By Vanessa Pinto
“More money, more problems”. Surely you have heard this quote being thrown around...
I remember hearing this when I was younger and my immediate thought being: “NOT FOR ME!” I thought that once I started making money, life would just be easy sailing. But was I in for a big shock! It actually took me a few years to realise that making money and managing money are two completely different concepts - the two must go hand in hand in order for you to achieve a good relationship with your finances. Let’s be honest, you can be really good at making money, but what good is it if you are bad at managing it?
As you enter an age where you will start to deal with money in higher quantities, either through a full time job after college, part time job at uni or receiving your student loan, here are some money management tips to keep in mind when spending your coints!
1. SAVE, SAVE, SAVE
Did I mention save? There is no reason why you should not be putting some money aside; whether you are making £10 or £100, it is not about how much you are able to put away, but getting into the habit and the discipline of doing so.
Make sure you open a savings account (browse for the one with the best interest) and set up automated savings. By doing this, you don't need to think about saving because your bank will do it for you automatically.
2. LEARN TO BUDGET
This is very important and highly related to our first point. The last thing you want is to keep eating into your savings due to poor budgeting. You need to sit down and fully understand your monthly expenses against the amount of money you have coming in. Write down how much money you make, then write down all of your monthly outgoings. Allocate
percentages of your income to your NEEDS, WANTS and SAVINGS.
So for example, you could do a 50/30/20 split:
50% would go to your needs - that could be your phone bill, uni accommodation, travel card,
food shopping, etc.
30% for your wants - that could be for activities with your friends or treating yourself to something. * Remember you are young and you absolutely can and should enjoy yourself, so it is important to give yourself an allowance for enjoyment!
The remaining 20% would go towards your savings.
The above ratio is just a suggestion but you can customise it to suit your costs or saving goals.
3. LEARN SELF CONTROL
We live in a highly consumerist society where there is always a new phone, a new fashion trend or something else calling our name.
Social media and even people around you can make you want and feel like you constantly need to keep up. But guess what? You don’t.
Learn to practice self control and understand that you do not need all these things for a good quality of life. Surround yourself with like-minded people and remember that you do not need to impress anyone. Why be concerned about giving off a certain image of yourself to people you don’t actually care about?
4. SHOP SMART
Get into the habit of becoming a smart shopper. Shopping smart is all about putting in the time and/or effort to find price-saving opportunities. Here are some tips and tricks that could help you out with this:
- Find out if there are any discounts or offers available i.e. student discount
- Before you leave your house to shop, plan exactly what you need to buy so that you can avoid buying unnecessary items
- Think about buying used items; a lot of the time you may be able to get used things in great condition, for a fraction of the full retail price.
- Compare prices
I hope you’ve enjoyed these tips. If you have any you would like to share or any questions
related to the post, then feel free to drop a comment below. Happy money management!
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