Money management hacks
By Peso Hacks
Financial freedom starts with money management and budgeting, but how do we budget effectively? One of our readers asked us for some budgeting tips and tricks, so today I'll be sharing some of the ones I apply to my own life:
Before I buy something, I remind myself that “We Don’t Buy Things with Money”
One of the most common money problems people face today is overspending and underspending.
A year ago, I came across an article that changed my perspective on money. Now, whenever I spend, I think about this unconsciously: “We don’t buy things with money; we buy them with hours from our life.”
These are two key takeaways which have been the foundation of my financial decisions:
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Choose wisely where we spend our money and time. Before buying anything, always think about the time and effort we’d spend just to cover the cost of it.
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We should monitor our expenses because it can balloon quickly. The end goal is for our income to exceed our monthly expenses.
Track your expenses mindfully
When budgeting, being mindful of where your money goes is the first step so you know how much you’re spending and what you’re spending on.
Here are three quick tips:
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Go with a budgeting method that works for you. Though personally, you can start with a simple spreadsheet since it’s customizable and accessible.
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Pro-tip: We have a sample spreadsheet below that you could use to keep an eye on your income and expenses since knowing where their money is going is important. It may seem shocking when you realize you've spend 40% of your money on food delivery, so self-awareness is a huge step.
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We asked The Guided Dreamer to share her finance tracker to the Komounity!
You may access it via this link and you should receive the tracker in your email in a few minutes.
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Consider when do you usually plan your expenses. Do you want to plan your expenses before the month or weekly? Once done, set a reminder so you never miss a date!
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It’s also a good practice to track your expenses daily because, again, it can balloon quickly.
In relation to this, we received a question from the Komounity, “I'm curious if it is prudent to have my own financial spreadsheet and tally everything tediously? or will it be better to stick with the traditional pen and paper?”
Learn to save mindfully
Aside from creating a monthly budget, there are a lot of things you can do now to save money. I have a great resource here -
74 Mind-Blowing Tipid Tips That Will Save You Thousands!
In this post, I collected all of the tipid tips I used, and I found from others. Here are some of the tips I still keep in mind whenever I buy items:
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Don’t just look at the products on your eye level. Brands pay big money to be put on a specific spot on store shelves, and that cost is usually passed on to the customer in some form.
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Don’t shop when you’re hungry to avoid impulse buying.
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Try saving in small amounts instead of large chunks (Pro-tip: Try placing your money in Komo! It’s easy to use and you can grow your savings faster 😉)
Building your emergency fund
Instead of focusing on investments or retirement savings, the FIRST thing you should have is an emergency fund. This is your first line of defense against unexpected expenses!
The rule of thumb is to save at least 6 months’ worth of your salary as emergency fund.
Lastly, keep your emergency fund in an easy to access account. Komo is the perfect place to put it as you can withdraw it anytime online or through an ATM. The best part? It earns 2.5% interest per annum!
Komo has helped me manage my money better because it’s easily accessible and allows users to grow their money at a much higher interest rate (2.5% per annum). I personally use the free fund transfers and a free debit card for payments and withdrawals.
If you have more finance-related questions like the ones I answered above, feel free to drop an email to hey@komo.ph today!