Economic resources are like time.
Many people manage their appointments, to-dos and others in an agenda to make the most of the hours, and even those who are not so organized know exactly when and for what reasons they missed part of the day.
So with money: we should know exactly where it is or where it went.
But the reality is that this is not always the case and many times we are surprised that the money we have is not what we expected or that it does not reach as much as we would like.
This is what could be happening:
1. You save money on your debit card.
Taking your savings to formal financial institutions like banks is a great idea to keep it safe;
However, if you just leave it there, your capital may decrease in value due to inflation, which is nothing more than the sustained and generalized increase in the prices of goods and services in an economy over time.
Inflation in Mexico closed 2019 at 2.83% and for the first half of October of this 2020 it reached 4.09%, that is, your money saved has reached an average of 3% less throughout the year to buy anything.
So one of the goals when saving should also be to beat inflation.
Compare the options available to save your money, find out how much they charge you in commissions and how much they give you in returns.
And don't forget to ask if they have alternatives that offer you greater profitability.
2. You do not control your income and expenses.
People who know how much they spend line by line usually reach the pinnacle of household management: saving.
And on the other hand, there are people who spend 10 when they only earn eight.
It may be that you are halfway there: you try not to overspend but at the end of the fortnight you don't reach the savings goal you expected.
Try to organize your expenses in this way:
- Fixed costs.
Those that you have to solve yes or yes.
Here come the payment of electricity, telephone, rent, food, credits and gasoline, among others.
- Variable expends.
Those that are not constant but always happen (clothes, entertainment, restaurants…) and those that are unexpected but that must always be counted (for example, illnesses and home repairs).
- Periodic expenses.
Mandatory payments that are not monthly but that you must cover at some point in the year: tenure, property, insurance, vacations….
Write down all the money that comes out in a notebook or application (a kind of cash register).
We recommend that you keep a daily or weekly accounting of what you spend, so it will be easier.
Once you have clear your money outflows and compare them with your income, the numbers, cold and calculating that they are, will reveal the truth about where the resource drain is.
Registering your daily expenses manually helps you become aware of the value of money and rethink your lifestyle.
3. You save now, pay more later
If you have been tempted to buy cheaper goods or services with the idea of saving some money, you know about the feelings that this carries: if you have been lucky, the investment was a success and your portfolio smiles;
if not, you know how frustrating it is to pay again for something that should already be resolved.
There are many examples of bad experiences of this type: the waterproofing that you ordered from your cousin because he charged less, the tool that you bought for your work but that broke down after a couple of services, the furniture that you ruined by not paying for the service of armed, the blouse that was discolored at the first wash ...
The great lesson that these situations leave us is to understand that saving is not something that we should leave to fortune, but that it is the consequence of financial habits and intelligent decisions, such as recognizing that sometimes it is better to pay a price that seems higher but that will save you headaches in the long run.