Topic: Cracking the Code of Saving Money... - page 3. (Read 1704 times)

alot of people see their paycheque and think "wow i got X.y thousand this month".. they then spend without planning. and halfway through the month when their card gets declined at the shop. they wonder where their money went

the code to saving is simple
audit yourself. look at the last 3 months of spending and actually note every amount. categorise it
work out your fixed bills. taxes and rent/mortgage
and have the main income account with that amount ready to pay bills on due date(s)

many people surprising think nothing about having 6 credit cards and doing 6x balance transfers a month. but dont think about having 6 debit cards

so after organising your bills, then with the excess after bills have 5 other accounts (total 6)
a. being your savings. (set an amount first you want to put aside BEFORE spending the excess)
then with the remaining amount after bills and savings
b. being the BUDGET for groceries
c. being the BUDGET for clothes
d. being the BUDGET for kids toys, hobbies, activities, needs
e. being the excess BUDGET for novelty, surprises

when you go grocery shopping dont bring your bills card, nor savings, clothes, kids cards with you
know your grocery budget before you enter the store. use an app(calculator) to total up what you put into your cart/basket so before you reach the cashier desk you know how much the total is.. and obviously if you are getting near the total you can decide what you can swap/replace/go without

by knowing where the money is going before you spend it. and locking it off into budgets. you can then control your spending

Yes it is obvious, people will only know about anything when they have experienced it, as you said in the household problem, when someone who has not entered the household phase then obviously they will not know how to manage very well especially in terms of finance and make savings, at first glance in terms of food it doesn't seem to be too much of a problem and we usually don't emphasize too much in terms of choosing whether it's from the type of food or from the matter of price per food that we will buy, for example, we usually always put a budget of $200 for the cost of basic food needs but by doing research first we can actually still save and lower that cost to be lower but still with food products that are not much different in terms of efficacy and health.

Honestly, I prefer shopping at the market rather than going to the mall because obviously like the discussion you said above, by going to the market I can save more budget for my monthly shopping because the market price with the price in some stores or like in the mall is very much different but on the other hand it does not reduce the quality of the product. So the point is there are still several ways that we can do to be able to save more money in any case as long as we want to do it.

That is very true. People who don't run their own households don't know that a lot can be saved with switching out groceries' brands. And that doesn't necessarily imply switching to worse food, by the way. Sometimes cheaper food is healthier and more delicious than what you're used to buying in expensive shops just because you didn't have time for looking for better options.

to put aside $10k a year
is /365 = $27.40 a day(7day week) $38 a day(5day week)

if someone can find a part time job for 3 hours for $10-15/h. or do some over time you can more then afford to save $10k a year
if you waste $28 a day on fast food, retail sold coffee, frivolous spending each day. stop. you can more then afford to save $10k a year

working just 40 hours a week for 52 weeks = 2080hours. means you need to ask for $5 an hour pay rise to get $10k a year saved
asking for $5/hr payrise is sometimes harder to convince your boss, compared to getting overtime/side hustle or save on frivolous things


find a combination to try to find $28 a day(every weekday) $38(5days a week)
it can be saving $19 on frivolous and earning $19 doing a couple extra hours work
maybe a second job or a side hustle like food delivery

Definitely everyone wants to increase their income. Right? But let me ask; what do you do while still looking for a way to increase your income? Wouldn’t you save or would you spend carelessly? And btw, someone who doesn’t have discipline wouldn’t still save even though they are earning a lot of money. So, while you’re trying to increase your income, you still need to save. Even when you have that dream job, you’ll have bigger wishes that’ll require you to save.

Ive done the same and it does works and you do really have the money on the time that emergency comes and it was really that made for that sole purpose. So it would really be that something that needing
that extreme dedication and really have that self control when it comes to savings since not all would really be having that kind of discipline in towards savings and this is why they do really end up on
having no savings just because they are really that confident that there's nothing that would happen something like problems or emergencies in the future. This is why this kind of confidence would really be leading into disaster on the time that you would be able to experience this.

There's no need for any technique or code because having getting some allocation like 10% per salary or pay which are really that saved up for emergency or savings purposes.
If you do fail on doing so then it would really be that a disaster. We do know that life cant really be perfect on which there would really be times
that you would really be needing that financial back up.

i think people should follow the principle of being an "a-rs-eh-o-le"

Audit your income/expense
Reduce Spending on frivolous stuff/Revenue Stimulate more income
Emergency Holdings of 1-3month of needed bills total
Optimise further
Leverage Equity

basically its:
1. get all bank statements, receipts, proof of spending for the last month or so and write it all out in a spreadsheet alongside you income and deductions (like pensions and tax). actually show yourself visually the state of your income vs expenses

2. find out what you are wasting money on, and reduce spending on things you dont need, that dont last, look for ways to stimulate/increase more revenue/income

3.with the savings from reduce spending. start holding a 1-3month of emergency funds to prevent you using credit cards/getting in debt if surprise events/costs/bills pop up.

4. after saving enough for emergencies optimise the monthly excess in the best investments you can find

5. work out your debt:equity and calculate if its better to drawdown on debt by investing less to then have more excess monthly cash to invest more later. or if the interest on savings/investments is higher then debt interest charge. pay down less debts and invest more. look for other ways to moetise your equity to increase savings/investments

In my opinion increasing income is more viable way than saving money, when you want to save up money that it doesn't matter you might went into hunger spree for few days, thats will be problematic because then you are giving yourself a burden of having disease that might empty your wallet in the future like GERD for example, saving normally while not being in hunger is the more ideal way, even more ideal if increasing income by striving for higher position in your job if you have a career for example then you wouldn't even sweat about saving since you will have so much money left if your living style doesn't change.
I guess like the saying offensive is the best form of defend, increasing income is the best form of saving money I guess but thats just my 2 cents.

I think what we should ask ourselves first is “how disciplined am I?” Because this is what determines what you will do when you start saving. There are people who would never ever spend their savings because they have a mission and they won’t let their hunger for anything get in the way. That mindset is what you need to learn to have. Along with that, you need to learn different saving techniques/strategies. Also, avoid both credit/debit cards because they make payment easy, which means they equally make spending of money easy. Lastly, it doesn’t matter if you’re saving one cent a day, the consistency is one of the magic workers.

It all depends on the kind of country you live in and how the economy is doing. However, regardless of how things are going for you as a worker receiving a salary or for anyone else with money, you have to spend more than you make. For some families, saving money has become difficult because the money they have is constantly going towards what they will eat. The majority of wage earners today are in debt because they never get paid; even after they do, they still have debt that they must pay off.

However, I will make sure to save money no matter how difficult it is for me because I never know what the future holds. After all, who knows what obstacles married people may face? Saving money is crucial for everyone, but it's especially crucial for those who are married because they will likely face difficulties related to raising a family.

My savings tips: I divide my money into other accounts so I have 2 accounts, one account, money goes in and out every day, the second is a savings account that can't be disturbed, so if I get paid on the 5th, I will transfer my money to a savings account with the remaining money. in the first account, it is for my daily needs. If the money runs out before I get paid, I will not take the money from my savings account. The point is that we have to be consistent in saving, there are many obstacles and trials, remember to be consistent.

alot of people go years without any savings at all. alot of other people think they need to have 12 months of expenses but saved up in 3 months..
you dont need to go without or avoid or rush to experience both extremes

you can have small amounts over a time to accrue enough to cover expenses reasonable expenses.

even switching out a couple brands of groceries can save more then a couple £$ a week, add in having one or two less luxuries here and there you can save a small amount every month for a year, and next year able to tell yourself you have enough savings to cover a month or two of expenses

even small steps are still steps moving forward

too many have nothing now for many years, but also want everything now without putting in the effort for a year.. take the middle ground take upto a year to build up savings to then not have to get into monthly debt.. then take bigger steps to secure the future(training, promotions, payrises, better job)

Everyone must have experienced pressure like that in their life so that because of unexpected things like that it makes almost everyone save even though not everyone will like saving money. Because saving can be done in various ways as long as what we save is an asset that has value and price so we can easily cash it out at any time. Moreover, saving money can only save you from difficulties for a moment, because the value of money never increases like the value of other assets that are often used by investors as their investment tools.

If you look at the current conditions or conditions this year as a whole, I think almost everyone has to save in their lives, whether by setting aside money from their work or in other ways that are considered effective enough to save their lives from difficulties. Because every one of us has experienced failure at work, which has made us experience difficulties and this must be overcome so that we can recover from this failure with the amount of savings that we already have or that we have previously saved.

In my opinion, by having savings, we will be able to easily meet needs that we cannot foresee, because it will be very difficult for us if we need funds that we did not expect and we do not have savings to be able to meet these needs, of course it will be very difficult for us. so we have to look for loans to be able to meet our own needs.

If we don't have enough income then it will be very impossible for us to have savings, because the income we get can only meet the needs we need and if we want to have savings then we have to be able to look for other sources of income to be able to have savings so we don't makes things difficult for us when we have unexpected needs.

best advice.
as soon as you get paid set aside 5%-15%
have it as easy access funds INITIALLY to save for TRUE emergency (where people are tempted to get into debt/sell investments at loss to cover a temporary event). save it in easy access SEPARATE account to avoid that debt temptation
when you have enough to cover a months expenses or several smaller surprise bills.. then put the set aside into a long term investment that you cant/wont touch short term to let the interest/investment profit accrue over time

dont throw everything into a long term hold/lock straight away if you dont have a budget for temporary surprises.
by having enough for temporary surprises you wont be tempted to use credit card debt. nor would you sell investments at the wrong time(dip) when a surprise occurs

Saving is not something that puts us in a difficult situation. There are always unexpected expenses that come when we least expect them. These expenses can include things like car repairs, medical expenses, or other emergency expenses. It causes pressure and we cannot ignore them when they arise.

In addition, saving also depends on how much money you earn. If you earn a reasonable amount of money to save, you should always set aside a budget for miscellaneous expenses. These expenses will always come and they will always be hard to ignore.

Is saving money really the best or to reinvest money saved?

For me I think the latter should be more viable because if you have the habit of just going with the former by only keeping your money in the bank or your personal savings box in your house, it will only get devalued by the rate of inflation as we know the past 5 years preceding COVID-19 have witnessed high rate of inflation globally.

To reinvest the money in a profitable business is surely a good plan for the ever growing needs and by extension wants that human encounter. If you set aside 90% of savings to reinvest and keep 10% in your fiat form either in the bank or personal savings box then you are surely taking a good futuristic plan to increase your income.

There are certain basics to be considered that one can be able to save some money and there are also basics one considers the o spend.
So everyone sees every reasons to spend but not everyone who sees reasons save.

Some would say... Let me earn and spend it because life is inevitable while some would say.... Let's enjoy life for it is not dual.
Some of them basically spends their earnings with the believe and plans for more earnings chances are ahead and they could recklessly spend with the failure of reliable and stable planning til they could run a bankrupt.
The above means of spending is majorly pleasury expenditures.
Every earners are spenders but not all spenders are earners while
Some persons are dependants to families, friends and relatives who doesn't work or trade to earn and these sets of person basically doesn't understand the factors surrounded with making an earn so they just spends woefully over unproductive and unnecessary pleasures.

Talks about how to save whether an employee, an investor or a dependant.
Firstly is the adherence and concurance that tomorrow is uncertain that may not be as usual of income or earning flows.
So you basically have a calculative logic on how to spend and if you feel you don't have value to be tolerated then just forget about fun and pleasures and go forth earnings and saving.
Think about taking responsibility to yourself welfare and of course families welfare. This would keep your spending nature responsibly with the cautiousness of avoiding bankrupt.
Also considering your net worth so you could analyse and figure necessary and essential factors that is worth spending on. Maintaining a responsible spending with no disregarding your analytical spending manners and must avoid sceneros that opts spending beyond your expectations such as pleasury indulgences that is termed to either enticingly make expenses on you lost of control to spending such sceneros likely to be friends and the outdoors.

other advice is
look at the last 10 years of your purchases and financial mistakes and write a letter to yourself titled:
"to my 10 year younger self, please dont do..." [fill in the blank]

then put it on a table and go have a cup of coffee..
come back to the table and pretend you just noticed you received a letter from the future. and take its advice going forward.. in short dont repeat mistakes or your future self in 10 years will have twice as many regrets and no progress made in 20 years

how to prepare:
take a month to gather all your spending for a month.(keep receipts, look at bank statements) and actually write it all out in categories on a spreadsheet. actually visualise your spending habits.
then colour code what was a NEED(rents/mortgages/bills/essential groceries) and what were WANTS

look at the totals of needs and totals of wants. then do something about them, make decisions about what to do going forward. what is important to you. what makes you truly long lasting happy vs 5 minutes of temporary release

things like. if you have a drawer full of underwear. its not a need until you only have 7 pairs left and one is about to get nasty/ripped. .. buying the latest big brand of underwear simply because you seen the brand on TV is not a need its a want

dont go without underwear or a hobby or entertainment. but make a proper educated decision about your need vs want

then start to realise you can build up a surplus of unspent money which you can then save

I think that is very wise because even though we already have a fixed income or monthly salary and we also have side activities that help, what is called a need, if it is important and urgent, cannot be avoided even though our previous intention was to include it in the investment discourse that we planned previously. , at least 5%-10% every month as you said. Yes. in accordance with definite propriety and rationality.