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You may have already been wondering how to succeed in saving every day, and even how to save. This is normal because setting aside a few euros each month is the best solution to being ready to face unforeseen events and prepare for your future projects. Birdee gives you some realistic tips to help you manage your budget so that you can economise and save more easily. Now it’s up to you!
Why economise and save money for a rainy day?
Let’s be clear: money is made to be taken advantage of; what is the point of accumulating it indefinitely without having fun? However, there is a happy medium between the grasshopper and the ant.
For example, you can save to increase your investment possibilities: building up financial wealth, preparing for retirement, saving on taxes, etc. To do this, funds can be placed in life insurance, or invested in the stock market or crowdfunding. These are excellent ways to transform your savings into additional income. In addition, don’t neglect the psychological effect of being able to take control of your spending – it’s good for your morale (and your wallet!).
In addition to saving money, you can choose to save for several reasons:
- Mitigate life’s unforeseen events (appliance breakdowns, home repairs, long-term sick leave, etc.) and thus sleep soundly thanks to emergency savings;
- Limit the use of credit for your projects or avoid extreme solutions such as selling some property, giving up your comfort for a time, asking your loved ones for a helping hand, etc.
- Prepare an investment to boost your income.
Saving allows you to achieve goals – to buy Christmas gifts or plan a trip in the short term; to buy a new car in the medium term; or to purchase real estate in the longer term, for example. So how do you get there?
5 tips to be economical and save without thinking about it
There are many ways to reduce expenses and put some money aside, and it’s up to you to find the ones that best suit your situation and possibilities. Birdee has chosen to present five concrete avenues to achieve this.
1. Reduce unnecessary or non-essential expenses. This includes things like subscriptions (loads of TV channels that you don’t watch, magazines that you no longer read, etc.), in particular, and membership fees such as the gym you no longer go to, etc.;
2. Renegotiate your contracts. Indeed, the years pass and we don’t think of taking stock of all the services we use:
- telephone plans, your internet modem. Check that your subscription still matches your use and take a tour of the web to discover current offers. The operators very often propose new formulas or exceptional discounts such as at Christmas. You can often do better;
- Insurance, mutual funds, bank charges. There again, you need to analyse your contracts frequently (ideally every two years) to check that they are still appropriate and that the contributions have not gone up too much. Birdee offers tailor-made investment vehicles for your security or life insurance accounts, starting at €50, and charges just 1% in annual fees. What are you paying?
- Water, electricity, gas. Did you know that you can take advantage of competitors and change supplier? ENI, Total Direct Energie, etc.; these alternative companies offer rates that are as much as 10% lower than the historical operator EDF. Why miss out, especially since it’s such an easy process?
3. Save with ‘rounding’. This is a simple principle: for each purchase made with your bank card, the amount is rounded up to the next euro and the difference is placed in a savings account (since with savings or investment, it’s the regularity that counts, not necessarily the starting amount). This practically painless option is ideal for building up a little nest egg. It is offered by several traditional banks and Fintechs, companies that use technology to dust off finance, such as Birdee!
4. Automate payments to a savings or investment account. This is a good practice to force yourself to save without thinking about it. You can schedule transfers at a regular frequency (every month, just after receiving your pay, for example), even if they are small amounts. Birdee also lets these clients make recurring transfers to their securities or life insurance account, to save easily and smooth their investment over time.
5. Use your windfall income skilfully. Have you received an end-of-year bonus, a gift from a loved one, collected a little cash from a garage sale? Rather than considering this income as ‘if it doesn’t matter’ and spending it randomly (without really having fun), add most of it to your savings to accelerate achievement of your goals, without compromising your usual lifestyle.
Lastly, all those small ‘invisible’ sums that you spend without thinking about it can ultimately represent a significant amount that you would rather use for a family outing or to save more and carry out your projects. Don’t wait any longer, take stock of your expenses!
