check the broad horizon, checking that you're not just moving forward, but you're also moving in the right direction. So once a year I'll consolidate all of the bank accounts that I have my debit card accounts, my credit card accounts into one main tracker that money will have all the money coming out of my account. I'll category my spending and then go through each category line by line, asking myself three questions. Can I cut this this out or cancel it completely? Can I live with less of it? Or can I get the same thing cheaper from somewhere else? I'm not going to Bullitt here. This isn't fun, it's not interesting, but you only need to go through this once a year, but the ROI from this exercise will be huge.
So these would be my four tips on how to save money in these difficult times.
No comments :
Post a Comment