What to Do With Your Money
You finish your studies, you land a corpo job, you start to make some money, you make some savings and you don’t know what to do with that … no worries you are not the only one!
I was like you a few years ago, let me summarize for you my findings so you can get the snowball rolling
What to do with your money
Build your emergency fund
What is an emergency fund?
An emergency fund is money you are putting away, in order to be able to continue with your life even though unexpected situations arise (getting fired from your job, medical treatment, … ) you name it.
Ideally, you should be having in your emergency fund around 6-12x your average monthly expenses
(Not income, but expenses)
How to start an emergency fund – click here to read more about it
You may wonder,
how can I know my average monthly expenses? No worries I got you covered here!
Track your expenses
Why is it important to track your expenses?
You will be in control of the money and not vice versa.
- I know how much I spend every month
Okay, tell me how much you spent in the supermarket last month
- I know how much I spent more or less
Of course, tell me then
- You know, I don’t know the specific number
Do you see where I am going?if you can control your expenses, you can measure where your money goes.
From my personal experiences, since I implemented the track of my expenses,
I considerable managed to increase the amount of money I am saving,
as I realized on which things I was spending money (ie: Netflix) that were not bringing me any value.
- Oh, I don’t have time to track anything!
Simple: if you spend money on something and it does not bring you any value. Get rid of it.
Currently, I am able to identify how much money I spend on rent, supermarkets, uber, clothes …
Seeing trends, foreseeing expenses… I took my personal finances to the next level.
How do I do it?
- Oh, I don’t have time to track anything!
Believe me, with an app such as MoneyPro - you can easily track your expense
There are many apps around that can help you track your expenses, the one I personally use is MoneyPro available for both Android and Apple.
There is a free version, very easy to use, you can customize it as per your needs and the categories you will need.
Tracking your expenses is less than 10 seconds⌚️ per expense
Money pro - manage money like a Pro
Saving
If you are not saving part of your salary, you are in the hands of your boss, you are one paycheck away from being homeless.
Literally, think about it.
If you “use” all your salary, and for whatever reason, your company considers that you are redundant in the organization and there are no savings. What will you do?
Again think about it - What will you do?
The human brain is wired to think in short term – not in long term.
Short-term vs long-term
we are here for the long-term game. The compound effect.
As human beings, we look for satisfaction in the very short term. Think about it for a moment.
That shot of dopamine 🧪️ that you get when you buy the new brand iPhone, that same shot of dopamine gets vanishes after the first week of use, that new MacBook 💻, that dinner in the most exclusive dinner in the city 🌃… shots of dopamine, one after another.
All these gestures are moving you away - away from the target of saving money.
Saving: If you are having more income than expenses, you should be saving money.
(Incomes > Expenses)
How do I force myself to ensure I am saving money?
This is the mental trick I like to apply:
- If I save 25% of my salary, for every four months of work, I am “buying” one month of freedom.🛣
- If I save 50% of my salary, for every month I work, I am “buying” another month of freedom.🛣
Having these simple calculations in mind – I try to maximize my savings month after month.
Watch out, here we are only talking about saving money.
Imagine if,
with the money you save, instead of keeping it in your bank account, you do something with the money – let’s say investing.
That’s where the power of compound interest – if you want to read more about compound interest click here
Invest
- Oh investing is too complicated, it is not for me
Have you ever tried it?
- No, but I know it is not for me, I don’t like it
Investing is about you, about me, about your boyfriend, about your wife… investing is about all of us.
Not investing is not an option,
with the current inflation levels across the globe, not investing is consistently losing money by keeping it in your bank account.
Not investing is the equivalent of taking your money and putting it down the toilet.
For reference: The average inflation rate in United Stated per year for the last 40 years has been nearly 4%.
What does it mean?
If year by year you are not making at least a 4% profit with your money you are getting poorer and poorer.
I like to think about not investing, as someone who is digging a hole with their hands because they lack the ability to use a shovel
Some principles for investing:
- Don’t assume you can be the next Warren Buffet – don’t bet, invest
- Invest only the money you are sure you will not need
- Understand where you are putting your money
There are many options to invest your money,
if I may have my opinion (of course I may, this is my blog 😉), I would go for passive investment funds.
Passive investment funds
What are passive investment funds?
Passive investment funds are funds that automatic (or semiautomatic) replicate one or several indexes
The logic is simple:
- If the index goes up, your investment goes up📈
- If the index goes down, your investment goes down📉
Clear on the logic? - I hope yes! ✅
The most common indexes are the S&P500 and the MSCI – which would be the equivalent of investing in the world.
In a nutshell - if you invest in these two indexes (S&P500 and the MSCI), you are investing in the world
Passive investment funds- Why do I like this type of investment?
- It does not require your job – only the financial contributions
- High profitability compared to other types of investments
- Profitability in the long run