If you are planning on saving, we have a few tips on how to better manage your funds. It’s not just about how much you have, but also learning how to manage it.

1. Overview

Look at your income and expenses over the past the past few months – or even the past year – to track how much you’ve got coming in and how much you need for your essential costs – debts, bills, food, education, insurance, etc. Then, work out what you’ll have left over each month and how much you could put into savings.

2. Review your budget

As we have mentioned before, your budget is not only about what is coming in, but also learning how to manage where it goes. Monitor your expenses.

3. Reduce expenses

Instead of making huge sacrifices, some small changes might do the trick for you. Sometimes we can make a big change on our budget just by switching providers, changing the type of plans we are on and cancelling subscriptions we don’t need anymore and may even have forgotten about (i.e. Internet plan, gym membership, mobile phone plan, game apps, cloud storage, wellness apps, meal subscriptions…).

4. Spend carefully

It is not necessary to stop spending, instead try to be mindful and make more conscious decisions before tapping your card.

• Look for rewards;
• Say yes to specials;
• Stick to your list when grocery shopping…

5. Tricks

• Wants vs. Needs

In order for your budget to work, try to understand what it is that you want and what you really need. Reflect on your last expenses and try to separate the ‘wants’ from the ‘needs’ and see if some of those ‘wants’ can be trimmed.

• 50-30-20

This is an amazing trick based on percentage and not on how much you earn. It consists on splitting your monthly income into three buckets:

• 50% to your needs
• 30% to your wants
• 20% to your savings goal
• Find out your unhealthy shopping patterns and replace them with something else.

So let’s get going! 

Complete this secure pre-assessment today.