Are you
up for these 3 Financial Challenges?
Let’s begin learning:
The safest way to double your money is to fold it over once
and put it in your pocket. ~ Kin Hubbard
Kin Hubbard is right in saying that if we do not spend money
unnecessarily we would be able to save money and double it. However most of
us like to spend and would find it difficult to not spend at all. We feel
that it could stress us further.
Accepting the3 financial challenges could help you in
controlling unnecessary spending. Once you control and avoid unnecessary
spending you can save more and invest more. So you can achieve your
financial goals easier and earlier.
Here are the challenges:
A Day Away from spending
The challenge of not spending for a day could be difficult, but could help
save and render some important life lessons.
It is true as most of us have regular daily expenses on coffee, tea, lunch,
and snack at regular intervals and fuel to travel to and from work.
Effective planning with implementation of this challenge
involves ensuring that your fuel tank is full on the earlier day. Then
setting the coffee vending machine the night before could ensure you
refreshing brewed coffee to enjoy before you leave for work. Similarly,
carrying homemade lunch and healthy snacks like salads, nuts, seed and snack
bars could help you eat healthy and save money.
It is not as difficult as it appears. Once you start
practicing it, it becomes part of your habit like fasting. It opens new
ideas to you on saving on daily routine expenses.
A Week Away from Credit Cards
We all tend to spend a lot on small and big purchases with
using the credit card. Credit card tends to make us spend excessively on
unwanted purchases.
Buying things on cash would only make us spend on things that
we absolutely consider necessary. It is found that sometimes postponing the
purchase and preferring to pay cash could make us realize that the need was
just momentary.
During the week away from credit card, you will be able to
understand some of your spending pattern. You will come to know on what
items you make impulsive buying and on what items you make need based
buying.
As you are using cash to buy and not plastic money, you may
want to negotiate the price. This develops your negotiation skills.
It is also true that buying unnecessary things with credit
cards causes financial stress and spoiling of important life relationships.
So avoiding credit card for a week could make you a need based buyer and
better negotiator.
A Month Away from Eating Out
The last challenge of not dining out for a month could be difficult for many
today.
This is difficult but you would realize on implementation that it saves you
a lot of money that is usually spent eating out in restaurants and
cafeterias.
Avoiding eating in restaurants would not only create huge savings, but also
would help you avoid excesses in foods. In addition eating out only on
special occasions as a family would help you enjoy the food. It would make
the family realize
the value of spending money lavishly.
When we have a kid around one year old, we won’t offer any
outside food. We will pack the home made food or snacks for the kid. You
can follow the same for the grownups.
Again this is not as difficult as you think. Think of having
a homemade food as a family in a park or beach. This will bring a different
experience and enjoyment to your family. This will give you new ideas on
having more fun with lesser money.
A Final Note
All these challenges do not mean that you should not spend at all on dining
out or on getting good things of life. It only means you should spend the
right amount of money for the right reasons. This self-control would not
only help you save more but also in preparing you psychologically for a
consumerism
I am sure you would learn a lot with these spending challenges once you try
them.
The
author is
Ramalingam K,
an MBA
(Finance) and Certified Financial Planner.
He is the Founder and Director of
Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in)
a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be
reached at
ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in.
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