It’s the end of the month and the tide is already low on many accounts. You ask yourself: Where has all my money gone? FOCUS Online gives savings tips and tells you how to get your finances in order with five simple tricks.
It’s almost the middle of the month and the tide is already low on many accounts. You ask yourself: Where has all my money gone? The electricity bill has not yet been debited and the gym still has to be paid for.
Don’t worry, there is a workaround for that. With five simple tricks you can create order in your finances.
Not a friend of cash? This is a mistake. You won’t overflow your finances as quickly if you settle for all the mundane things in cash. If you pay with an EC or credit card, you are more likely to lose track of your expenses.
Divide the money that you have left over from your monthly fixed costs into weekly budgets. Every week you withdraw the calculated amount and pay everything exclusively from this money.
Example: In addition to rent, electricity bill, mobile phone contract and fitness studio, you still have 1000 euros each month. October has 31 days. 1000 divided by 31 is 32 euros a day. So you withdraw 225 euros per week. You should generally get by with this money.
You should have the money for monthly fixed costs such as rent, electricity, mobile phone or sports contracts in a separate account. So calculate the sum of your monthly fixed costs and transfer them to the extra account. As a result, the money is no longer freely available to you and all outstanding claims can be debited without any problems.
The best way to get an overview of your expenses is to use a budget app.
Create categories such as food, leisure and shopping for the different cost centers. Each time you have spent money, enter the amount in the respective category. The app adds up all expenses and gives you an overview of how much money is left and how much you have already spent.
Tip: This makes it easy for you to discover large cost centers and think about how you can save money there.
Set up an overdraft facility on your account. If you overdraw your account, you will have to pay interest, but at around 7 percent, this is significantly lower than the normal overdraft interest rate of 17 percent. The overdraft facility also prevents direct debits from being rejected, especially at the end of the month before the salary is received. This saves you high reminder fees if, for example, the landlord cannot debit the rent.
You should park three net monthly salaries in a money market account. In contrast to a current account, you receive at least low interest there and still have immediate access to your savings. You can use this money to cover unexpected expenses, such as a broken washing machine.
You can also invest money here for expenses in the coming months, for example for a vacation or a new car. If you still have money left over, it’s time to start thinking about disability insurance and retirement plans.
