10 Tips to Improve Your Financial Welfare in the New Year

In our time, to achieve financial prosperity, simple savings on food and clothing are no longer enough. To achieve long-term financial stability, we must adhere to certain rules that cover different aspects of our lives.

For you, we’ve prepared 10 simple personal finance tips to start with. They will help you become financially savvy in the new 2016. But, beware, they all work in the long run, and do not give an immediate effect.

And if you do not go into the details of smart monetary theories, then these simple tips will be quite enough to feel comfortable with money and get rich.





1. A simple, universal, and most importantly, trouble-free way to improve your financial condition.

Diversification is the division into equal shares of one’s savings and incomes through various instruments in order to maintain stability in crisis situations. At the same time, diversification can be applied not only to money, but also to life in general: work, rest, education.

For example, divide a large deposit into parts and put it in several banks. If something goes wrong in one bank, you can withdraw money from another.

Develop professional skills in different areas. You can independently improve your skills or find a part-time job - so you will be more confident to stand on your feet with any force majeure.

Thus, as in history, it is better to lose one battle than to lose a war completely and quickly. Diversification is the most important thing for a financier at any time.

2. Very popular and outdated advice, all successful people in one way or another in their books offer to use it. What can I do, it really works.

An ordinary person, when receiving an amount of income, for example, salary, immediately deducts all his current expenses (communal, telephone, urgent purchases) and plans purchases, and remembers his own development last, if at all. Imagine that you received a salary not 35 thousand rubles, but 32 thousand, and the amount of 3 thousand rubles immediately goes to the asset formation fund.

A pragmatic person tries to separate the amount from the profit, so that it is either immediately invested or put aside for his development and new ideas. It's usually 5 to 10 percent. As a result, there are always funds for new projects, education, training – moving forward, and only then the remaining amount is covered.

Here, the psychological effect of realizing that you are ready to invest in something, ready to take a conscious risk, losing them for you will not be a tragedy works well. And in this way you get a huge experience.

This is the “pay yourself” rule: when you get an income, set aside 5-10% for your development, for ideas. The main thing here is to understand that this is not the same as putting aside a car, furniture or vacation. This is money for the idea when it matures.

It seems like a simple rule, but how difficult it is to follow it! You need a very good skill of self-discipline and the ability to deny yourself a lot.

3. Try to avoid paying commissions on various operations: phone, banking services, insurance premiums, additional guarantees and the like. Be able to understand such trifles, be able to refuse additional optional services, do not be lazy.

In the future, this is a very good capital. Don't you? Try six months without paying commissions and penalties and see how much will accumulate.

Examples of commissions: other people's ATMs, mobile bank, additional warranty for goods, purchase of useless discount cards, payment by electronic money through terminals, additional services during the service. Even the purchase of small goods at the checkout in a hypermarket can also be considered a commission - for standing in line.

4. On the basis of my life experience and observations of other people, I will say: never lend to close friends, no matter what amount. If you want to help, just give the amount you can give. There will be more returns in the future.

5. If you go to a store or are going to use some service, that is, get to places with a lot of temptations, do not take a card with you (at least at first), but take a certain amount of cash that covers your expenses, and not a ruble more. It works smoothly, but you need to develop a habit.

Yes, this advice may seem ridiculous, but later, by practicing this method regularly, you can protect yourself from impulsive purchases or purchases of services that you do not need. A plastic card puts you into a consumer trance, as if everything is allowed, and if there are credit cards or overdrafts, then your prudent mind may not stand it at all.

It also helps you say no to yourself when buying unnecessary things and services offered in various ways. It’s simple: you don’t have the money to pay for it.

6. Regardless of the financial situation in the world and at home, regardless of all your knowledge, you should have a financial reserve in case of drought.

Books often talk about a financial reserve to keep you alive for six months. I believe that in our rapidly changing times this is unrealistic. And it is not necessary at all - 2-3 months are enough. During this time, you will definitely figure out how to get out of any crisis situation, and get any job.

It’s your financial stability fund (as in our country). If there are force majeure circumstances: dismissal from work, business collapse, crisis, illness - you must live on this stable fund for 2-3 months until new incomes appear.

7. Enter a system of fines as a child, remember? Nashkodil, brought three, did not fulfill the orders of the parents - a fine in the form of deprivation of sweets or pocket money, a computer or just sending to the corner. And why not now apply such a punishment, but to yourself?

Spent in a big way - a fine from above, spent extra on rest - a fine, lost money - another fine, lazy to earn more - also a fine. Each person sets himself the limits of what is allowed and the size of the fine.

The amount should be small, but tangible for the budget. And the money you have accumulated at the end of the month should not be returned to yourself, otherwise it will not be a punishment. Think about where to direct them. For example, you can give your child, friends, and the best – to charity. But you don’t have to explain anything to anyone – you gave it away, that’s all. Every misdemeanor must have a price.

You can replace a monetary penalty with another punishment, such as deprivation of sweets or additional sports, but monetary punishment works best.

Do you want to deal with finance wisely? Start with yourself. As long as you do stupid things, money will treat you the same way — it’s simple.

8. The amount spent on something must fully meet criteria such as safety, health and functionality.

You don’t need to buy something cheap or get services for pennies: this is fraught with consequences for both safety and health. But do not think that the expensive is the best. We need a competent approach.

You can use the principle of the golden mean: we dismiss the cheap, we dismiss the expensive, and take the average.

This rule works perfectly when buying equipment: the new is too expensive and not run, the cheap is almost guaranteed to break - we take proven models that are universal and meet all our needs. It is better to choose simple and functional than beautiful and sophisticated.

9. If you can save yourself time for more important tasks, it is better to pay a specialist to solve the problem.

Many are trying to save on repair, health, rest, food. They often try to do everything on their own. But it's not always better. Such independence can take time, rattle nerves and lead not to the best result.

But if there is an option to speed up the solution of the problem, and spend the time and energy won on something more important and useful, then you better pay. A stingy man pays twice.

10. The most useful advice and the most difficult to do. You do not have to live in the moment, otherwise you will miss a lot, most of it will pass by you.

Unfortunately, many people try to satisfy their immediate desires: “I want this and this”, and why – it is unclear. What prospects in the future this money will bring – often do not take into account. Yes, it is useful to buy a laptop for blogging, writing a book or code, but not useful for games, TV shows and social networks.

Learn to direct your life to the future, not to today’s desires and impulses, often caused by the surrounding information environment. A financially savvy person has an important skill - the ability to plan. Yes, plans are not always implemented, but the main vector of development remains.

How many tips have you used in your life? I calculated that I was following six tips, the rest had to be worked on. published

Author: Evgeny Knutov

P.S. And remember, just changing our consumption – together we change the world!

Join us on Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki

Source: lifehacker.ru/2015/12/14/financial-advice/