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How to save a lot of money quickly? Test and solutions
Table of Contents
Are there real ways to save money fast?
Maybe 10.000€?
Listen: You are about to read effective tips on saving fast, but everyday saving will be useless if you are not ready to invest efficiently what you set aside.
Here we’ll also find out if living off passive income generated by your savings is possible. Not just dreams but real stuff and numbers.
How much money do I have to save fast to succeed? This is about smart downshifting with the checklist, not bohemian fantasies.
How to save is a boring topic, and this is a boring article with tips and tricks you will NOT follow. Even though, reading it will not hurt you! Click To Tweet
Most people believe they already know what to do to save more, but they just don’t want to save.
In the web there are dozen of very good instructions to save money fast, here is one from the US:
The strategy is all about building a system that helps you to save and make your money work for you, night and day. I know it sounds like the Nth scam, but it’s not. Once you’ll understand how important is to balance income and expenditure and invest well what you’ve saved, then you’ll be well underway.
Save money fast but with purpose
If you have objectives that go beyond the basic economic survival, if you have projects and dreams to accomplish in this life that need to be financed, you will need to assimilate this simple and powerful concept.
You will tell me that there is nothing wrong with surviving and spending every month all you earn without saving. It is true, but I struggle to find it very far-sighted.
The only 3 ways to make money
THE WAYS TO ACCUMULATE WEALTH ARE ONLY 3:
Sell your time for money (work)
Spending less than you earn (saving)
Invest your savings so that they multiply passively (annuities)
That’s it. It’s surprisingly simple.
A goal that many human beings share, is to be able to secure a decent income in the second part of their lives. And you? Don’t you ever think about it?
Of course you do, but you are a professional procrastinator.
Writing this article was fun, but if you take the chance to share it with people you know will make me proud!
Beware! Saving should never make us feel sad.
If you have a project or want an automatic income in the future, I think you should aim managing your money and then investing as much as you can.
If you run short of money one day (because you brushed away everything) well, this will affect your life anyway… and money will be your concern, again.
Learn from Mike Tyson
Reading tabloids you’ll often come across stories of famous people who fell into financial troubles. But how was that possible? They were dirty rich! It’s easy! It doesn’t matter at all how much you earn! It does matter how much you spend, and how much you manage your balance. Many artists and some sportsmen have become famous for their financial disasters, one of them is Mike Tyson.
So how can we save every day without ruining our lives?
It is not difficult, and there is no need to save on everything, there are small rules to respect and some things to know. Trivial stuff most people ignore, nothing more.
Cigarette and gambling
Example:
Did you know that buying a 5€ lottery scratch card every time you go to work (or come back from work) can cost you up to €1100 a year? Such an innocent game, such a disaster. Click To Tweet
Anyway. Are you sure you can afford it?
What about cigarettes?
What about beer? (…well no, beer is a basic human right!)
Forget beer! Let’s focus now!
How much do you save each month to live off passive income?
An American study has estimated the exact amount of money most people need to live off a passive income.
Things in Europe are different from America, but they claim that this is a standard figure of about 3 million US dollars. In fact, this amount is not standard, it depends on our habits. It’s because living on a passive income might not mean living on a 90-foot yacht and drinking bubbles in the morning surrounded by dancers.
How much do you need to be financially independent?
Living on a passive income might give us the chance of reducing or give up working and devoting ourself peacefully to what we are passionate about. Or simply to finance our big dream. Since we now know (in the 21st century) money doesn’t make us happier, this becomes an interesting ambition.
The amount of money that would be enough to live off an automatic income is estimated in about 30 times the annual amount you need for living now. Click To Tweet
How much do you spend in a year? 30.000€? Then with 900,000€ of invested capital, you should make it easy!
Now that you know it, you can convoy your efforts to earn or save this 900k (…or less)!
Start by setting aside no less than 20% of what you earn each month. Just do it.
There’s no point in saying that you still earn so little today that it’s impossible for you to save. Probably this “impossibility” is more linked to your expenditure than to your income.
Here is the checklist you need to tick ✔️
You never ask for loans for non-essential needs +9
You don’t have a revolving credit card +9
You use a bike to get around +6
You live near your workplace +6
You prepare yourself food at home +3
You know what’s the right price per kg for the most common grocery products +3
You only drink Nespresso at home -3
You have late payments -9
You can manage your tax +9
You often buy what you see on advertisements -6
You know your tax rate +3
You often change car -9
You only buy new cars -6
You got the same car insurance since ever -3
You had the same telephone/cable service provider for more than 5 years -3
You have a mortgage less convenient then average ones -3
You Pay for goods or services you don’t use much (pay TV, boat storage, etc.) -3
…keep reading ⤵️
If you scored 0 or below zero you might need to fix something…
It’s clear that it won’t be a couple of Nespresso coffees that will ruin your finances, nor will it be 4 instalments for big TV, but ask yourself how much these things really make your existence better, if it is worth the price you pay.
Not caring or not knowing the impact of this kind of issues can have dramatic effects. You can stop focusing only on earning more money. If you fully identify yourself with most of the points of the checklist, you already know the recipe for financial disaster.
If you work more then 50 hours a week, you have two jobs and you commute like a mad, then are you really sure you don’t have to change anything?
Start to manage your balance and create automatic income. The real goal should be living well, not making money, and it is now clear that earning more money has often a big price to pay in terms of time and quality of life.
In how many years from today would you like to retire?
Are you going to retire at 70? At 55? When?
When would you like to retire? Why do you let politicians you don’t even know (and probably hate) deciding about your future?
Stop complaining, take control of your finances and you’ll see that it’s not impossible to take distance from the mechanism of just earning to spend. Try to save money every month, and make the money work for you. Have you ever heard of passive income? It’s not rich people’s stuff. On the contrary. We need it more then they do.
Go to the integrated retirement calculator tool!
P.S. Stop gambling.
Do you know why?
Statistically, if you drive from home to the place where you go to buy the lottery ticket (or whatever equivalent), 10 minutes to go, and 10 minutes on the way back, your average chance of dying in an accident is higher than your average chance of… Click To Tweet
This is just some food for thoughts.
I’ve written an essential guide on “how to invest money”, I really think you may want to read it.
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I love your tips. I should have started before but thank you