Be debt free, don’t splurge extra income… 7 rules of effective saving

Everyone agrees that saving is a good thing yet it remains a mere wish for a lot of people.

In a world of income, expenditure and insatiable wants, saving is the only way one can appear to be in control.

Here are seven tips to help you improve your saving habits:

Access your financial health
This is a very important step in knowing the route to better savings. Determine your income and what takes the most of it.

This is how you know the things to cut back and how much to save.

This assessment will also let you know what your budget for the days to come will look like.

Differentiate your needs from your wants
This is almost like creating a budget; list out the things that are essential to your survival. On another side of the sheet, list out the things you would love to buy/do for yourself.

Remember, don’t be extreme or try to cut back on all frivolous spending. That might be too much, start at a comfortable place.

Set a zero for yourself.
This zero is the least amount that must be contained in your account at the end of the month. This should an amount that will accommodate your expenditure and can be called savings.

Your savings is not one percent of your income; the aim is to keep back a substantial sum that you can rely on when things go south or during the rainy day.

Monitor your spending
Be wise while spending, you do not have to buy all the things you want at once, spread it over a period of them.

When there is an item you really want to have, open a different account and save up for it.

Saving does not mean living like a miser.

Be debt free
Keeping your expenditure within the limits of your income is a very good thing. You should not spend tomorrow’s income on today’s expenditure.

Extra income should be saved
When you get un-budgeted cash, save it.

It was not part of your expected income and should not be spent on expenditure.

See it as paying yourself
See your savings is the money that belongs to you. Other sections of your income belong to other things so why not pay yourself.

Some experts even suggest that you take out your savings first before anything else.