How to start moving closer to financial freedom today!

1. Eliminate Your Debt

Paying your bills in full and on time will allow you to avoid high interest rates and late fees. If you’re unable to make full payments, aim to pay more than the minimum due to avoid paying more in interest and fees.

In general, there are three debt repayment strategies that can help people pay down or pay off debt more efficiently. Pay the smallest debt as fast as possible. Pay minimums on all other debt. Then pay that extra toward the next largest debt.

2. Set Savings Goals

One of the best ways to save money is by visualizing what you are saving for. If you need motivation, set saving targets along with a timeline to make it easier to save. Want to buy a house in three years with a 20 percent down payment? Now you have a target and know what you will need to save each month to achieve your goal. Use our savings calculators to make your goal!

At least 20% of your income should go towards savings. Meanwhile, another 50% (maximum) should go toward necessities, while 30% goes toward discretionary items. This is called the 50/30/20 rule of thumb, and it provides a quick and easy way for you to budget your money.

3. Pay Yourself First

Set up an auto debit from your checking account to your savings account each payday. Whether it’s R350 every two weeks or R500, don’t cheat yourself out of a healthy long-term savings plan.

4. Stop Smoking

This rule/top is not limited to just smoking but can be applied to any unnecessary vice that costs you money and deteriorates your health. As difficult as it may seem at first curbing this bad habit will save you a lot in the wrong hall.

Imagine how much money you could save if you stopped. We are not talking small amounts here – someone smoking a pack a day spends about R266 a week on cigarettes, which is over R13,800 each year. Now imagine what you could do with an extra R13800 every year?

5. Take a “Staycation”

Staying at home is not the worst way to spend your holidays. Especially with a financial goal in mind. Look at it this way you stay at home for a couple of vacations and in a few years you might be able to take the vacation of your dreams. You might be pleasantly surprised by the awesome wonders you could explore in your own backyards and you would be making a positive contribution to the local economy.

6. Spend to Save

What is Spend to Save? Spend to Save is a self-initiated saving by an individual whereby they can register and choose to save a certain percentage (between 2%-10%) in their e-wallet every time they perform a transaction. Customer will earn interest of 0.5 to 2.5 % annually, paid monthly depending on the amount saved.

7. Utility Savings

Lets face it no one can do without spending the key is to think energy efficiency, relook at the way you are spending, find cost effective alternatives and plan your spending and put a portion of what you are spending away.

8. Pack Your Lunch

For one thing, packing your lunch lets you control exactly what goes into the food you eat. By making it yourself, you know exactly what is in the ingredients, and control the quality and freshness your ingredients actually are.

Consider the facts. The cost of eating out is R82 per meal on average, whereas preparing your own lunch costs around R47 per meal. Over the course of a year, you could save R11 928 if instead of eating out for lunch each day, you began packing your lunch.

9. Create an Interest-Bearing Account

With rampart inflation hikes in play, there is little use in spending without gaining interest…

An interest-bearing account is a type of bank account that pays the customer an interest rate in exchange for them depositing their money at the bank. The return and interest rate offered will vary by bank and depend on the account terms and conditions. They can also change over time.

Interest-bearing funds can provide a steady, predictable source of income which can boost the returns of your portfolio even when the price of shares and bonds are not rising.

10. Annualize Your Spending

This should be step one but because analyzing & annualizing your spending is something that should be an ongoing practice I’ve saved it for last.

Think of it this way… do you pay R20 a week for snacks at the vending machine at your office? That’s R1,000 you’re removing from your budget for soda and snacks each year. Suddenly, that habit adds up to a substantial sum.

Remember being poor is not about your financial status, capacity or capabilities, poverty does not merely refer to ones financial status it is a reflection of your mindset, your relationship with money & what you think of it. So if you want to improve your financial wellbeing you need to improve the way you think about money. You need to, understand money, plan for it, strategies about it & this might sound crazy but you need to respect it after all no relationship can grow without respect.

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