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Money is something “easy come, easy go” and it’s never stuck in your wallet. You will notice the first thing a successful self-made millionaire ever shares with his audience is not to go out of the market and find himself a million-dollar-paid job but to know how to build a career from the ground starting with not to let too much money out of one’s pocket.
In other words, zip your spending and avoid overspending are key takeaways to live up a life that you mean to strive for. By doing so, don’t stop by and get started with “The Hacks that can help you to stop overspending in your 20s”.
#Hack 1: Set the maximum money for spending every month!
You can’t stop overspending until you know what did you spend for. This is a trap that a lot of young people are facing with when they can’t count how much they spend each month and put the limit for it! And to do it effectively, let check some these following criterias:
a. Where do you live – Firstly get to know your place, understand how average spending there is and make friends with international people like you but live there for a long time, listen carefully and work out how they optimize their spending.
b. Know your budget– Up to personal living style and essential needs, make a list of accounts on a monthly basis which will be used on everyday life or on periodic subscriptions. Then assign it a number and remember this will be your max spending, your lifeline and every penny goes beyond will restrict spending of subsequent months.
The 10% rule: whatever you do with the money, my advice is to save at least 10% of your income for unpredictable situations if arise.
# Hack 2: Set the specific maximum for each category
– What does it mean? – Be structural and specific with the plan, what are those accounts? Personally, I like to separate fixed spending from other expenses to avoid overspending while remaining enough balance in my budget to deal with uncertainty.
– Simple thing – Spending must be less than your earned money. And if it’s not yet made, you have to practice to spend less and save more until your financial situation is better.
– Uncertainty – Maybe health issues, accidents when you crash the car. If you are facing the budget deficit, you are in big trouble. With the 10% rule, you are more secure and controlled towards what you spend and how to deal with difficult times.
My personal story: I am a Master who has just graduated from university and living in the heart of Melbourne. This city is far more expensive than Vietnam where I come from, so my spending plan must be carefully calculated and reasonable. For instance, I estimate spending $ 3000/month is my maximum spending limitation. Apart from the fixed expenses for housing, electricity, water, and for personal development, there are others expenses and are wrapped up in the initial $ 3000. Not to mention I attend lots of meetings and sometimes party with my colleagues, if my money is not tightened, it will force me to go beyond and cut off a sum of money for self-development plans.
On the contrary, if you have realized this and successfully controlled, you have earned yourself a small surplus for future projects and given yourself a following “little secret”. Stay tuned for more.
# Hack 3: Having your treat day.
– Gift for yourself- A day in month you can spend much more money for yourself to do or to buy the things you love, it like the treat day in gym, when you can enjoy to eat your favourite food without considering about it.
– Understand about it under the psychological meaning – The treat day makes you feel good about yourself, sharpens and reimages what your plan is and constructs it with the time being. This will have an impact on your brain to feel exciting to wait for this day and ready to live a minimal life to save the money but still have the fulfill feeling when you can shop the things you love on a special day.
For instance, you are going to save 20 dollars (10 percent of your income), then in this month, you can save totally: 20×30 = 600 dollars. So on your treat day, you can expect to spend money to buy stuff that you wish to have but need to be under 10% of your monthly money saving, which means: 60$ more than normally.
These are 3 hacks that I love to share with you to help you have a different angles of looking in your personal finance in your 20s (or maybe before you are 20s).
So, let me know by comment if you are having any other interesting hacks for stop overspending that you want to share with everyone!
I love to hear from you!
And if you want to develop yourself about personal finance, these are some recommended book for you to check it out:
- “The Total Money makeover” – Dave Ramsey
- “Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest In That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!” – Robert T. Kiyosaki
- Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! – Robert T. Kiyosaki
- The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy – Thomas J. Ph.D. Stanley
- Money Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom – Tony Robbins
“Special thanks” to KDN writer to collab in creating this awesome piece of content about personal finance topic!