How To Save Money

Saving is a matter of life and death !!!!!!!

(okay pass it to me)

Learning to save money is perhaps one of the best gifts you can give yourself

In this article you will learn why it is important to save, how to save money every day and different methods that will allow you to save money …

 It is not something that complicated but with the tips you will find in this article you will improve your way of saving

Let’s begin!

do you know those people who seem to you to have a magical and effortless ability to manage money?

those who started saving long ago, who always know how much money they have in the bank and know all the tricks to pay for less travel, cars, appliances and clothes?

Exactly!

And…. between us they are also often very very boring people

Here at the end of this article you will learn how they can always be so calm and have a total and peaceful management of their savings.

but first let me explain why saving is so important

Why it is important to save money

Saving money can help you first of all in emergency situations and in unforeseen life situations such as accidents, sickness etc but beyond that

can help you start a business

can help you invest

can help you retire and much more …

savings can allow you to travel more , follow your passions, quit the job you hate , try new things or simply live a peaceful and worry-free life

one of the main reasons to save money is financial security , by financial security I mean that state of serenity and tranquility of people who have a stable financial situation and who know that their money is managed in an optimal way

you know those people who never care about money ?? here’s what i mean.

saving allows us to prepare our retirement and we are well aware that the Italian pension system is in serious difficulty

(small parenthesis)

the average monthly amount of the old-age pension is currently according to the INPS (national social security institute which is the main body that deals with the Italian pension system)

According to the analysis of the data of 2019 it is 1248.22 euros

that is, when you retire you will touch 1248 euros !!!!

And unfortunately this is a value that does not yet take into consideration the impact of COVID 19 🙁

Back to us

this small gesture that we do now has a really big impact on the well-being of our future life

• if you don’t know how to save
• or you struggle to make ends meet
• or you know how to save but would like to have more techniques

You will find the following lines very useful !!

Learn to save money with routines

Learning a savings routine can help you optimize your way of saving

Creating a savings routine means having a system that automatically ,

once you have received your salary, send a portion of this money to the account you use for savings

this management method is widely used and allows you to not have to worry about your savings

a method that I use and that I highly recommend;)

There are even smartphone applications that help you integrate this method into your savings system

saving is not difficult and small sums can always and MUST  always be set aside

and we will see how to do it with very little effort

ok Jean but what if I don’t like saving?

GREAT QUESTION 😉

I’ll answer you immediately !!

How I Learned To Save money

the biggest mistake that most Italians make is to postpone the time to start saving

there is a tendency to think that saving is something “for old people” ,

or that in any case it is not important enough when we are younger and that it is an activity to which we dedicate ourselves in the second part of our life

and I know very well what I’m talking about because once upon a time I thought so too!

let me tell me about my little experience …

in 2009

at the age of 18

I was lucky (and unlucky) to earn a lot with football

(eh already I was also a former footballer in my previous life! :))

luck because it is a privilege of a few , at 18 I earned more than my parents

and bad luck because I didn’t have anyone who guided me and taught me how to manage my finances

I found myself having to manage my money at an age where you are not even able to manage yourself

so i ended up squandering all my earnings and guess how much i saved of my golden years as a footballer ??

ZERO EURO COMMA ZERO CENTS!

Yes exactly! a really sad story 🙂

but let me ask you a question

what would you have done in my place?

what would you have done if at the age of 18 you were earning 1400/1500 euros per month?

(write it down in the comments … I’m really curious to know :))

I think most people don’t really understand the importance of saving

and you who are here in my blog to inform you are surely aware of this !!

today my idea of ​​saving has really changed!

after taking note of my financial ignorance I did what needs to be done in these cases

I HAVE INSTRUCTED!

I have read about ten books since then, I mean twenty books on personal finance

and today I say with certainty that saving is essential for having a healthy management of one’s finances

savings are essential if you want to be ready for any emergency situation and COVID-19 is proving just that

Moreover..

a recent report by Caritas says that the percentage of “NEW POOR” that is people who ask for help for the first time in Caritas centers has gone from 31% in 2019 to 45% in 2020

here you will find an in-depth article from the Press

or 44 585 people (families) in 2020 !!

really sad! real?

Another thing that is often said about saving is that it is not fun,

Yup! it is often said that if you save your money it means that you are not having fun.

Here are a couple of phrases that I often hear about saving you know them for sure:

• I don’t want to save because this means eating plain pasta every day (I swear I heard it)
• Marco manages to save money because he has a boring life
• I prefer to have fun, I’ll take care of saving when I’m older

these statements are by no means true.

If you think that spending money will lead you to happiness, you probably need to change your mindset

I recommend reading the article: Money makes happiness

life is all a game of balance . You can save and spend at the same time and… .. have a good life

Yes it can be done. one does not exclude the other

the game is knowing what you can afford and what you cannot afford and if the expenses you make are truly beneficial to your life

You can live a good life while saving money for the future

you can continue to go out with your friends, go out for dinner with your partner or take a vacation with your family

but that’s enough! let’s go through something more concrete ..

How To Learn To Save money: Theory

Spend Smart

one of the most effective ways to save is to spend better,

you can go on with your life, see your friends, go out during the week and much more ..

but instead of eating several times during the week, rather have dinners at home with your friends, your guests or with your family

instead of making expensive trips, you can take a road trip, or make a note of this …. take the holidays to spend them at home 🙂

the new american trend !!

I’m not kidding there are really people who do this kind of thing, and they even have a name for this activity: Staycation !!

obviously this found comes from overseas and in practice derives from the contraction of ” stay ” to remain and “vacation” which means vacation

there are a thousand activities to do instead of organizing expensive weekends

Save With Budget

Establish a budget by setting yourself daily limits not to exceed

and force yourself not to spend more than the established limit

budgeting is a really powerful and effective way to save money

if you want to learn more, here is an article on how to create a budget with more tips to optimize the budget

REMEMBER : not spending more than you should every day is equivalent to saving every day !!

do you agree with me?

Let’s take a very simple example

let’s say that you usually spend 5 euros per day to eat then 150 euros per month (5 × 30 = 150 euros)

If you imposed a budget of 3 euros per day then instead of spending 5 euros you would spend 3 euros, you would get 90 euros per month ( 3 × 30 = 90 euros)

therefore a saving of 60 euros with only a saving of 2 euros per day

TIP: use a notebook or an app to divide your expenses and therefore your budgets into categories

EXPENSE / BILL OR LOAN / ENTERTAINMENT / FAMILY

establish the maximum budget for each category based on your resources,

determines a maximum spending ceiling not to be exceeded, this will help you to better regulate yourself and keep your accounts under control

Set yourself goals and priorities

The method of priorities

This is a method that has helped me a lot when I organize my travels, in everyday life and in money management.

Travel is a priority for me, I’m ready to give up everything but a good trip 🙂

I advise you to bring a priority (or a goal), something that makes you feel really good and that you cannot give up

It can be a trip, it can be the purchase of a car, the purchase of a piece of furniture to put in the living room,

anything that really makes you feel good , (or that makes the Family feel good of course :))

MAKE IT YOUR ONLY PRIORITY!

Then create a dedicated account for this priority, even a ceramic pig is fine !!

For example, I use the N26 card , which is a digital bank that allows you to create small digital piggy banks in a simple and instant way that you can rename as you wish.

once you have established your priority you should cut your expenses to the maximum in all other things by focusing only on achieving your priority

AND NOW I WILL TALK TO YOU ABOUT THE MOST EFFECTIVE METHOD FOR ME

How To Save Money: The Most Effective Method

the most effective way to save every day is to automate your savings

Jean what does it mean to automate savings?

now I’ll explain

automating the management of your savings takes away the worries of managing money

“Do a lot before doing a little”

the first part of this method is the slightly more technical part

you have to set up a cash flow automatically or, at the beginning you will have to take some time to choose how to set up the automation, the amount of money to set aside and the day to make the transfer

basically once you receive your salary, a part of this money will be directly transferred to your savings account

once everything is set up you will receive multiple benefits and above all a time saving in the future

investing some time initially will save you a lot of time later in your life

the flow will be automatic and every euro you earn will be automatically guided to the right account and all this will follow the strategy you have organized upstream without you having to worry anymore

is not it fantastic?

the benefits of this type of management are many:

• this automation allows you to focus on the fun part of your life
• you will no longer have any worries about having the funds to pay your bills or being negative with your credit card
• you will begin to see money as a tool to get what you want without having to track your every expense and / or transfer money from one account to another

and do you know why it works?

because people are basically lazy. Exactly lazy!

I’m lazy and so are you!

of course there are always exceptions but what I mean is that the human body is biologically built to make the least possible effort!

This is Mother Nature’s fault !!

REMEMBER : our body tends to consume as little energy as possible and therefore to always do the minimum if it is not hyper motivated or forced !!

so yes, we are lazy!

yes but Jean what does being lazy have to do now?

let me explain what it has to do with it!

we are also lazy in managing our finances

how much money do we lose due to our laziness?

just think about how long people wait before they start saving

the secret to taking action is simple, making your decisions automatic

money management is not an activity that we are taught and therefore few people follow their finances consistently

and add the fact that constantly following your finances is an activity that requires a lot of energy

so yes! maybe you will feel a little more motivated after reading this article but in two weeks you will be a slacker as usual 🙂 ( financially speaking )

like all of us

that’s why money management must be automated

NOW KNOW THE SECRET !!!

after setting up the transfer, it will automatically help fund your savings account without you doing anything

and inversely setting up the automatic transfer will make it more difficult for you to stop the transfers

in fact, to stop the transfer you will have to either change the parameters of your account on your bank’s online portal or you will have to contact your banker

which you will not do … out of laziness!

the secret is knowing how to take advantage of this weakness of ours

and you will see that the system is so easy to manage that even a child could do it 🙂

How To Learn To Save Money: Practice

Savings Advice

You will find below a list of complementary tips to those seen above and more practical that can help you save immediately:

• Stop smoking
• Cancel your gym membership and opt for free outdoor activities
• Buy a water filter to save on water
• Create a weekly feeding plan this will allow you to know exactly what to buy in what doses and avoid waste
• Buy a cheaper and cheaper car
• Use public transport instead of the car
• Use the 24-hour rule before making a big purchase 

How to save on shopping

Spending is one of the most important categories in a budget because it is often the one that takes a large part of our money monthly

Here are 3 tips to save on shopping:

• Avoid eating out : Eating out often is a nice comfort that can throw your monthly expenses out of balance.I advise you to prefer home cooking to restaurant cuisine, this, believe me, will make your wallet happy
• Packed lunch : Often it happens to prefer the restaurant or bar near our office during the lunch break, I recommend that you prepare a packed lunch
• Buy at the Drive : Buying at the drive allows you to save time and above all to have a defined monthly expense, this helps you to make your monthly calculations in the most precise way because the amount of your expense always remains the same
• Make a list when you go to the supermarket

How to save on your bank account

The expenses related to the bank account are those expenses that at first glance may seem irrelevant but that if added up over the years can make good figures, here are some tips for bank expenses:

• Check your current account costs and evaluate better options
• Decrease the number of transactions to decrease the cost of commissions
• Prefer online transactions that are often free while over the counter transactions are often paid
• switch to free accounts if you are paying your checking account

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, if we make a report we first saw why it is important to save

a very important skill that unfortunately we are not taught and what are the consequences if we do not save, do you remember the pension situation?

later we saw 3 ways to save:

• Spend less
• create a budget
• set priorities (goals)

these are the most important points of financial management

finally we talked about the best way to save and why it is biologically the best way to save

remember that you don’t have to spend time managing and thinking about money like most people do

Money management needs to be automated in a system that frees you from worry .

Easy childproof

a greeting

PS: If you liked the article I ask you to please leave a like or a positive comment (or even negative if you did not like it)

your feedback helps me improve my articles

Thank you

Your friend

Jean