I think every person has had problems with money, and this fate did not escape me. Let's just say that my husband and I earn enough to live well, help our parents, do charity work, and even save a little. But the money simply slips through your fingers! Do you know this feeling?
What causes money problems?
Obviously, problems with money do not arise out of nowhere; there are always some reasons. The main reasons are:- insufficient income;
- incorrect approach to expenses;
- lack of real idea of costs;
- poor accounting;
- inadequate planning.
Professional opinion
How to spend money correctly? I have asked this question to many, and to a greater extent those people whose professional activity connected with money. I received a variety of opinions, but the one I liked the most was expressed by a friend of mine who works at an investment company. According to him, money is not a source of joy and pleasure, it is a kind of measure. And it is important to learn to treat money correctly.Most often the situation is like this - a person can afford certain expenses, things or services. For example, a trip to inexpensive Turkey, to a 3-4 star hotel. But it seems to him that if he takes out a loan, he will be able to go on a trip in a class much higher than he can afford. This is where the problems begin. Because if a person did not have this opportunity, then there is nowhere to get it, and even the overpayment on the loan will fall on his shoulders. This means that he will experience financial difficulties for the next few months.
I also liked the judgment of my mother’s friend, who told me how she had been successfully running the household with a strong hand for many years. I would like to learn these tricks, but it takes time. My mom's friend explained to me that I was treating my own budget incorrectly.
I spend about 70% of the money I earn, and save the remaining thirty, making large purchases with this money, spending on vacations and charitable needs. So it turns out that I spend on life support (ordinary daily needs) most earned, but I can’t afford much for the rest. If you do the opposite, and fit all mandatory expenses into 30% of your income, then the remainder will be enough for any unforeseen expenses, vacations, pleasures and much more.
Of course, both of these opinions do not contradict each other, but I would like to talk in more detail about each of them.
Forming the right attitude towards money
The value of money is a relative concept, and in order to understand how not to waste money on nonsense, you need to find your own measure of the value of money. How can I do that:- calculate the cost of your working hour;
- learn to quickly calculate how many certain things you can buy in just a month;
- calculate the final cost of each use of a particular thing.
Learning to quickly calculate how much you can buy of certain things is also not difficult. If you want an iPhone that costs your entire salary, then this is clearly a bad idea. Because it’s a rare person who will be able to pay his entire monthly budget for a gadget, and then stay strong and eat for a month sunlight. That is, either save it or take out a loan.
I already wrote above about the dangers of borrowing funds, but saving is a good thing. Just think about this. Any expensive toy will require equally expensive maintenance, repairs and accessories. And if you can’t afford the toy itself, then you shouldn’t expect that you will somehow scrape together enough money to repair it. You will scrape together, of course, but this will entail expenses for which you are unlikely to be ready.
On the other hand, if you want to buy something that “fits” within your income more than three times, and it will serve you for a long time, this is an excellent choice.
Learning to calculate the final cost of a one-time use of a particular item is somewhat more difficult, but it is very useful - once you learn to do this, you will spend much less. Simply because you will stop making purchases that are unprofitable for you.
For example, I want boots for spring. I can buy regular sneakers that will last me exactly one season - for example, for 3,000 rubles. And I can buy high-quality boots that will cost 10,000 rubles. By the end of the season, cheap sneakers will look like I would be ashamed to appear in public, although I handle things very carefully.
High-quality boots will last me several years - at least three, although I have shoes in my collection that I wore back in high school. In three years I can wear these shoes for six seasons. That is, in the case of cheap sneakers final cost use - 3,000 rubles per season, and with boots - 10,000 rubles for six seasons. Do you feel the difference? If you use this approach, there will be fewer useless purchases.
Learning to plan your budget
To figure out how to stop wasting money, you first need to understand how you spend it in principle. Learning to budget is not that difficult. To begin with, write down in a separate notebook or file those expenses that are monthly and constant - public utilities, tuition or rent, expenses for transportation, food, clothing, entertainment, treatment and other needs.
Already at this stage you will find many discoveries if you start thinking. When I was learning to plan my budget, for about two weeks I paid for everything with a card and put receipts in a separate pocket of my wallet. My online bank allows you to sort your expenses on groceries, household needs, entertainment, and virtual purchases. Then I analyzed the receipts, and made another discovery - our brain does not remember any events unless emotional memories are associated with them.
That is, when I thought why it was necessary to take into account the costs of treatment, it seemed to me that we very rarely get sick. What did it turn out to be? I go to the pharmacy twice a week - sometimes for hand cream, sometimes for headache pills, sometimes I’m out of vitamins, or something else.
The next step to help you plan your budget is ongoing accounting. Learn to record your expenses and then analyze them.
Try to tabulate your income and expenses by main items. Write down where the money comes from and what percentage each source brings in.
Indicate mandatory expenses, the cost of food, car and transportation expenses, entertainment and purchases for the home (household needs are also very important), be sure to indicate expenses such as education, personal care, and business investments.
Then count all the columns and think, maybe somewhere you can spend less? Are there any expense items that can be optimized? You will definitely find expenses that can be less.
In my case, these were expenses for the house (and it seemed to me that I was just a zealous housewife), and expenses for education (which was a complete surprise to me). The Internet helped to optimize expenses on education - instead of going to school twice a week language classes On the other side of the city, I found myself a good tutor via the Internet - it turned out to be half the price.
And my Golden Rule- think more, spend less. The Japanese cleaning method helped me recover from my love of excessive shopping. The technique says that you need to pick up every thing that you have and listen to yourself - whether it makes you happy or not. If not, you don't need it.
Now I do the same thing in the store - I stand for at least a minute and hold in my hands what I like, deciding whether I will be happier as the owner of what I have in my hands. 8 times out of 10 I put the item back on the shelf. I wish you success and only reasonable spending!
Well, finally you have lived (oh it’s happened!) to the moment when you ask yourself a similar question. We won’t go into where such happiness in the form of a certain amount of money came from on your pretty little head. It’s better now to think a little and come to some logical conclusion, on the subject of where to spend the rustling bills. Do you think it’s so easy to take and squander a sum of money from the heart, and even more so if it is not so small?
Did you know that our ubiquitous psychologists, with their analytical activities, reached this issue and came to an unequivocal conclusion: “The level of happiness is directly proportional to what exactly we spend our savings on”.
Rhetorical question: What can we buy with paper bills?
The first thing that comes to mind is the acquisition of fashionable branded items, as well as various impressions, experience and knowledge. Are the last three listings surprising? What is meant by buying an experience? Well, for example, go on a long-distance cruise or, say, to Sri Lanka, that is, pay for a service that will give us vivid impressions and unforgettable emotions.
Ask how you can buy experience?
In fact, this is equivalent to the notorious expression “engage in self-education”; in practice, this will result in completing some courses, obtaining a specialist diploma in a certain profession, as well as studying some foreign language. Who knows how many talents lie dormant within you? This also includes the sub-item about gaining knowledge for money; there are both free and paid trainings in which experienced, highly qualified masters will share their own deep knowledge in a certain area.
In principle, there are a lot of options, but first of all you should focus on the amount that you have, or rather, what you are willing to spend without compromising your own budget. Let's be a little more specific and narrow down the search options for spending money, taking into account only the exact amount of money.
- Do you only have 100,000 rubles? Well, such a sum is, as they say, an average lousy one, you won’t get far and far with it. As an option: the same vacation, training, in extreme cases, can be issued as a down payment on some more significant idea.
- Do you have as much as 300,000 rubles? Wonderful! Wonderful! Great! For this amount there is a wider range of possibilities. This amount can be used as an investment, or spent on updating the interior of your home. Have you long dreamed of an elegant and sophisticated monitor for the floor of the wall, but it was never possible? Now it is available. Just buy what you really need, pay for the quality, and enjoy it for years to come.
- Do you have 500,000 rubles? Not bad at all! Here, give free rein to your imagination, but as a small tip, keep in mind the notorious phrase “do good.” Having half a million at your disposal, it is easy to satisfy both your own needs and to help others from the bottom of your heart by becoming a one-time patron of the arts. Spend some of it on charity, no matter what it is, helping a sick child or transferring funds to an animal shelter. As they say - the world is a little different from the poor, donating certain funds to help those in need, you will never forget the grateful eyes of the person whose life was saved thanks to your selflessness.
- Have you (thanks to your gratuitous love for work) accumulated as much as 800,000 rubles? Well what can I say? The minimum you can do is prolong your age. Do you think this is bordering on science fiction? Not at all, it has long been noted that wealthy people live (on average) 12 years longer than those who endlessly limit themselves. The reason is simple, successful and rich people eat only quality products, pay a lot of attention to their own health/body, visiting swimming pools, tennis courts, gyms. The presence of these factors plays a significant role between different segments of the population.
Are you such a capable, talented and resilient person who was able to accumulate 1,000,000 or even 2,000,000 over a period of time? Accept the most my sincere congratulations. In principle, every person knows in advance where to spend such an amount. Well, at least take the most banal amenities: a car and square meters. Many people nowadays have problems due to the lack of a car or an apartment; some people own neither one nor the other. Therefore, the accumulation of such an amount, a priori, will solve the lion's share of problems.
You need to be able to spend money so that it brings benefits. A few ideas to help make this happen:
1. Travel. Traveling is perhaps the most pleasant and unforgettable way to spend money, because it provides a unique opportunity to visit new places, get acquainted with a foreign culture and get a lot of impressions and positive emotions.
2. Take care of your health. Health, as you know, cannot be bought. But this does not mean that you can save on it. Regular workouts are the best way to stay fit, and they come at a cost. Even if you play sports without visiting paid gyms, you will still need money for equipment. Be prepared to give them away, because they will come back to you in the form of good health.
3. Fix what's broken. Are you ignoring transmission noise? Are you putting off reinstalling the system on your laptop? No matter how long you wait, sooner or later the moment will come when these small troubles turn into big ones that require immediate correction. It's stupid to put off something that is inevitable anyway. If you find any malfunction, try to remove it immediately, and not put it off until it requires many times more effort, money and time.
4. Educate and develop yourself. Spend money on a personal trainer, courses, or educational books related to your job, your interests, or your hobbies. This best investment that you can do. By investing in your own knowledge and skills, you will definitely get results that will help you succeed and bring good profits.
5. Make your home more comfortable. Your home is your castle, your sanctuary. That is why you must do everything to make it the most comfortable place on planet Earth for you. Undoubtedly, this will require quite large expenses from you. But these costs are completely justified, because every penny spent will return to you with a feeling of warmth and comfort. In other words, than more money you invest in your home, the more you gain.
6. Rest. Rest refreshes thoughts, reduces stress and improves mood, so every person needs it. If you feel tired, go on vacation and try to pamper yourself during it. Otherwise, what's the point of making money if you can't spend it on yourself? Relax, rest, gain strength and then you can earn even more!
7. Don't skimp on things you use regularly. There's nothing wrong with splurging a little for something you plan to use on a regular basis. If you have a favorite movie, don't waste money on the licensed version. Of course, you will spend more on it, but it will serve you longer. If you need glasses for your vision, choose good frames, not cheap ones that you'll have to replace within a month because the temples are loose. Don't skimp on what you really need and you won't have to pay twice.
8. Buy for people you care about good gifts. Give joy to a loved one- this is one of the most the best ways spend money usefully. Cheer up those people who are important to you, and you will make not only them happy, but also yourself. Don't wait for a reason to give a gift - arrange unexpected surprises and surprise your loved ones more often.
9. Update your wardrobe. Of course, it’s stupid to go crazy, chasing the latest collections of famous designers, costing fabulous sums, and buying tons of things in stores. However, walking around in the same shirt for five years in a row without taking it off is also not best idea. In everything you need to know when to stop. Good clothes are not just a whim for those who are obsessed with fashion. It can help you make an impression during an interview that will put you ahead of your competitors. In other words, spending on your wardrobe can generate profits in the future.
10. Eat healthy food. There is a lot of truth in the phrase “You are what you eat.” It is impossible to maintain a healthy body by eating unhealthy food every day. Of course, eating a pack of croutons with instant noodles for lunch is much cheaper than buying a full-fledged soup with a salad of fresh herbs, but you cannot skimp on your health.
Follow your purchases
Try to track all your expenses for at least a week. Prescribe carefully at the end of the day. Then add up the expense items and calculate how much it will cost at the end of the month. Believe me, this is very sobering. A harmless half a kilogram of sweets and coffee in the morning/evening on the way makes up a significant part of the daily budget and at the end of the month adds up to a significant expense item. Maybe it makes sense to buy good coffee in grains and cook it yourself?
Don't save, save
When we try to save money, our brain receives a signal of disadvantage own interests. This is fundamentally the wrong approach, says Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University. Instead, he suggests saving a certain amount without significant damage to the family. The trick is to save money as soon as you receive your income. It would be ideal if you can automate this process using banking tools. This is the default piggy bank.
How it works? The idea of spending money on a trinket affects the production of the pleasure hormone. This affects the decision-making process. Whereas people rely on willpower in the process of saving. But we all know that we often give in to temptation. Especially ladies during sales period ( the editors sigh and nod understandingly).
Financial cushion
Delay withdrawing money from your piggy bank or create a fireproof cash envelope at home. During a period of difficulties (dismissal, spontaneous medical expenses, exchange rates, etc.), you will have time to establish a financial income flow through a special fund without panic.
Financial strategy
It sounds daunting, but it is very disciplined in terms of monthly expenses and allows you to avoid loans and debts. For example, this is how the financial strategy of the Americans is drawn up. The main item is rental property or mortgage: 35-40% of the total budget. Then 2% goes towards health insurance. Pleasure and purchasing things “for the soul” account for 15%. Unforeseen expenses take 8%.
Important. A strategic solution can be systematic shopping online. Nowadays you can purchase not only household appliances online, but also small household items, including household chemicals and cosmetics. .jpg)
Cut down on cosmetics costs
Admit it, most of the jars on the bathroom shelf are an outright whim. Buy multitasking tools. Think about how you can replace store-bought products with homemade equivalents. For example, the same scrub can be easily made from coffee grounds, adding just a couple of drops of olive oil to soften, orange oil and a pinch of cinnamon for aroma.
Review prices
To reduce your spending budget during a difficult time, review your spending categories. Perhaps familiar things/products can be purchased in a cheaper segment. Keep an eye on supermarket special catalogs. Often they do profitable offer. The amount of money you save will be very rewarding in the long run. And this without making significant effort.
Important. This advice is primarily for entrepreneurs and workers who depend on the income of medium-sized businesses. Most of the employees in hard times demand higher salaries. Entrepreneurs can increase the personal income of employees by reducing company costs. Arrange meetings with long-term suppliers and ask for discounts. A quarter of them will definitely compromise.
Plan your shopping
A simple survey of consumers shows that an impulsive desire to purchase turns into frustration two days later. Simply put, after a couple of days, 80% of “I really want” loses much of its relevance. In addition, psychiatrist Lorrin Coran, Dr. medical sciences from Stanford University, argues that people often get psychological relief. This occurs due to the powerful release of dopamine. But! Have the same effect physical exercise. So before you go shopping to relieve stress, consider going to the gym or dancing. It’s healthier for your figure and more humane for your budget.
Important. In addition to the above aspects, shopping planning allows you to avoid spontaneous purchases. Write a shopping list and just follow it. If these are regular purchases for the refrigerator, keep the speed records. This will help you not to be distracted by unnecessary things and save money. Read also the method
Instructions
Regardless of how much money you have at your disposal, you should first think about your spending and only then go shopping. One of effective methods planning a personal budget still involves dividing the available amount into several parts: for food, for clothing, for communal payments, for entertainment. When going to the store, don't forget about your shopping list. Buying from a list almost always turns out to be more profitable, because with its help it is easier for you to resist the numerous temptations and markets.
You can spend money usefully and meaningfully different ways. You can buy a tourist trip, go to an interesting master class, buy gifts for the upcoming holidays, and finally, just buy theater tickets. But remember that first of all you need to spend money on what you need, and only then on everything else. If you're running out of food in your home, don't think about buying new curtains. at least until you solve the nutrition issue.
If you view your upcoming expenditure more as an investment, do not forget that there are goods that lose their value very quickly. Cars, computers, Cell phones over time they only become obsolete, and if you want to resell them, you will lose quite a lot due to the difference in price between a new and used product. At the same time, jewelry, real estate, and land almost never become cheaper.
Buy in bulk and for future use only those goods with which time will not do anything: some products, Consumables, constantly used household items. Otherwise, you will have to get rid of spoiled supplies and regret wasted money.
note
Spontaneous spending almost always makes you regret the gains and lost money. Before you buy anything, give yourself some time to consider whether this is the item you really need. It is possible that as you think, you will find more attractive options for spending your money.
It would seem that the salary was received recently, however, when you look into your wallet or enter your card PIN code, you may find that there is practically no money left. Finances can disappear unnoticed. Pay attention to the most common unplanned expenses and try to avoid them.
Instructions
Unplanned purchases can lift your spirits and at the same time empty your wallet. The process of selection and the moment of purchase stimulates the production of endorphins, but very little time passes, and owning the thing no longer brings pleasure. I have to go to the store for a new “dose”. Try to choose others that are less expensive and more useful ways lifting the mood. For example, go in for sports - the production of endorphins is also guaranteed.
