How to manage money correctly when there is little of it. How to manage money - ideas for managing a large sum

Income is growing, and loans are multiplying. Traveling during vacation takes a significant toll on your pocket. But someone manages to save for a rainy day or a decent retirement. To become one of these lucky ones, you don’t have to have a financial education or read mountains of books. Everything is much simpler.

Those who struggle to live paycheck to paycheck look to those who successfully invest their savings in securities as financial gurus. In fact, anyone can invest their own money wisely. To do this, you just need to take a number of specific steps, and most importantly, learn to behave correctly. After all, most often it is the behavior of people that prevents them from saving money and, by investing it in stocks, receiving a good income. Financial planner and bestselling author “The Psychology of Investments. How to stop doing stupid things with your money" And "Let's talk about your income and expenses" Carl Richards explains why people manage their savings irrationally and shares simple tips to help fix the situation.

The article will be useful to those who want to learn how to save without making serious sacrifices, get rid of loans, start saving money and increasing their savings.

Remember: You Can't Predict the Future

There is no completely safe investment. Over time, everything changes. And trying to predict where a stock will go next based on evidence that it has been up so far is like guessing which way a coin toss will land, given that the last time it came up was heads. The previous result does not guarantee anything.

But this knowledge should not paralyze you. If you're about to invest your money and want to make a decision based on common sense rather than vague prospects, make a plan. Not a 200-page treatise that you will never have time to even re-read, but a short list of actions that will fit on a small card.

Answer the question, what does money mean to you?

For many people, financial planning seems so overwhelming that their first reaction is to throw up their hands and start begging an expert to tell them what to do. No specialist can give universal yet effective advice.

From the book “The Psychology of Investments. How to stop doing stupid things with your money":

“Each person’s financial situation is unique because their goals are unique. Each time we are talking not about abstract dreams... but about everyone’s specific ideas about a prosperous retirement and a good education for children. And if what brings joy to your neighbor cannot make you happy, then someone else’s financial plan will not work in your case.”

So the first (and most important) question you should ask yourself is: “What does money mean to me?” For some they are synonymous with security or opportunity, for others they are the equivalent of freedom. Once you've formulated your unique answer, think about what your realistic goals, time horizons and risk tolerance are, and what you're willing to change.

Having identified your goals, choose the three largest ones. And whenever you think about investing, ask yourself whether it will help you achieve these goals.

Don't be led by emotions

By acting like those around us, we feel safe. That's why we buy stocks that are expensive in hopes that they will continue to rise, and sell stocks when they start to fall out of fear. We may hold our employer's shares because we are loyal, or we may sell securities because it's...fun. This behavior is more like gambling. It's exciting, but it's unlikely that you would advise someone to play in a casino to save money for the future.

Investing is not fun. They should always be consistent with your goals and principles, and not based on feelings about what will happen. Don't play in the stock market.

Use the 72 hour test

Of course, you can think about where to invest your money when you have it. What to do if they are not there? The answer is obvious: you need to start spending less. And there is a killer simple way to do this! Luckily for you, in the modern world with its online stores, where you can buy almost anything “in one click,” they have come up with an excellent tool that allows you to control costs. It's called a "basket".

Let's be honest: Of the things you order from online stores, very few things need to be purchased immediately. Therefore, make it a rule to leave items in your cart for 72 hours. When you check back three days later, ask yourself: What’s more important—the items in your basket or getting closer to achieving your financial goals? And without regret, delete what you can do without. This technique works great because it allows you, on the one hand, not to immediately say “no” to purchases, and on the other hand, not to make purchases under the influence of emotions.

Automate good behavior

The easiest way to avoid making stupid financial decisions is to not make them at all. Personal accounts on bank websites and mobile applications allow you to automate most daily operations.

“Instead of forcing yourself to make the same decisions over and over again, automate them so your good intentions will turn into good behavior. You can automate the payment of contributions to a pension fund or just to a savings account, but not only. It is better if auto payments are also set up to pay off mortgages and car loans. The essence of the procedure is that the necessary debits from the account without your participation will save you from the painful desire to postpone the payment by spending the money on something else.”

As you start spending less and saving painlessly, evaluate how profitable your past investments were.

Use an overnight test

By following the plan, you will put your current expenses in order. But past investments may have been made without considering your financial goals, driven by emotions, or influenced by people you know. Therefore, sooner or later you will have to deal with previous investments.

To do this, imagine that overnight all your investments were returned to you in cash. And ask yourself what investments you would make again under the same conditions and without losses. All deposits that fail this test should be redirected.

Follow the basic rules of investing

1. Pay your loans on time.
2. Try to pay off loans faster. Once the debt is gone, you won't have to pay interest on it.
3. Spread out your investments. The point of diversification is to combine investments, each of which carries its own risks. Such combinations are often less risky than their components and bring higher returns.

From the book “Let's Talk About Your Income and Expenses”:

“When you bet on 'systemic risk', it means you're investing in the concept of capitalism as a whole. It is based on the idea that, despite the ups and downs of the market... it still continues to grow. Therefore, you should invest in shares of different companies. Of course, some of them will close, but this will not affect you much, since others will develop and their shares will rise.”

Mutual funds, which involve the distribution of investments among various companies, are much more profitable than individual stocks. When choosing mutual funds, remember to consult your summary financial plan.

Be ignorant and lazy

A huge mistake is made by those who read too much financial news that encourages buying, selling or other similar gambling actions. Remember: you cannot predict the future.

Experts can’t either, but they make predictions because that’s their job. So ignore financial news. Pay attention only to what can affect the achievement of your goals and what you can control.

Someone will say: “But what about it? If people paid attention to details in time, they could avoid serious crises!” Economists from Oxford and New York universities responded to similar objections. In a 2010 study, they concluded that experts who correctly predict the most unexpected events are hardly listened to.

A quick guide to action

If we leave arguments and reasoning aside, we get the following list of recommendations for those who want to learn how to properly manage their money.

1. Don't try to predict the future- this is impossible. And trying to invest - based on an analysis of past events, gambling - has nothing to do with investing.
2. Define what money means to you, and with this in mind, set your financial goals. Make a simple plan and make sure your investments follow it.
3. Don't act under the influence of strong emotions. Investing wisely is boring and should always remain so. Don't play the market.
4. Use the 72 hour test. Buy any selected items, except essential ones, after three days. This will help you avoid impulsive spending.
5. Automate good behavior. This is the best way to maintain it.
6. Use an overnight test. If all your investments came back to you in the form of cash, which investments would you make again? Money that is poorly invested can be invested differently.
7. Rely on the basic rules of investing: pay your loans on time, try to repay loans ahead of schedule, invest in different assets.
8. Be ignorant and lazy. The flood of information pushes you to act impulsively, which is always bad for investing. If your money is already working, why bother it?

Text: Tatiana Turbal, Illustrations: Konstantin Amelin, Photo: Photo by

Freelancers earn different amounts: someone has a higher price tag, and, while doing not so much work, he receives a good income; someone does not value their time so dearly, as a result they work more and harder to earn the same amount as the first category.

There are freelancers who don’t earn that much, but manage to go on vacation, buy a car, and constantly update their working hardware. Others receive excellent fees, but as a result, sometimes they don’t even have the opportunity to pay for the Internet they need for work.

How does this happen? It’s simple – some are more financially literate, others are less. Some people know how to save and take care of every penny, while others, in two days, burn through a round sum won at a competition or received for another major project.

Today the site will share with you some secrets on how to keep money in your hands and start managing your finances wisely.

Create a "safety cushion"

Freelancing is a special type of activity. Today you may have many clients, and, as a result, a full wallet, tomorrow (this happens especially often in the summer) you risk being left penniless.

To avoid getting into debts and loans, try to create a so-called “safety cushion”, in other words, set aside a certain amount that should help you out in difficult times.

Some people think that savings are a completely unnecessary thing: why save if you can take out a loan, or if the money allows you to buy the right thing just now.

But unforeseen circumstances can happen to anyone: a breakdown of the same computer, the need for repairs because the neighbors upstairs flooded, a sudden illness. The loan may not be issued. And there are situations when money is needed very urgently.

Therefore, always have savings. You can deposit them, but choose conditions such that you can withdraw money at any time.

Financiers recommend creating savings equal to 3-6 of your monthly expenses.
I can suggest a good option for freelancers from Ukraine. The well-known PrivatBank allows you to open a “Kopilka” deposit account, into which the amount you specify is withdrawn from your card every month. At any time, you can withdraw the money set aside for the Piggy Bank at any terminal, which is located on almost every corner. Interest is credited to the card within 24 hours. Very comfortably!

Don't keep money at home "under the mattress"

Money should make money. The old-fashioned way of putting it in your stocking will not do you any good.

Yes, money is always at your fingertips. But don't forget about inflation, which could cause you to lose 10 to 13% every year.

To save your savings from inflation, keep them in a bank deposit. If you are financially literate enough, invest in something. But, I repeat, this is the best solution for saving your savings, which can also bring you income.

Take loans wisely

Loans are a different story. I would generally recommend that freelancers not take out loans - simply because our income is not stable, and a situation may arise when there is simply nothing to pay the next installment. But in real life it is generally impossible to live without loans.
If you need to take out a loan, take it in the currency in which you make a profit. Yes, interest rates may be lower on foreign currency loans. But given how the exchange rate “jumps”, you may subsequently overpay a lot, simply because of the depreciation of the national currency.

Carefully study the offers of banks: each of them has its own conditions, see what is more profitable for you in this case.

Never take more than you need, because you will have to give even more.

The ideal picture should be as follows: take a loan in national currency, for the minimum required amount and for the shortest possible period. Calculate so that the loan payment is up to 20-30% of your income.

And one more thing - don’t get a lot of credits at once. Calculate your strength and solvency so as not to fall too deeply into a debt hole.

I have a friend who pays off several small loans at the same time, and these payments eat up almost all of his earnings. You have to eat whatever you can and shoot cigarettes - is this life? Well, but the iPhone, taken on credit, is the latest model...

Approach loans wisely, just like with every purchase - think carefully, do you really need this thing so much that you are willing to take out a loan and overpay?

Make a financial plan

We are told a lot that there is no need to think ahead. But as far as finances are concerned, this is simply necessary, especially in relation to large purchases.

Let's say you decide to buy an apartment. We saved up for a down payment and took out a loan. It will no longer be possible to save up for your child to study at a prestigious university - all the money will be “eaten up” by the housing loan.

You don’t need to set yourself just one goal - always make a financial plan for your entire life. Plan what you want to buy, after what time, and how best to do it. Plan for other major expenses.

With real estate, for example, you can implement the following scenario - rent out your home so that the income from the apartment covers the loan payment for it. It turns out that the apartment will buy itself in the end.

Control your expenses

Start regularly monitoring your expenses, even the smallest and insignificant ones at first glance. You will be surprised how much money will be collected by the end of the month.

Even the most innocuous little things need to be written down. This way you can understand where your money is going and what expenses need to be cut. You can keep records the old fashioned way - in a notepad - or install a convenient application on your phone. Fortunately, .

Keep notes regularly - even if it seems like an unnecessary waste of time. If you forget once, twice, then you won’t be able to get a real picture of what’s happening.

Separate one-time expenses from regular ones. Where do you spend your money every month, what expenses can’t you live without - loans, food, communication fees?

Analyze the whole picture at the end of the month - then you will be able to understand what you can give up and what you can save on.

You not only need to control expenses, you also need to be able to manage money wisely.

Try to save money

Reduce expenses, including regular ones. When you keep records, you will immediately see what waste you can avoid.

Avoid the temptation to “start a luxurious life” by receiving additional income - for example, you were given a bonus, you won a competition, etc. - It is better to lead the same lifestyle, and set aside the funds received.

Change your habits. For example, you can save on food if you don’t buy a bun or cookies for lunch, but cook a full lunch. Plan your food purchases for the week, and don’t go to the supermarket hungry: you won’t believe how much unnecessary stuff you can buy when your eyes would eat everything on the shelves!

Personally, I shop for food once a week, having written down in advance exactly what I need and how much. I noticed that as soon as I go to the store to “shop” during the week, I spend a lot of money on a lot of unnecessary things. Therefore, during the week I only go for bread and basic necessities, which have suddenly run out (you can’t keep track of everything).

Never leave your wallet empty

There is a belief that money attracts money. That’s why you should always have at least some change in your wallet.

Freelancers, as a rule, are not superstitious people, but it will not hurt to make it a rule not to reset your cards and not to spend all the cash until you receive a new fee.

Let it be 100 rubles, let it be 200, but you should always have it with you. Who knows, maybe you urgently need just such a small amount, and the customer will delay payment?

Money loves counting. Therefore, count, keep records, try to live economically. Then you will see for yourself how your income has grown, how much more comfortable your life is. And before you know it, you’ll be saving for a car or other major purchase.

The article will be useful to those who want to learn how to save without making serious sacrifices, get rid of loans, start saving money and increasing their savings.

Remember: You Can't Predict the Future

Answer the question, what does money mean to you?

From the book “The Psychology of Investments. How to stop doing stupid things with your money":

Having identified your goals, choose the three largest ones. And whenever you think about investing, ask yourself whether it will help you achieve these goals.

Don't be led by emotions

Investing is not fun. They should always be consistent with your goals and principles, and not based on feelings about what will happen. Don't play in the stock market.

Use the 72 hour test

Automate good behavior

The easiest way to avoid making stupid financial decisions is to not make them at all. Personal accounts on bank websites and mobile applications allow you to automate most daily operations.

As you start spending less and saving painlessly, evaluate how profitable your past investments were.

Use an overnight test

Follow the basic rules of investing

1. Pay your loans on time.
2. Try to pay off loans faster. Once the debt is gone, you won't have to pay interest on it.
3. Spread out your investments. The point of diversification is to combine investments, each of which carries its own risks. Such combinations are often less risky than their components and bring higher returns.

From the book “Let's Talk About Your Income and Expenses”:

Be ignorant and lazy

A huge mistake is made by those who read too much financial news that encourages buying, selling or other similar gambling actions. Remember: you cannot predict the future.

Experts can’t either, but they make predictions because that’s their job. So ignore financial news. Pay attention only to what can affect the achievement of your goals and what you can control.

A quick guide to action

If we leave arguments and reasoning aside, we get the following list of recommendations for those who want to learn how to properly manage their money.

1. Don't try to predict the future- this is impossible. And trying to invest - based on an analysis of past events, gambling - has nothing to do with investing.
2. Define what money means to you, and with this in mind, set your financial goals. Make a simple plan and make sure your investments follow it.
3. Don't act under the influence of strong emotions. Investing wisely is boring and should always remain so. Don't play the market.
4. Use the 72 hour test. Buy any selected items, except essential ones, after three days. This will help you avoid impulsive spending.
5. Automate good behavior. This is the best way to maintain it.
6. Use an overnight test. If all your investments came back to you in the form of cash, which investments would you make again? Money that is poorly invested can be invested differently.
7. Rely on the basic rules of investing: pay your loans on time, try to repay loans ahead of schedule, invest in different assets.
8. Be ignorant and lazy. The flood of information pushes you to act impulsively, which is always bad for investing. If your money is already working, why bother it?

Text: Tatiana Turbal, Illustrations: Konstantin Amelin, Photo: Photo by

How did I learn how to properly manage money many years ago when my family was really tight with it? She began to increase them later.

Purely intuitively, I decided that if I take a little away from my salary, there will be a little less money. Even on a very small family budget, this smallness is unnoticeable.

They taught us everything at school, but not the most important thing - how not to be poor. For as long as I can remember, while I was working for an employer, I could never help but think about money. How, for example, can you save money for a necessary purchase?

Today, the financial literacy of our people is very poor, there is no money and they don’t know how to earn it. They say money doesn’t buy happiness, but you can’t live without it!

Let's learn how to create financial security in advance and increase money. I’ll show you some basic techniques, and later, if you want, you’ll find more knowledge on this topic.

We all work for money in a job we love or a job we don’t love. We always knew, we were taught this, after graduation we had to go to work. We did it.

Nowadays, those who are already well over 19 or 21 or 24, looking back, we see that we know how to do a lot, but we do not know how to manage money.

And if a situation happens now where we are left without work, then this is a tragedy.

Do your financial skills allow you to live the life you want today?

Rich is not the one who earns a lot, but the one who manages money correctly.

Earning 20 thousand. rubles a month, you can be financially secure or financially independent in 5-10-20 years.

At the same time, earning 200,000 rubles. You can spend everything and still end up in debt.

Take a piece of paper, a calculator and calculate my numbers, you can take your original data.

One day. When money was really bad in my family, I decided to leave a certain amount in my savings book every month. At first, without a specific goal.

And when my children and I spent our entire vacation driving Zhiguli cars around the Baltics, eating in cafes, buying almost whatever we wanted, I realized that I had come up with a good way to save money for a vacation.

When I was able to save a large amount, I easily saved for some large purchases. I didn’t make any calculations, I didn’t even make a deposit in the bank. I learned this later.

Now I will show you how to correctly create an asset and how to increase it.

Let's assume that you save $100 monthly. In 25 years, when you are 50 years old, you will have saved up 30 thousand. You can spend them and that’s it!

Let's make our savings work for us, make them assets, that is, let's invest, then our capital is guaranteed to turn into assets and insure us against any unforeseen situation.

How to increase your accumulated money?

Numbers are the best proof; when you calculate, the picture becomes clear.

This is what we will do now.

I took the example of 100 dollars. – we save and invest monthly, let’s assume our deposited money is at 12%, we do reinvestment and in 40 years the asset will be $1 million.

That is, if after graduating from college a person begins to accumulate and invest capital at the age of 25, then at 65 he will become a millionaire.

This number may scare you! And I want to use my savings much earlier.

Let's see in 15 years at 40 years old, monthly income from assets is 500 dollars. That is, starting from the age of 40, a person can live on income from an asset of 500 dollars per month. Not bad already!

In 20 years, at 45, monthly income from assets is about $1000

At 50 YEARS OLD, about 2000 monthly. Not a bad pension, right?

Having such basic knowledge at the age of 25, a person began to increase his assets; he has time to gain financial knowledge and learn how to manage his capital. As a result, his asset could reach a million much earlier.

You need to think about retirement from the very first salary, and thus you can go into “retirement” much earlier.

These skills were just not instilled in us. I hope you will begin to use some of the article, teach it to your children, and pass this knowledge on from generation to generation. May our offspring be much more literate than you and me.

Each of us can become our own banker.
By saving at least 10% of our salary, we would not turn to banks, would not take out loans and mortgages. We would be our own bankers, we would be the masters of our lives.

What niche is it profitable to invest money in now?

But... many of us no longer have this time to save a little .

Let's see how we can do this faster. We need to find a financial niche where we can increase our capital now and in a much shorter time, especially for those who do not have these 20-30 years

When a crisis begins, opportunities always appear at that moment, you just need to see them! Even in crisis we dream, life goes on and we must find those opportunities that can quickly end.

Let me give you a quote that confirms my words about opportunities in a crisis:

“When a hurricane begins, a fool hides his head, a wise man builds a house, and a wise man builds windmills.” Abay Kunanbaev

Let's talk today, at a time when monetary crises follow each other, about the idea of a million dollars or a million euros.

We will talk about investing in virtual currency, about a windmill that any wise person is using now.

Some people hide from this opportunity, others study long and deeply and are already at risk of being late.

Financial windmill

Sincerely, Nadezhda Sheverova

Most often you can find people around you who live only from paycheck to paycheck, and they always have on their tongue the constant statement that there is not enough money and they need to look for more of it, or the eternal question: “Where did all the money go?” The root of the problem in this case is more likely to be a misconception about costs than to unsatisfactory wages.

It’s better to make an effort and learn how to manage money from the family budget, then there will be fewer stupid questions and the financial situation can be improved for the better, and.

Thoughtless spending, excessive spending on immediate pleasures and lack of any planning can burn up any money. Even a very high salary will not help here. So the first point on how to properly manage money is planning expenses.

First, you need to identify all available sources of income and sum them up, for example, based on the funds received per month. After this, the most painstaking stage begins.

Fixed monthly expenses. This includes payments for utilities, meter bills, intercom, internet, parking space and transportation costs. Each family will have several more items with regular monthly expenses.
If food costs can vary significantly over the course of a week or two, then over the course of a month the same amount will still accrue, equal to the average, especially if you get used to planning purchases based on 4 weeks’ worth of supplies. These expenses are also taken into account in the budget as a separate column.
Expenses such as tuition at school, college or kindergarten must be taken into account. This is an important point and you should remember that such services are usually paid for once every six months or even a year, so you need to learn how to distribute the appropriate amount of money over all months and set aside specifically for these issues.

Regular holidays and birthdays, buying gifts and organizing the events themselves, although not the same expense item per month, must be taken into account in advance.
We should not forget about pets. Usually, keeping even an unpretentious cat costs a pretty penny.
For completion, a portion of funds is necessarily allocated for leisure. It is important to learn to plan even this aspect, although it can be partly very difficult, especially emotionally.

Now that all income has been described and all costs have been taken into account, you can assess your financial capabilities. The remaining funds cannot be distributed among items “just in case,” especially the last one. It is better to prudently put them aside in general savings. This is how a mandatory reserve of funds for any family is formed. Subsequently, it is the deferred funds that will make it possible to purchase something expensive and so necessary that it would not have been possible to buy with just a salary.

What to do with free funds

It is very important to understand the main points regarding the safety of your savings, how to learn how to properly manage money so that it does not go to waste. Naturally, the stupidest and most thoughtless thing would be to store banknotes in a jar behind the refrigerator. There is such a thing as inflation, and all savings will eventually turn into a simple pile of pieces of paper, or certainly for them it will be possible to buy much less than expected. It would be wise to invest your money in at least a bank deposit.

You can’t call a deposit, even with very tempting interest, a way to earn more money on top of your main income. Usually, all the interest received from it is enough to cover inflation and only the remaining two percent can be considered income. The main thing is that in a bank, be it national or commercial, at least they will not depreciate.

A more advanced option on how to learn how to manage money is to invest and invest your savings in securities and stocks. The growth of shares and reasonable investment promise not just the preservation of capital, but also its increase, and this is an excellent help for improving your financial situation.

Along with deposits, you can remember a fairly simple and time-tested way to learn how to save your savings. It is enough to purchase measured gold bars. This process has already been well developed by the modern banking system; it will not be difficult if you want to invest in a precious metal. Gold is unlikely to ever depreciate and once purchased will be sold, taking into account all inflationary shocks.

So it turns out that control of income and expenses allows you to confidently accumulate free funds, systematize your purchases and other expenses so that there is always enough money. And the amounts set aside monthly will subsequently allow you to ensure effective financial independence, after the money begins to work for its owner and generate profit. Once you have decided and figured out how to manage money without deviating from the path of achieving your goals, you can rest assured that the eternal lack of money will no longer be an annoying factor. You will understand that any problem can be solved and quite simply.