Bodo Schaeffer

The ability to save money is characteristic of few people, because it is directly related to a person’s ability to organize his life, for which it is necessary to adhere to certain rules and strict self-discipline. But if a person has a desire to learn this skill, he will definitely learn it. And so that you, dear readers, have this desire, and at the same time knowledge about how to save money correctly - read this article carefully! In it I will tell you about how and why to save money so as not just to have a strategic reserve Money, but also be able to control yourself and your desires, not allowing all the money you earn to slip through your fingers.

Well, we will learn with you how to save money and thus manage it effectively. I have already learned how to do this, now I will share with you all the knowledge that I have myself. You know how to earn money - this is very good, and you know how to increase your income - this is commendable. But you also need to not let the money you earn scatter in all directions. Still, you earned it with your labor, and your work must be valued and respected by treating your money with care.

The task before us is solved with the help of two things: motivation and knowledge. Moreover, motivation is much more important than knowledge. There is nothing special to know here in order to save money - you just need to save it, that is, set aside a certain part of your income and not spend the money you set aside. But to do this on a regular basis, you need to have good motivation. Therefore, I will focus on it.

So, before you start saving money, a person must answer two questions. The first question is: why and why do you need to save money, that is, what is the point, what is the interest, what is the benefit from it? And the second question: how to save money correctly so as not to limit yourself in any way and at the same time get a tangible result from your actions in the form of solid savings? So, I will answer these two questions, explaining to you the meaning of saving money and telling you about ways to accumulate it.

Question one: why save money?

You need to save money not only in order to have savings, that is, not only for economic reasons, but also for psychological ones. The process of saving money itself is financial management, which requires a disciplined and competent approach. This means that a person who saves money develops self-discipline, as well as the care and responsibility necessary for success in this matter. After all, in order to add up penny to penny and always know how much money you have saved and where it is, you need to be an attentive and responsible person who has strict control over your finances. Thus, it turns out that by saving money, a person gains power over it. He does not allow money to excite his emotions and encourage himself to thoughtless and uncontrollable spending of money - he manages it rationally, strictly setting aside a certain part of the earned funds to create savings. And by gaining power over money, a person gains power over himself; by controlling money, he controls himself. Therefore, we can say this - you need to save money, among other things, in order to become a wiser, more perfect person.

I will even say this - having savings is about the same as having a child who needs to be monitored, who needs to be taken care of, who needs to be fed, taught and raised so that he grows up to be a normal person. You need to treat money the same way - they also need care and guidance, they also need to be monitored so that they bring a lot of benefit and little harm. A child requires a lot of attention and money also requires no less attention. A child requires a careful attitude towards himself and money requires a careful attitude towards himself. Not a single normal parent will abandon their child to the mercy of fate, and in the same way, a serious and responsible person will not throw money left and right, because money is his strength, it is his vital juices, his mind, his time - expressed in money . Therefore, when a person saves money, he is engaged in a very important and responsible matter, which is directly related to his life. After all, if necessary, savings can allow a person to step away from work for a while, rest, and possibly switch to some other activity that requires time to master. Accumulated money provides a person with a very valuable resource for this life - time. After all, if it suddenly happens that the source of money dries up, then savings will help a person live for some time without working. They can also be used to solve some serious problems, such as health problems. And with their help you can start some new business, you can create a new business without taking out any loans. Money is a tool, and savings are a suitcase with a tool that you can use at any time when necessary.

In general, I think the desire and ability to save money is a sign of elitism. Not all of these expensive toys that people strive to buy in order to emphasize their importance make a person better, but the ability to do difficult, complex things, the ability to adhere to strict discipline, the ability to plan for years ahead, the ability to control one’s desires, one’s nature - these are the signs highly developed person. By accumulating money, a person complicates his behavior - making himself part of the civilized world. After all, what is a civilization in which we all live so comfortably - it is a complicated artificial model of the world that man created in order to live in comfort and prosperity. And what is a civilized, highly developed person - this is a person with complex thinking and behavior, this is not such a primitive creature as nature made him, this is a highly organized system with a practical mind and complex behavior. Not only the ability and desire to save money influence the quality of a person, but it is a very important element of a person’s behavior, characterizing him as a highly organized person. After all, constantly putting aside money for the purpose of saving and accumulating it is a ritual that requires high organization of the mind, discipline, and order. It is quite obvious that some idiot will not be able to save money; for him this is an impossible task. But even if he starts saving them, he will not be able to accumulate serious capital, because he will not be able to save it, he will not be able to restrain himself from touching this money. In addition, you need to be able to protect your money from attacks from other people, including from the state, which likes to get into the pockets of its citizens. So accumulating money is not just a job, it is an art, it is an entire culture that requires high qualities from a person, with the help of which he will act as he should, and not as he wants.

From all of the above, it follows that the main incentive for a person to accumulate money should be the desire to make himself more serious and responsible in life. financially human. Put money aside - look at yourself and tell yourself that you can save money, you can be disciplined by saving a portion of your income every month, and you can control yourself not to spend the money you save. It’s all about pride and self-respect - you don’t need to refer to the need to save money, you don’t need to do it under pressure, it’s better to awaken in yourself the desire to save in order to do it with joy and interest, with the understanding that you are doing it for yourself , and not because it is necessary. You will actually be doing this for yourself - after all, all the money that you accumulate will not go anywhere - it has been and will remain yours. They will just start working for you in a new way. Firstly, they will become a reliable support for you in solving many important tasks, and secondly, they will contribute to your personal development. You want to become even smarter, stronger, more experienced, more confident, don’t you? Saving money will help you with this.

Question two: how to save money correctly?

As for the ability to save money, there is nothing complicated in this matter - you just need to systematically save part of your earned income and not spend this money. Below I will explain the best way to do this. But first you need to tune in to this task. Actually, it is for this reason that I began to explain the principle of saving money with motivation for this activity. After all, the hardest thing about saving money is starting to save it. That is, some people find it difficult to take money and put it, say, in a safe, and then do it again next month, and so on every month. At the same time, you cannot touch this money, that is, you cannot spend it.

The main barrier that prevents you from saving money in this way is, of course, psychological. After all, what is required from a person who wants to start saving money? You need, as I said above, just take a certain amount of your income and put it aside, either putting this money in a safe or in a bank account. Everything is very simple. But the psychological barrier I’m talking about is based on the idea that by saving money, we limit ourselves in some way, and also switch our attention from the desire to constantly increase our income to the desire to save and shrink. They say that the desire to save money interferes with earning it, as it deprives a person of the incentive to increase his income. Let's look at both of these points in order to remove the psychological barrier that prevents you from starting to save money.

So, the first thing that needs to be dealt with is thoughts about a person limiting himself in anything because of the need to save money. The fallacy of this idea is easy to prove if you think about what a person understands by limiting himself in something. After all, this is a very relative concept - limitation. Compared to what, or who, do we limit ourselves when we save money? A person can save money with a salary of twenty thousand conventional units, and in the same way he can save money with an income of millions. And what happens that in each of these cases he limits himself in some way? If so, then following this logic we can say that without even higher incomes a person also limits himself in some way. And if so, then how does the restriction that becomes a consequence of a person saving money differ from those restrictions that he is forced to adhere to - without having extremely high incomes? The only difference is in a person’s perception of his actions, in his attitude towards what he does. You need to change your attitude towards savings from negative to positive and then you can easily start saving money without thinking about any self-restraints. Therefore, understand that by saving at least a tenth or a twentieth of your income, depending on your current capabilities, you are not limiting yourself in anything. Just as you do not limit yourself in anything by not having higher incomes compared to your current income. In general, giving up one thing always means choosing something else. Therefore, if you decide to give up something, for example, some purchase, in order to put aside the money you saved, then you have not lost anything - you have gained one thing at the expense of another. You have made a choice, the correctness of which depends on what you gave up for the sake of savings. If from some insignificant nonsense, your choice is one hundred percent correct.

So, you just need to decide how much you want, not how much you can, put aside money every month so that you never touch a certain part of it again. It is clear that never, which means that you can touch them only in the most exceptional cases, otherwise the very meaning of saving money is lost. We save money not in order to go crazy and spend it all on satisfying some of our next desires, but in order to have a foundation for our material well-being. And just as we do not dismantle the foundation of the house in which we live so that it does not collapse, we should not destroy the foundation of our capital in the form of savings, so as not to deprive ourselves of the strength and confidence that it gives us.

The second thing that needs to be dealt with in order to destroy the psychological barrier that prevents you from saving money is the thought that our, or rather your, attention while saving money switches from the desire to increase income to the desire to save and save. Here it is important to understand that one does not interfere with the other at all - you do not deprive yourself of the incentive to increase your income, you supplement it with an incentive to save the money you have already earned. You cannot always focus solely on income, since such a position goes against the very essence of economics. Not only do we live in a world with limited resources, in which constant growth is impossible in principle, it will inevitably be, because it must, be replaced by a recession, before a new leap upward, which means we need to be prepared for such recessions, even if there are more of them never happened in your life. Also, the very effectiveness of your life directly depends on how well you control your finances. Here we can draw an analogy with a bucket of water - into which you can pour more and more water, but if it is full of holes, then this water will flow out and the ever-increasing pressure will only contribute to this. Moreover, in real life, an increase in income is often accompanied by an even more intense increase in expenses, which in the above example would mean that the holes in our water bucket become larger as more and more water is poured into it. Therefore, there is no need to contrast the ability to increase income with the ability to competently manage your money, adhering to reasonable savings and regularly setting aside a certain amount of money to create savings. Don't let wrong attitudes build barriers in your head to achieving the goals that are important to you.

Take a look at your income now and decide how much of it you will save each month. There are recommendations according to which you need to save at least a tenth of your earnings, but I believe that this figure should not be constant - you can save five or twenty-five percent of your earnings, depending on your current need for money. The main thing in this matter is not the amount of funds set aside, but the regularity of the procedure for setting them aside. You can build a whole house brick by brick, and very quickly, if everyone, I emphasize, lays a brick every day. The main thing is regularity of actions. And the vast majority of people have the opportunity to save money - you just need to put aside a certain amount each month, doing it as if you were paying someone for something that you should pay for. And you really pay - you pay yourself. You are paying yourself for the opportunity to be a highly organized person entitled to have savings.

A person who saves money lengthens his mind and complicates his thinking. After all, what it means to save money is to think about tomorrow, that is, to launch your thoughts into the future, and not proceed from the situation that exists here and now. And thinking becomes more complicated due to the fact that a person not only calculates what savings he will have in the future, but also thinks about how to protect and preserve his savings. This is also a very important point in the process of saving money. You need to be able to protect money, just as you need to be able to protect yourself and your loved ones, your property, your rights, your values. And in this case, you need to take into account the fact that not every currency can be used to store money. You and I know that the currencies of some countries are so weak at a fundamental level that they can depreciate by more than half in a year. Therefore, you need to save money - in the right currency and keep it in the right place. The correct currency is the world one reserve currency. The right place to keep money is a place where private property rights are protected by law. Also, a safe place to store money in the correct currency is a safe, from which it will not disappear without your knowledge. Well, not really large amounts can also be stored in our banks - in state banks. In general, if we talk about storing money, I recommend putting your eggs in different, most reliable baskets, the main one of which will be your personal safe and reliable banks in developed countries worlds in which money is best protected. But it makes sense to keep large savings in such banks. It is better to keep small savings in your own safe, in a reliable currency, if you do not plan to spend this money for a very long time. And also a certain amount of savings can be stored in our banks in domestic currency per medium term. Perhaps financial advisors who are more knowledgeable in this matter can offer more optimal options, but personally, I adhere to exactly this strategy for storing and accumulating money.

Now let's discuss the process of saving money even more specifically. Let’s assume that your income is a thousand conventional units, part of which you are going to, thanks to my instructions, put aside so that you have savings. How to start doing this? I advise you, at a minimum, not to deviate from the classical recommendations and save at least a tenth of your income, with the exception of special cases when your need for money is especially acute, for example, you need it for treatment, to save a business, or to solve problems with the law and the like are very important matters. In this case, you can save less, for example, five percent of your income. But you should definitely do this, in any case, because it is important for your very attitude towards the accumulation process. Whatever your financial position– save money, at least five percent of your earnings, but save it. And as a maximum, you can save exactly as much as you can afford to put aside, without denying yourself what you really need, but at the same time saving on all sorts of things that are unimportant to you. There is some logic here - you don’t cut your expenses by saving, say, twenty percent of your income, by saving on things that you don’t really need, for example, on expensive and pointless entertainment, on alcohol and the like – you redirect your funds from ineffective, or even downright harmful, areas of your life to a more promising direction. Why, say, spend the money you earn on paying off a loan that you don’t have to take out, because it’s much more interesting to create a personal savings fund in which you will have funds for various long-term and short-term tasks. This is a more responsible, but also more interesting lifestyle in which you manage your money in to a greater extent than they control you.

Then, the funds that you will save monthly must be divided into two parts. One part - let it be sixty percent of the funds you save, you need to keep in the bank, or, if you want, at home, to solve medium-term problems. That is, these will be savings that you plan to use in the medium term to solve various problems. But the remaining forty percent should become your emergency reserve, designed for the long term, that is, for solving the most serious, most complex problems and tasks. That is, this will be the very airbag that will allow you to become a more confident person in the future. Of course, at first such money must be kept in a reliable currency at home, in a safe, and when there is a lot of it, you can open an account in a reliable foreign bank, in which they will be reliably protected. This is how I recommend you save money. Basically, the whole difficulty lies in getting addicted to this business, while the accumulation technique itself is quite simple, much simpler than managing a profitable business or the work performed by some specialists.

Errors

What mistakes can you make when saving money? There are several of them. First of all, these are, again, psychological errors that arise due to a person’s desire to do one thing and unwillingness to do another. For example, some people adhere to this strategy - to save only the money that they have left after all supposedly obligatory expenses. This shouldn't happen! There is no need to wait until you have some money left to put it aside - immediately put aside a certain part, ten or more percent, at worst, put aside five percent of your income if you really need money, but do it right away. After all, what does it mean to put aside what remains. What will remain after? After what kind of expenses? What does a person put above his own savings? Very little can be put above this, you will agree. After all, the money that we save does not go anywhere - it is our money, we do not lose it, we own it - it is our property. Therefore, ours, your savings, should not live according to the residual principle. Respect your savings. Save money before you start spending your income, not after.

The next mistake is wasting the accumulated money. As some people say, they get frustrated when they hoard money and spend everything they have accumulated, allowing their weakness to destroy everything. The mistake here is not the weakness itself, but its justification. If you snapped and spent the accumulated money, then there can be no excuses for this, unless your spending was related to a matter of life and death. But as a rule, spending in such cases turns out to be unjustified. Consequently, any waste of accumulated money should be condemned, first of all, by the owner of this money, and if this does not help, then you need to somehow punish yourself so as not to allow yourself to do similar things in the future.

And of course, you shouldn’t go to extremes and save most of the money you earn, turning the accumulation process into an end in itself. Then you will definitely shift the focus from increasing income to saving money, thereby worsening your financial situation. Stick to the golden mean - just set aside every month from five to, say, twenty percent of your income, distributing these funds in such a way that part of them is put aside for the medium term, and part, forty or thirty percent, becomes an emergency strategic reserve. Then very quickly you will accumulate substantial capital, which you can rightfully be proud of, because it will symbolize your high organization and discipline, as well as the maturity of your mind.

Accumulating money is a very interesting process that allows a person to feel like the master of his funds, and even more - the master of his life. Not many people save money, and even fewer know how to do it correctly. Therefore, if you join the club of those who have certain savings for various purposes, you will immediately feel exclusive, and this feeling will have a positive impact on your self-confidence. After all, taking out a loan for one purpose or another is easy, very easy, for this, you must admit, you don’t need a lot of intelligence - just know, pay the required amount every month and don’t think about anything. And it’s a completely different matter to save money when every month you pay not to the bank, being obligated to it, but to yourself. You force yourself to pay, but not to someone, but to yourself. This requires a person to have willpower and an understanding of the importance of the process of saving money. Saving money is much more difficult than borrowing it.

As for any tricks related to the accumulation of money, which exist so that a person can deceive himself with their help, I am categorically against them. For example, according to some recommendations, money should be put in a place where it is difficult to take it, so that there is no temptation to do so. Or you don’t need to carry money with you so as not to spend it. Or, you can entrust money to someone who can keep it better than you, without entrusting it to yourself. All this is nonsense that goes against the very idea of ​​saving money. By saving money, we develop in ourselves a serious, responsible person who has enough self-discipline not to allow himself to spend his savings. If you can’t do this, you need to accustom yourself to self-discipline, and not shift the responsibility for saving money to other people. There is no need to save money just for the sake of accumulating a certain amount by any means - through this process, you need to cultivate a disciplined person who is able to control himself. Otherwise, accumulating money will become for a person an eternal game of a child with matches. I don't recommend you play this game. There should be no tricks - you need to learn to resist temptations and weaknesses - saying “no” to yourself when you really want to, and not trying to outwit them by deceiving yourself. Otherwise, a person’s mind will never mature.

And this is what I would like to tell you finally on this issue. There is no need to tell other people that you are saving money - they have no need to know about it. Do your job in silence - save money and don’t tell anyone about anything, and especially don’t brag to anyone about your savings. This way you will save yourself from many problems and all kinds of misunderstandings. Only you should know about your savings. At worst, only your closest people can be privy to this secret. And even then, you can only tell them about the moneybox that you have for medium-term goals, while your strategic reserve should become your secret. So, as you can see, such an important skill for life as the ability to keep one’s mouth shut is also facilitated by the process of saving money.

Almost all rich people once started from scratch, but thanks to their skills and talents, over time they achieved both position and prosperity. Just remember the work “The Financier” by Theodore Dreiser, which many probably read in their youth, where the main character, although he receives certain skills from his banker father, eventually becomes a millionaire only through his own efforts. So how can you start saving money if you don’t have any?

If a person is thinking about how to save money for some purchase, to open his own business, or to ensure a comfortable existence for himself and his children in the future, this is already the first step to success. The future will depend only on patience, as well as on how much a person knows how to listen to advice and act according to reason.

Save wisely

There are several simple and, in general, banal rules of accumulation that are known to almost everyone. Everyone knows that in order to save a certain amount of money, you need not to spend money on unnecessary things, save somewhere on purchases if this does not greatly affect their quality, and most importantly - earn more than you spend. People always have problems with this issue: is it possible to save on food or on health, as my friends will look at me if I use an ordinary phone and not an Apple product, or go on vacation to Crimea or Spain. These issues will no longer seem so serious if a person thoroughly sets about saving money (but you still can’t save on health).

One of important obstacles On this path is a person’s prejudice that in order to accumulate funds it is necessary to cut down one’s current budget, that is, to lose something here and now for some time later. This is fundamentally wrong. It is advisable to save funds not on a residual basis, as a last resort, but so that this is the first need when receiving a salary, fee, etc. I received the money and immediately sent it to my account, and it is best if a person has several such accounts, for example, to buy a house, a car, or for a child’s education. It’s even better if the funds go not to the card, but to a deposit in a reliable bank, which is opened for a certain time, say for a year: this way it will be more difficult for a person to use these funds ahead of schedule, which means it will be easier to save something.

You can start even with a tiny amount, but the optimal amount can be considered an amount equal to 10-15 percent of personal or family income.

​There is a rather interesting way that allows a family to accurately determine expenses and not spend too much. You need to calculate how much each family member receives per month, then from this amount subtract the costs of utilities, basic necessities, loan payments if there are debts, gasoline and other transportation costs, as well as another ten percent for bank deposit. Divide the remaining amount into four equal parts and place them in envelopes. Each week the envelope can be opened and used for additional needs without resorting to another envelope until the next week. It’s great if by Saturday or Sunday there is something left of the allocated money, you can spend it on relaxation and entertainment with a calm heart. Since there are less than five weeks in the month, the fifth envelope will also come in handy; you can put some kind of food in it. a small amount from that which was distributed over four weeks.

This way, it will be easier for the family to manage their expenses; they won’t have to think about every purchase, they will only need to decide whether there are enough funds for this week’s expenses. In addition, this way one of the most important rules will be observed - that same ten percent of income will be immediately sent to the funded part, and not according to the “last resort” principle.

The rule “Save more tomorrow” according to Shlomo Benartzi

Economist Shlomo Benartzi, who participated in the development of US pension programs, came up with his own principle of saving money from scratch, which is to gradually increase investments in your savings. The bottom line is that every time a person receives a salary increase or a promotion, he begins to save a larger percentage of his salary. You can increase the amount for savings investments by one percent, by five percent, by ten, the main thing is to follow this principle of gradual increase.

Let's look at an example:

If you save according to this scheme, then after four years a person will have saved 349 thousand rubles. If you consider that this money can be kept in a deposit account and receive interest, the amount will be even better. The pace of income will grow, maybe not as fast as you want, but at a normal and reliable pace.

What is very important, according to Shlomo Benartzi, is that you can start with a small five percent, but gradually our thinking will get used to increasing the funds set aside for the future, which will be associated with an increase in total income, and therefore prosperity. Over time, the fear of making such investments will disappear, and the process itself will become a habit, and perhaps even change your lifestyle.

Let's sum it up

Those who are really interested in the topic should read the books of economists who have spent many years studying this issue. Often their works are written in interesting and easy language, “stuffed” with funny examples and incidents from life. Well, if the stage of accumulating funds from scratch is completed successfully, in the future it is advisable to familiarize yourself with the opinions of experts on how else to increase your income by correct investment funds and investment.

Inga Mayakovskaya

Reading time: 5 minutes

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Finding money for the right thing today is not a problem: if there is nowhere to grab it before payday, or you need a serious amount, you can. But you take someone else’s, and, as you know, give away your own. Not to mention interest and other costs.

Is it possible to save money without going into debt? How to save money wisely?

We control expenses - we save money correctly

Family budget accounting - first task. Especially if you plan to accumulate funds not on your own, but as a family man. Cost control involves keeping track of all monthly utility bills, purchases and additional expenses.

Key expenses and how to save on them:

• Bills for rent, electricity, internet, telephone.
  Of course, you won’t be able to save much money at this point. Although, if you try really hard, you can reduce your electricity costs by promptly turning off the lights and unnecessary appliances (+ energy-saving light bulbs), and on water (by installing meters). As for the phone with the Internet, you can choose the best tariff for your budget. For example, if you call from a landline number once every two months, then “unlimited” is of no use to you.
• Clothes, shoes.
  Outerwear and shoes do not need monthly updating. Yes, and from the twentieth blouse in the closet, as well as from the 30th pair of tights “in reserve” and the next set of underwear according to the scheme “How beautiful! I want, I want, I want!”, you can get by. Before you buy something, think about it: do you really need it, or will the apocalypse not happen if you leave it in the store? Wait a day or two. A better a week. Most likely, you will find that you get along just fine without it. Another option is to open a separate account specifically for clothing expenses and withdraw funds only when absolutely necessary.
• Nutrition.
  The same expense item for which funds should be distributed immediately for the month in advance. Otherwise, you risk spending the last week before your payday on Chinese noodles. The second point (and the most important) is children. Living for your own pleasure, you can easily save on food - drink tea without sugar, do without spices, sauces and delicacies, etc. But children require nutritious food. Therefore, there should always be money for food.
• Transport.
  For regular trips, it is more profitable to buy a single travel card; instead of a taxi, you can use public transport, and a couple of stops to point A you can walk on foot (at the same time lose half a kilo of extra centimeters and supply the brain with useful oxygen).
• Unexpected expenses.
  Funds for medicines, for cases of force majeure (a faucet leaked, an iron broke, a toddler spilled coffee on a work laptop, etc.), urgent “donations” to the “school fund,” etc. – should always be on a separate shelf. Life, as we know, is unpredictable, and it is better to be safe from unexpected “gifts” of fate. Read also:
• Entertainment, relaxation, gifts.
  If you have set yourself a goal - to urgently save up for something you really need, then you can hold off on entertainment. Or remember the entertainment that is available even with a minimum amount of money on hand.

All expenses for the month write it in a notepad . To summarize, you will see what you could do without, what you can save on, exactly how much money you need to live, and how much is left after deducting these mandatory expenses for the piggy bank.

A nice bonus: the question “Where is the money, Zin?” there will be no more - everything has been counted and recorded. And remember: we're talking about not about turning into a stingy person and the main miser in the area, but about learning distribute funds wisely .

How to save money - basic principles, options and recommendations

• Calculate how much money comes into your family piggy bank every month. Even if the work is piecework and at home - average income easy to calculate. Add up all income, including both spouses’ salaries, pensions/benefits (if any), “hack jobs” and “gig jobs”. Divide funds accordingly mandatory expenses(see above), and hide the remaining money in the piggy bank that is closest to you - in a stocking, under a mattress, in a bank, in a savings book, in a safe or in the family sugar bowl in that corner of the sideboard.
• When going outside (especially for groceries or stress shopping), leave just enough cash in your wallet so that you have enough for the essentials on the list (write the list in advance). The rest is “under the mattress.” Excess money in your wallet is a temptation to spend. And don’t go to the store with a plastic card. With a card it is impossible to limit yourself in your desires - “I also need something sweet for tea”, “oh, but there’s only a kilogram of powder left”, “I should buy sugar in reserve while there’s a discount on it”, etc. “Plastic” - only to withdraw cash!
• Pay yourself and only then pay everyone else. What does it mean? When we receive our salary, we don’t have time to hold it, dear one, in our hands. First we pay housing offices, then schools and pharmacies, we leave a significant portion in grocery stores, etc. And only then we scrape together crumbs from this pie for ourselves. Do the opposite (after all, you deserve it): when receiving a salary (bonus, benefits, etc.), save 10 percent immediately (before you are shaken by new covers for chairs in the classroom and increased tariffs for sewerage)! Preferably, go straight to the bank at interest. This will limit your access to funds (you will not be able to withdraw them at any time under the contract), increase your income (not much, but pleasantly) and provide a resource that will gradually grow and strengthen.
• Have you decided to save? Save up! But do this regularly, without fail and no matter what. That is, every month 10 percent of all income should go into the money box. Don't have enough money for holiday catering? Or as a gift for a child? Or have your utility bills gone up again? Search additional method earnings. But don’t touch the moneybox: they put the money aside and forgot about it (for the time being).
• The only reason you can take money out of a piggy bank is opportunity to increase these funds (education, image and other “for the future” items do not apply here). But there is a necessary condition - a cash airbag. It is equal to your monthly income multiplied by 3. This amount should always be in your piggy bank. Take everything that is above and increase it.
• If the piggy bank constantly tempts you to buy a hammer, and the money under your pillow rustles so temptingly - take the funds to the bank . This will save you nerves and protect yourself from temptations. The main thing is not to invest money in the first bank you come across (which will go bankrupt in a month) and not to fall for the “hot interest rates” of the next “MMM”. The rule “the hen pecks every grain” has not been canceled. Better is small interest and confidence in the safety of funds than cosmic interest “for seeding” and saying goodbye to your money.
• Learn to value yourself, your work and money , which, unfortunately, no one rains down on you from above. When buying an item, calculate how many hours of labor it will cost you. Is she really worth it?

And one more piece of advice: never borrow, take out loans or steal from your parents until payday. Learn to make do with what you have and tighten your belt during the period of forced savings.

Content

Everyone faces the problem of lack of money. Even oligarchs don’t always have enough to meet their needs; people’s needs just vary. At some point, the question arises of how to learn to save money so that, starting from a small and large salary, additional income, save up a certain amount for the right thing, a long-awaited vacation at sea, make your dreams come true, simply replenish your wallet or collect an insurance amount for crisis situations.

How to save money correctly

How to learn to collect money in the modern world? Many who decide to start saving rush to extremes, begin to save absolutely all their money and stop buying even the necessary products, cut back on their diet, and live according to the “home-work” principle without vacations or entertainment. The sum can be impressive, but the joy of life disappears, and the money put aside in the box will still gradually depreciate due to inflation.

In order to competently develop the ability to save, learn to control your budget and not give up on a full life, you should initially reconsider your expenses relative to your profits, evaluate the feasibility and priority of spending, and the importance of large purchases in the future. Often, after compiling such a list, the understanding comes that a significant portion of the salary is spent on absolutely useless goods and entertainment.

Correct goals and guidelines

Thanks to intrusive advertising, the modern consumer has developed a persistent addiction: he needs to constantly buy new equipment, clothes from famous brands, so as not to be considered a rogue in the eyes of others. The only problem is that everyone else is exactly the same shopping addict with imposed stereotypes. A new iPhone or car model is rarely much better than the previous one, and the importance of public opinion is greatly exaggerated.

Regardless of what you want in the future (buying a car, equipment, vacation, something new for your family), you come to the realization that you need to allocate a certain amount from the budget for this. You should determine for yourself how urgent this purchase is. The first rule to follow is that the amount set aside should not infringe on a full life. Experts recommend starting to save the minimum monthly amount (10-15% of income) immediately after receiving your salary. This will form the habit of counting on a specific amount for the month.

It’s really easy to save money for things you really need; it’s simple to understand how to learn how to easily save money. For example, it would be stupid to buy a beautiful but low-functional gadget if the market offers a more expensive one, but one that is modest and as useful as possible. Another example: the refrigerator broke down and a vacation is planned at the same time - what is more important? The vast majority will say that it is technology, and they will be right. A refrigerator is a constant necessity, and vacation can be reformatted to suit the current reality.

Creating an "airbag"

No one is immune from emergency situations: an accident, an instant rise in the price of goods. Many people are unsettled by such moments, because people are financially unprepared. In order to avoid such a situation, you should set aside a monthly reserve of funds. Naturally, this will be a certain amount from the total income. Everyone determines its volume for themselves, but experts suggest setting aside about 5% of income for such an emergency reserve. Therefore, you need to know how to learn how to save money wisely, and where to store your financial cushion.

Accounting for income and expenses

Another way of indirect savings is to record all financial transactions for a certain period of time. In this case, you need to enter absolutely everything into the “accounting for expenses” column, down to payment for travel and candy purchased at a sudden desire. Practice shows that when analyzing, it becomes obvious which spontaneous purchases and unnecessary expenses can be used to cut additional expenses and understand where most of the money goes.

Economy mode

Saving does not mean that you need to deny yourself everything and live on water and bread. This means that you need to give up useless spending that occurs on the basis of “I just wanted to”. The money set aside is not used for anything other than its intended purpose (emergencies do not count). Saving is control over the communal component of life (water and electricity consumption), refusal of excesses, such as constant meals in cafes and daily parties in clubs, aimless investing sums of money in entertainment (donating to online games).

How to learn to save money and save money

Oddly enough, according to statistics, people who grew up in an era of scarcity are much better at saving and accumulating money. This is due to the fact that the product or service had to be waited, and the quality had to be checked. Even in modern realities, representatives of the older generation give priority to quality goods, lead family budget. This is the basic principle of saving and how to learn to save money - do not purchase something that will not last longer than its warranty period, use only proven services with a guaranteed result, refuse unnecessary purchases.

Shopping list

A useful habit and way to save money is not to go grocery shopping without a list. Without it, a person is at maximum risk of spontaneous purchases and, having come for milk and bread, can leave with a full basket. It is advisable that the list also includes prices, and you should take money that exceeds the total amount by a maximum of 5-10%. Then even the most difficult habit of spending on something unnecessary will be broken by a simple lack of cash.

Refusal of loans and credits

In this case, everything is simple, the desire to buy something instantly quick loan, often erases from your mind the realization that you will have to repay a large amount with interest, in fact - to buy a thing more expensive than it costs. At the same time, most consumers are quite capable of saving a certain amount. Taking out a loan or a loan is justified only in emergency cases (does not apply to business and its development, but that is a completely different topic).

Shopping as needed

Purchasing things should be as subordinated to expediency as possible. Bright discounts on branded goods and cheap sales push people into thoughtless purchases (often women), which subsequently only take up space in the closet. Psychologists recommend that if you have a strong desire to buy something, wait a day and think about the need for this thing. As a rule, the next day the temptation to spend money uselessly goes away.

Reviewing your diet

You don't have to switch to a minimum set of products to save money. From the list of food costs, you can see how much is spent on purchases that are useless from a nutritional point of view: chips, soda, fast food, small sweets. In addition to a significant blow to the budget, this is also a significant harm to health. It is worth giving up on them - this will give real savings and the opportunity to use the money for more useful expenses.

How to learn to save money with a small salary

Low wages plague most residents. At the same time, all segments of the population consider it insufficient. However, you can save a certain amount even from a small income, if you plan expenses correctly, refuse thoughtless spending and monitor expenses. The main thing is to train yourself to really look at purchases and their importance in the context of the current day, and the principles of how to learn how to save money correctly are always the same.

Housing and utility costs

These expenses are in second place in terms of volume after food. Modern technologies will help you save 30-50% on utilities (LED lamps, solar panels, water pressure regulators, aerators for taps). A one-time investment in such devices pays off within a month. Separately, you need to accustom yourself and those around you to monitor excessive consumption of electricity, water and gas, and not turn on appliances unnecessarily.

Saving on food

First of all, you need to reconsider your diet and research the market to see if you can replace branded products with cheaper, but identical in quality, analogues. Comparison often works in favor of budget options (pasta, cereals, milk, etc.) because they focus on the product itself, and not on bright, expensive packaging. You should refuse to eat in cafes and paid canteens in work time, and taking lunch with you from home (besides, it’s also healthier), you need to wean yourself from buying extra.

Bad habits

Saving rules apply to this area as well. A simple calculation of the amount spent on cigarettes for at least a week can effectively help you give up tobacco, especially for those who smoke at least a pack a day. A daily bottle of beer in the evening, not to mention large volumes of alcohol consumption, also seriously adds to the expense item. This is without even mentioning the harmful effects on the body. Therefore, it makes sense, if not completely getting rid of bad habits, then not regularly wasting money on them.

Recreation and entertainment

Not everyone is ready to sit at home every evening in front of the TV, computer or book and learn to appreciate solitude. Man is a social being who requires emotional relief and a change of activity. An adequate replacement for regular clubs and going to the cinema can be communicating with friends and acquaintances, spending time together without significant costs for entrance fees, or inflated prices in a bar or restaurant. There are many options:

• going out into nature with a group: even within the city limits you can relax without extra expenses;
• parties at home instead of clubs and discos;
• free events organized by the city administration or institutions.

Ways to save money

How to save money and not spend it unnecessarily? Smart savings will help you accumulate money even if your salary is not the highest. Accumulating them may look like storing them at home or investing in securities, metals, currency. Most banks offer to open savings accounts, where funds will gradually generate income. It is worth recalling that putting money into a piggy bank at home does not justify itself in modern economy, because inflation will gradually depreciate them.

Five envelope rule

The principle of such distribution of money is to manage the funds correctly. Payments are deducted from the entire family income at the beginning of the billing period utilities, transport costs, mandatory payments (loans), basic necessities, deposit part. The remaining amount is divided into four envelopes: one for each week of the month. The point is that unless absolutely necessary, the next one is not opened until the end of 7 days (ideally, until the money in the first one runs out). The fifth envelope is a safety envelope for the rest of the month.

Opening target savings accounts

Banks offer services for accumulating funds at the most different percentages. It is important to remember that serious financial system, which has been on the market for many years, will not offer exorbitant annual interest rates. Let it be a small income of 5%, a slow accumulation process, but in a time-tested bank. Gradually, the amount in the account will grow, and the client will have a guaranteed supply of money. Important advice: put a large sum into one organization - not the most reasonable idea (even Swiss banks are not insured against force majeure).

Free money should generate income

The process of accumulating finances must be profitable, otherwise inflation will reduce it. In addition to bank savings accounts, company shares, purchasing apartments for rent or shares in a developing business are gaining popularity. This does not require exorbitant capital. For example, people who invested in the development of the spinner (they collected $10 each) are now making money on the general mania without doing anything. You need to find the most attractive way to invest your free money and receive, albeit small, but constant profits.

Which bank is better to save money in?

It must be remembered that savings deposit(deposit) and account differ significantly in terms of use of funds, the possibility of early withdrawal of money and the interest rate. When choosing, you should take into account these nuances in order to increase your capital, and not remain only “with your” savings. There is no clear answer as to which method is better, since these types of savings pursue different goals for the bank itself and for the depositor. TOP offers for savings accounts and deposits, regardless of financial goals:

	Bank's name	Name of the savings offer	Annual interest rate	Minimum investment amount, rub.
	Sberbank of Russia	Bank deposit"Replenish"
	Alfa Bank	Bank card account “Valuable Time”
		Savings account for credit card		No lower limit
		Contribution " Monthly income»
	Gazprombank	Deposit "Accumulative"

Video

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If you've already started saving money, congratulations - it's a smart step towards a secure future. Ideally, your cash cushion should be enough for six months of life without financial income. But even if you make a profit every month and increase your savings, this does not mean that your strategy is perfect.

David Blaylock, a financial planner, analyzed the common ones and gave some tips for improving them.

Strategy No. 1. Putting aside what remains

So, you pay your monthly bills, maybe spend a little on entertainment, and then whatever is left over goes into your bank account. Knowing that you actually have money, you may spend more than you should and then use up your savings funds. Plus, it's hard to set a specific savings goal because you can never be sure how much will be left after all the expenses. You can try another method instead.

So how should it be?

The very first bill to pay after payday is your savings account.

Make this your rule and perceive it as an obligatory and most important part of payments (of course, if you have enough money to pay all other bills).

Create an automatic transfer of money from your bank card to a savings account at the beginning of the month or from each cash receipt. If you just set up such an automatic money transfer and forget about it, after some time the amount of accumulated funds will greatly surprise you.

Strategy #2: I transfer money to a savings account

So, you are regular - that's great. And a savings account with a plastic card is very convenient. But this also has its downsides.

If you run out of money, you risk withdrawing your savings or even spending them on an unexpected but very desirable purchase. And, most likely, you will do this, because withdrawing money is very easy: it is always within reach, you don’t even have to go to the bank, just use an ATM.

So how should it be?

Open a deposit in a bank for 6 months or a year. This way you will definitely not waste money intended for storage. Just don't invest everything. Leave some in your regular emergency savings account.

Strategy No. 3. All my savings are in one account

When you only have one savings account, the money in it seems to accumulate quickly and is enough for everything. If you're only saving for one thing, like an apartment or a vacation, then you're fine. But if you have multiple goals, one bank account makes the calculations difficult and you don't see concrete progress. It is more difficult for you to understand what you will have enough money for and what you will have to wait for.

As a result, it turns out that after spending your savings, for example, on a vacation, you leave nothing for a new car.

So how should it be?

It is better to create several accounts, each of which will be dedicated to a specific purpose, for example: “for home”, “for vacation”, “for a child’s education”. This will make it much easier to calculate your finances and see real progress.

Strategy #4: I save large amounts at once when I can.

Some people do not save money on a regular basis, but save large sums at once when a lucky chance occurs. With this method of accumulation, feelings of abundance and guilt alternate. The last one is when you have to take money from your savings. The disappointment of this may even discourage you from ever saving money again.

So how should it be?

The best thing to do is set savings goals for yourself and work towards them. Determine a specific amount of money to save every month. If you think it can be increased without compromising your quality of life, do it. But! Contributions must remain consistent and equal.

Strategy #5: I save as much as I can.

Despite the need to have savings, you shouldn’t get too hung up on it and deny yourself pleasures. They are the ones who help us stay happy and maintain mental health.

So how should it be?

If you haven't had a month in which you can put money into your "emergency fund," put off all other payments and gratifications until you can.

Once your six-month emergency fund is replenished, Blaylock advises changing your strategy. Since small cash savings yield little money, it is worth considering longer-term ones with good interest rates.