The year is flying by and it’s a reminder for everyone to review the plans made for the year, across all areas of our lives – physically, mentally, financially, socially etc. But for the purpose of this article, we will be focusing on healthy savings habits to help you in the year 2021 and beyond.
You probably have read quite a number of articles and are dealing with an information overload. Well… we have decided to make savings simple and easy with these steps; savings like every other thing should be planned and not done haphazardly.
Here are a few ways to guide you on how to save in the coming months:
Write down your expenses:
It is important for every income earner to know how much is spent to maintain their current lifestyle or standard of living. e.g. power, internet, food, housing, miscellaneous, etc. There are quite a number of apps that could help track your expenses and assist with decisions to adjust your spending habits.
Automate your savings plan:
Have a direct debit set up that allows you to automatically make a transfer to your savings account at a particular time. This could be daily, weekly or monthly; based on the frequency of your earnings.
Set your priorities:
Bills never seem to end. However, you can choose what comes first and what’s not important. For example, health insurance will be more important than something that’s not so urgent. This helps you spend only on the important things.
Set realistic goals:
The easiest way to reach your savings plan is to set a goal towards it and be realistic. This will be based on how much money you earn and your financial responsibilities. It is irresponsible to have insufficient money available to you to pay your basic bills and keep you till the next inflow of funds.
Curb emotional spending:
It is good to treat yourself to luxurious or expensive items, especially if you have been working so hard. However, splurging unnecessarily on things that you do not need could be a problem as you may soon run out of money. One way to curb this is to have a trusted person as an accountability partner. This person helps to keep you in check as you spend.
We hope that this has helped you put a structure to your savings plan? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below and feel free to contact us here
Thank you, Descasio for this helpful tips. I had actually been dealing with an information overload before now. But this has helped put a structure to it.