Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
08.27.2015
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
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Executive celebrating
São Paulo - The economic crisis theme can be a little tiring, but apparently here to stay, at least for some time - and ignoring it can be dangerous. If you wanted to keep it in mind, but without allowing it causes a lot of wear, the way is to be prevented. Then EXAME.com brought together ten tips to face the lean times without suffering. Check.
1) Get organized
An anti-crisis planning begins with the analysis of your financial situation. Therefore, it is important to organize and put on the tip of the pencil all your income and expenses (see nine tips to organize your finances already).
Search SPC Brazil, conducted in 2014, revealed that 42% of people do not know exactly what your income. To better control the finances, it is essential to know what your net salary, which is the value that actually falls into your account after deducted the income tax, the contribution to the INSS and possible contributions to the company pension plan and plan of health.
Lift also all their debts - with the credit card, car and real estate financing, etc. - And estimate your expenses, including essential expenses (condominium, rent, electricity and water bills) and non-essential (gym, cellular and spending leisure).
This exercise allows organization to identify expenses that are heavier than you want and see if your expenses are compatible with their income. To facilitate the task, it use spreadsheets in Excel, apps, books, or the tool you consider most effective to not leave the control side of the budget (check out 15 options spreadsheets and tools to control the budget).
2) Stay informed
The greater your knowledge of the economic situation, are more conscious decisions and more you will be prevented. Seek different sources to avoid distorted views and discuss the news with family, friends and acquaintances to better digest the information and observe the issues from different perspectives.
But sin no exaggeration. In times of crisis, the news run by the media can be very negative, after all the work of the press is often reporting what is most dramatic is happening. Try reading not only the pessimistic news, such as those that contain stories of companies and people who have managed to excel in crisis.
"It is essential to be well informed, but it is also essential not to be contaminated by the negative tone," says Olivia Paganini, the Guide investment manager.
It states that financial market professionals are not as optimistic as in the past, recognize that the country has problems, but they know that, anyway, are problems that are already "given", ie already in the account. "It's not the end of the world. We've been through this before and crises happen cyclically," says Olivia.
3) Assess your situation realistically
To circumvent the obstacles that an economic crisis brings is important not ignore. After inform, seek to examine whether its industry may be affected by the crisis, or if any investments you have made in stocks or bonds may be at risk.
This may be the antidote to an extremely harmful behavior to finance: the exaggerated self-confidence, feeling that makes you think that other people can get into debt or lose your job, but not you.
The exaggerated self-confidence is a so-called behavioral biases, studied by behavioral finance, branch of economic psychology that examines the emotions that are behind our financial decisions.
To put aside this bias and understand that no one is unbeatable, you can have a closer contact with reality and realize the need to activate your networking network, for example, or create a savings to deal with unforeseen (see this and other behavioral biases that make you lose money).
4) Have a plan B
With a more realistic look you can better face the unexpected, such as unemployment, a new constraint for real estate financing, the high dollar, etc. All these situations can be seen without much difficulty if you have a plan B, but can wreak havoc if they catch you by surprise.
One of the B plans easier to prepare is the formation of a financial reserve for emergencies. It does not require great skills, only a savings effort.
Some experts recommend that the reservation has an amount equivalent to six months of your income, others say at least one year, but a good tip is to look at the average time of outplacement in your area. Thus, it is possible to match the amount saved by the time you take to find a new job, if it were fired.
It is important to keep the reserve amounts invested in conservative investments and avoid investments that undergo large swings like stocks and government securities with fixed rates, which may lead to losses if redeemed before maturity.
As this reserve is formed for emergencies, to invest in stocks, for example, you run the risk of having to rescue the money to cover an unforeseen at an all time low of the bag, which can generate large losses (see few options conservative investment to make your reservation).
5) Eliminate debt
The initial step to put any financial plan in place - like this, going through the crisis without suffocation - is the elimination of debts. To do this, start with a survey of all your debts, describing the type of pending and the interest.
Before attempting to renegotiate the debt is important to reflect on what you can actually afford. In addition to making an agreement consistent with their accounts without creating a new unpayable debt, while making negotiations more consciously and without despair you're less vulnerable to possible abuse by creditors.
There are more aggressive debt, such as labor, immediately lapidam its assets and less aggressive debts, such as credit card.
Once you understand the size of the debt and what would be its availability payment, separate the debts by priority, putting forward the most aggressive debts such as school fees, which can lead to problems in your child's education, and then the payment of card, that can be more easily negotiated.
After listing the most urgent debts, sort them by the size of the interest. Even if a debt is 1,000 real and another 1,500 if the first has rate of 15% and the second 5%, although the first debt is smaller in the first case be paid interest 150 real and the second 75 real, so it is preferable to pay off prior debt with the highest interest rate (check out 5 steps to get rid of debts).
6) Spend wisely
Cutting spending is important to get through the crisis without difficulty, but they are not painful and suck his spirit, seek wipe the intelligently budget. "Reflect on your decision to purchase is need or desire and prioritize," guides the financial educator Ana Paula Horn.
Olivia Paganini recommends observe fixed and older accounts, you pay without even realizing it, like those who enter the debit. The classic example is the mobile phone, says Olivia. "Some people have plans to use 100 minutes and 150 minutes of calls per month. They end up paying more for an additional 50 minutes than if they made a plan that already includes 150 minutes, "he says.
Other expenses that can be reduced are: bank fees, as there are options accounts as to be free; high rates of financing and pension plans, since it is possible to make portability to cheaper plans and loans; and spending on landline if you do not use the line (see 10 things for which you may be paying more than you should)
If you have tried everything to reduce costs and could not, maybe your problem is trying to attack the edges and not fight a central issue: the fixed and heavier costs such as electricity bills, water, condominium, transportation and benefits financing.
Although cut these expenses may involve big decisions, such as moving to a smaller apartment, they can bring an enormous freedom to the budget (check out how the strategy to reduce fixed costs can be more effective).
But everything is a matter of choice: there are those who prefer to keep an expensive apartment, which eliminates any possibility of slack in the budget and creates greater financial insecurity; and those who prefer a smaller place, but generates less spending and more freedom to carry out spending on leisure.
7) Review feelings that can lead you to spend more
Understand the reasons behind the spending can help. Realizing that you spend more when you have a hard day at work, you can reflect and conclude that maybe the problem to be solved is their job, and do some little shopping at the mall will not solve the issue.
A behavioral bias that often lead us to spend more is the bias of mental accounting: which shows that often we close the head an account, that if it were done on a calculator, not close.
A typical example of this occurs in relation to the salary: you receive 10,000 reais earlier this month and begins to spend wildly. In his mind, the 10 thousand reais are still there, but if a calculator were recording their spending, it would show that half of the amount already left. Result: the account that you did not head closes in reality and you may end up incurring debts by the lack of organization.
To control the urge to spend, the teacher Ana Paula Horn also recommends make donations. "In addition to doing good to others, giving regulates you emotionally before the money. And a time of tighter economic environment, is a very favorable time to do good to those in need," he says.
8) Adapt plans and dreams
Credit conditions are tighter and his uncertain future? Rather than give up some plans, like buying a home, it may adapt them to the new scenario. It may not be easy, but it might be better to buy a smaller property, for example, than insist on buying that dream house, but whose plots can turn your life into a nightmare.
Ana Paula Horn, the secret is to list the goals that are priority. "Prefer dreams involving accomplishments purposes, which bring income growth and personal and professional development to that limited consumption and bring expenses. These can be postponed for a time of greater economic stability, "he said.
The financial educator adds that crises are good opportunities for new paths and innovate. "Whether in their activity, career in your company, the services it provides, take the time to elaborate carefully in their planning, design dreams and projects, reflect on their goals and make room for alternative and innovative ways," he says.
9) Seek Investment Opportunities
Despite all the odds, the timing is great for those who have cash on hand. Plus some sectors in crisis offer discounts on products to contain demand reduction, the base interest rate of the economy, Selic, has risen sharply in recent years, raising the rule of fixed income investments income.
Some investment options surfing in the high Selic rate are: government securities, securities of banks, such as CDs, LCIs and LCAs, which are pegged to the DI rate (rate that has similar behavior to the Selic) and DI funds, which invest in applications that accompany the DI rate.
Care is to be taken with fixed rate securities, which pay a rate determined at the time of application. With the increase in interest rates, they may become disadvantageous, since they are sold at a rate "X" and the increase in the Selic may lead to the issuance of new bonds with higher rates. So who bought the title before, you may need to sell it at a discount if you want to do it before maturity.
As for the floating-rate securities, which accompany the Selic, fluctuate according to the fee, so always are in line with the interests that guide the market, which prevents them to be more or less advantageous over the basic interest.
Olivia Paganini recommends diversifying investments. "We see the possibility of lower interest rates in the second half of 2016, so it may be good now take advantage of fixed rate bonds, which are with high rates, to drive a high yield. For a client we have recommended moderate between 10% and 20% of funds in securities linked to inflation, 20% in fixed income securities and the remainder in floating rate securities linked to the Selic or DI rate, "he says.
Among the options to keep up with inflation, she recommends the Treasury IPCA +, public security that pays a fixed rate plus the IPCA and infrastructure bonds, debt securities of companies related to the infrastructure sector, which are exempt from IR and pay the variation of the IPG-M or IPCA plus tax (but you need to consult the rating of these companies to avoid high risk).
See four investment options with low risk and hitting savings.
10) Take the opportunity to create good financial habits
To keep finances under control, whether in times of crisis or not, it is important to make an effort to expand its financial education. And the crisis can contribute positively to this.
According to research conducted by Marketing Consulting and RICAM Consulting, the financial habits of Brazilians have improved a lot from the crisis. While in 2014, 32% of respondents wrote down all your expenses in 2015, the percentage rose to 38%. There was also a drop from 32% to 25% in the number of respondents who said they did not write down any of his expenses.
Another positive fact revealed that the 2014 edition of the survey 69% of people with debts in overdraft did not know how much they paid in interest. This year, the percentage dropped to 53%.
Olivia Paganini, be educated financially it is not understood if inflation and the Selic rate will rise or not, but to maintain good habits in everyday life.
"When someone gets sick, treatment of disease is delegated to the doctor, but you can not delegate 100% of financial responsibilities to the consultants. They can help a lot, but on the same day, the decisions to buy and organize depend on you, "says Olivia.
Source: Survey
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.