How to Save Even if you don't have money?
Today's business news headline was that we withdrew about INR 18,500 crore from our Employee Provident Fund accounts in the last one year.
This means many of us are tapping into our retirement savings to fund ourselves now. On one hand, I'm worried for us and on the other, I want to do something about it.
Not having enough money is a major strain that is driving people crazy. Personal Finance speaks about how to save for the rainy day, have a 6-month emergency fund, or own liquid assets and so on.
What do you do if you don't have any?
Here are some simple ways in which you can increase your savings even if you don't have money:
- Track your expenses everyday - A simple pen and book would do to track expenses. Make 4 columns, date. description, amount and mode (cash, Credit card or UPI). This comes from the premise that you can't measure what you don't track. You could use google sheets or excel or any app as well. A tool only helps you if you want to help yourself.
- Spend a few minutes on how much is your inflow vs how much is your outflow. It will tell you how much you spend. Its simple but needs practice.
- Go one step further and assign categories. When you reach this stage, you can use google sheet or excel sheet. This will help you understand how much money you spend on different categories on a weekly, monthly basis.
- Now that you know the categories of your spend, you can ask a question? - Am I spending as planned? (even if you didn't have a plan - at least you will know how much you want to spend intuitively and this is personal and contextual).
- Compare your planned vs actual expenses under each category.
- Compare different categories to find out what is the % of spend - For eg: Amount spent on entertainment divided by Total expenses.
- Know that there are only so many things you can control. Do not beat yourself up. If you have come this far and with intent, you will surely get better at this.
- Finally, ask one question - Is my money working for me? - Have I assigned a job to every rupee?
Do you track expenses? How do you track them now?
Need help to track expenses?
Do you use a google sheet or an app?
Write to me at sreelakshmi@berupeewise.com to tell me more about how you want your money to work for you?