Saving Tips: 4 Essential Money Skills

It has been some time since my last update.

Today is the 14th day without physical companion of my hubby "tear". My hubby has been posted overseas to work for 3 months. Though it has been only 14 days, I am starting to miss him. Since the day we started dating (more than 6 years), we have not been separated for more than one month.  Currently, we are trying to keep in contact through FaceTime, WhatsApp and Viber calls. While he is away, I have more time alone and this give me time to reflect on many things in life. I shall blog more about this the next time.  

Today, I’ll like to share with you some saving tips!

I was from a family where I used to fear daily whether there is food on the table and had less than 10 dollars in my bank account. I experienced power outage one day before my A level examination because we did not pay our electricity bill. It was a life with in which I was uncertain about my future and money had always been a concern. 

I used to do many part time jobs during my school time to help out in our family finances, to pay for my JC school fees and my own daily expenses. Hence since young, my family situation has trained me to be self-dependent. Being the finance controller in my family, I have learnt to manage my own finances and have cultivated some good money sense. , I derive skills of saving and making good use of every single cent.

Here I am sharing some of my essential skills. There are 4 essential skills when it comes to money: value it, control it, save it, invest it. 

1. Value it

For people who have not been through hard times where money is a daily concern, you may not value money as much.

"Money is like women, the more you value it, the more it will stay with you. Else, you may lose it."

In order to accumulate money, first you have to value it. Before you easily let loose of each dollar, think of how this one dollar may be a key to a person’s survival in Africa. 

2. Control it

There are always people who earn high annual salaries but still complain about having not enough money. This is because these people lack control over their finances and would just let money flow out of their hands. The fact is you do not need to have a lot to gain financial stability.

A critical step in attaining personal financial stability is to have intrinsic control over your money and it means knowing the inflow and outflow of your money at your fingertips. I personally suggest doing personal accounting, a simple balance sheet of your assets and liabilities.

You may choose to compute your balance sheet at the month’s end to keep track of your asset’s growth. For a more detailed analysis, you may choose to do a profit and loss statement to monitor and find out the reasons for any increase or decrease in expenses. So the next time when you complain about having no money, you will know exactly what the cause is and choose to resolve it if need be. 

3. Save it

Without elaboration, I guessed everyone knows the importance of saving.

Wealth can never be accumulated if you don’t save. It is critical to first start saving a reserve fund for rainy days – usually about 6 months of your monthly income.

After which, you may set up different accounts to save for different purposes. 

You may refer to my previous post: Saving Tips: Top 3 Saving / Current Account in Singapore

• Insurance fund
• Deposit for purpose of 1^st property
• Renovation fund
• Investment fund
• Operating fund for daily usage

Many people like to save whatever that is left after spending. However, the better way to do it is to save first and spend the rest. 

4. Invest it 

Like I have mentioned in point 3, it is good to set an investment fund account, to set aside a proportion of your savings for investment.

With yearly inflation, the value of your money depreciates over time. Hence, it is important to make good investments to fight inflation. The minimum return of your investment should be 2-5% to fight inflation.

Frankly, I am still learning how to be a good investor. Hopefully, I will be able to share some good investment tips in the future when I see my returns.

So let’s value, control, save & invest!

Ciao,

Evelyn