Saving money often seems like a hard thing to do. You might always find yourself asking these questions; when should I start? How do I do it? Where? What! Worry not, we got you covered! All you need is just simple financial saving tips that you can apply to get a kickstart to help improve your financial savings.
Surely, living in a global financial center like Singapore comes with a higher cost of living in Singapore. You can get a taste of world-class experiences like no other. Thus, you need to be extra careful with your spendings if you don’t want to live off starving yourself before payday.
If you still want to enjoy the amazing lifestyle in Singapore in the most efficient way, start building a solid financial plan now! Not to forget, be smart in managing your finances.
Below Are The Solid Financial Saving Tips:
Keep track of your expenses
To be well-aware of your financial spendings, you need to know how much you spend daily. By keeping track of all your expenses, be it daily meals like breakfast, lunch, dinner, transportation fees, or even groceries!
It is important for you to record your expenses so that you know where your money is going. This can be done by keeping the receipts for recording purposes. Next, you can organize your spendings into different categories.
The list can be as follow:
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- Groceries
- Toiletries
- Gas
- Electric bills
This list will go a long way. It can help you to divide your expenses accordingly. If writing them down can be a hassle, you can also opt for using an expense tracker app. Just head over to the App Store on your Apple device or Play Store on Androids to find the best spending tracker device for your needs. All you have to do is just key-in the information and you’re good to go!
Make a monthly budget
The most crucial key factor to start building a solid financial plan is by making a monthly budget. This will help you to be clear of your spendings. Once you know what you usually spend your money on, you can create a workable budget based on your recorded expenses.
Have you heard of the 50-30-20 rule? This is a smart money management method that will require you to divide your income based on your needs, wants, savings and debt repayment. So, what you need to do is divide 50% of your income for your needs and necessities, 30% for your wants, and 20% for savings.
For instance, if you earn $4,000 a month, you should allocate half of the amount ($2,000) for your necessities. This will include groceries, utility bills, and mortgage payments. The 30% of your monthly income will be for discretionary expenses or, in other words, your wants. Thus, $1,200 can be used to spend on your daily lifestyle; eating out with friends, or going bowling. The other 20% ($800), should be allocated for savings, investments or any kind of emergencies.
Once you start this budgeting method, make sure you commit to it! If you exceed the allocated percentage, make sure you work around an adjustment to your personal budget.
Eliminate your debt
Having a debt, especially a credit card debt Singapore would be a hindrance in your pursuit to save money. So the next best thing to do is definitely to eliminate them altogether! You definitely do not want to carry a large debt burden, so try working on cutting down on your debts now. You can try the debt snowball method which is a debt reduction strategy that requires you to pay off your debt from the smallest debts to the largest. This way, you can gain momentum and slowly work your up to settling your debt in full.
When you are done from paying interest on your debt, 20% of your monthly income can be put away into savings using the 50-30-20 budgeting method stated previously. It’s better to start now than never!
Cut down on unnecessary spendings
It might be ideal for you to look back, reflect, and identify your spendings on non-essentials. This can include the money you spend on entertainment, eating out or even online subscription services. Once you have identified these ‘wants’ rather than ‘needs’, it will be easier for you to cut back in the pursuit of saving money.
So, what can you do?
Although it may be hard terminating the automatic monthly subscriptions that you don’t regularly use might be the way to go. Online subscription services like Spotify, Netflix, Apple Music or Tidal will require you to pay based on auto monthly subscriptions. If you find yourself not having time to enjoy these services, you might want to consider terminating these monthly subscriptions.
You can also opt to dine out only once or twice a month. If you do feel like going out once in a while, try to look for cheaper alternatives where you do not have to fork out a huge amount of money just for a plate of food.
Make your savings automatic
The best and easiest way to improve your financial savings is by setting up automatic savings. Nowadays, there are many banks that offer automatic transfers to your savings account. This way you can automatically put away extra cash without having to worry about “accidentally” spending them on anything unnecessary. You have the option to decide how much money will go into your account; whether it is a fixed amount or based on a percentage.
If you have a full-time job and have a retirement planning Singapore, you can ask your employer to transfer a specific amount from your salary directly to your retirement or savings account. For further inquiries, you can ask your HR representative for more information.
This is generally a simple way for you to save money without needing to worry too much!
It’s never too late to start having a solid financial plan. You can always start now to improve your financial savings based on the suggestions above. If you find yourself stuck and need some financial assistance, 365 Credit Solutions is a reliable licensed money lender that can offer you financial solutions and the best personal loan Singapore. Visit their website to find out more.
