Make these painless changes to how you spend your coinage and watch your bank account grow. Hello, extra cash!
Make these painless changes to how you spend your coinage and watch your bank account grow. Hello, extra cash!
1 Make it automatic
Set up a percentage of your salary to be automatically deposited into a high-interest savings account. Make sure it’s one that you can only access online, so you’re less likely to touch it.
2 Dodge the fees
When you sign up for a credit card, you should go for one that has no annual fees. Or you can ask for a fee waiver – if you’ve been diligently paying your bills, there’s a high chance it’ll be granted, saving you hundreds.
3 Pay your rent in advance
If you’ve got cash to spare, ask your landlord if you can pay a few months of rent in advance for a discount. They love knowing that the rental income will be secure, so paying in advance might make it a bit cheaper.
4 Consider a balance transfer
You can save serious cash if you keep your credit card debt in check. If you’ve accumulated debt on a card that you can pay off within a year, consider rolling it onto a new card with a zero percent interest sign-up bonus. This way, you can slowly pay off the debt itself, without having to feed sky-high interest rates.
5 Shop to a list
From groceries to new things for your wardrobe, planning out your purchases helps you curb impulse buys. Also, once you’ve bought an item on your list, make sure you use it as soon as possible, so you don’t end up forgetting about it.
6 Try a “buy-nothingnew” month
Yup. Just give it a go. Chances are, you’ll end up making a mental list of things you can’t wait to get as soon as the month is over, but practicing patience will help you weed out the things you would have just bought on impulse.
7 Make use of free calls
Now that WhatsApp has started offering a voice-calling service, there’s even less excuse to rack up that phone bill. Just make sure your phone has a Wi-Fi connection whenever you use apps like Viber, Skype and FaceTime. That way, dialing your buds at home and overseas won’t chalk up expensive data charges.
8 Schedule regular dental visits
Yup, you might think you’re saving money by skipping the bi-annual check-up, but letting them go is not a good idea, especially when there’s a high chance you might end up having to fork out way more to deal with tooth decay later on.
