Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
10.12.2015
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
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Relax: With a few simple changes, you can put the finances on track
São Paulo - Your budget is in need of a cleaning, but you have no idea where to start? Here are some tips for simple organization, but extremely helpful in keeping your financial life under control.
1) Find out exactly how much you earn and how much you spend
A survey conducted in 2014 by SPC Brazil revealed that 42% of people can not tell precisely what is your income. And you? You know exactly what your monthly income and your expenses or just have an idea?
To get better control the finances, it is essential to know what your net salary, the fact that value falls in your account after the discount of income tax, INSS, possible contributions to the company pension plan and spending plan Cheers. Then lift what your fixed and variable expenses and your debts such as financing and upcoming bills card.
Just so you can identify what is upsetting your budget. To facilitate the task, use spreadsheets in Excel, apps, or the tool you consider more effective (check out 15 options to control the budget at the end of article).
2) Start the control as soon as possible and do not stay in "tomorrow I do it"
To explain why no use letting the financial control for later, nothing better than a bit of behavioral finance - the study of the field of economic psychology that investigates the emotions that lie behind our financial decisions. Among the concepts studied in the area are the behavioral biases, ways of acting irrational that cause us to lose money.
The bias that fits here is inertia. Vera Rita Ferreira de Mello, consultant and professor of economic psychology Fipecafi explains that this bias causes us to have an unfounded belief that we will be able to accomplish things in the future. "The person will procrastinating until they spend weeks, months, or until the problem finally burst."
To combat this behavior, according to the consultant, one must understand that the famous "tomorrow I do it" does not work and realize that if you leave pending for later, you may not solve. So there are your options: solve the problem already, or live with the fact that you probably will not solve it ever.
3) Do not leave your control
More difficult than creating a spreadsheet budget, or download a finance app, is to keep the active financial control and turn it into a habit. "The record of revenues and expenditures is what is most important in financial planning, so it is essential to keep it up to date," says financial adviser André Massaro.
So that the control is not lost, Massaro suggests that the budget is "audited" by someone else and are created even punishment, albeit symbolic, if certain targets are not met. Another tip for not relinquishing control is to outline goals for the coming months, to motivate you to keep spending under control and encourage you to follow the evolution of the budget.
4) Do not trust the accounts that you do head
Here goes another biased study by behavioral finance: mental accounting. As explained Vera Rita, it consists of making mental accounts that do not reflect the reality of the data.
"It's what we do, for example, to think of our 13th salary without considering discounts. Thus, one finds that it has a greater value than it has and will spend the 13th without seeing exactly the value that is gone. In the end, it ends up full of debts, "says the consultant.
Realizing that you have a good chance of making flaws accounts, you begin to realize that it is important to check more often your bank balance. This makes it easy to avoid that emotions (such as the desire to have a 13th salary eternal) baguncem your calculations and you get the impression that your money goes away for reasons "from beyond".
5) Do not rely so much on you in general
Two other biases studied by behavioral finance are excessive optimism and excessive self-confidence. Excessive optimism is the unfounded belief that in the end everything is resolved. "The person relaxes in relation to the care they need to have with their finances and end up spending more than you should because in the end she thinks:" one always finds a way, "says Vera Rita.
Already the exaggerated self-confidence, according to the teacher Fipecafi, is what leads us to believe that things can go wrong even, but for others and not for ourselves. "The person to blocks of memory bad experiences she had with money and says, 'My sister always have financial problems, but I do not, I'll manage."
According to Vera Rita, in both cases the biases lead one to settle, leaving aside the financial control and increasing your risk of facing major problems facing hardships such as job loss, or the emergence of unforeseen medical expenses.
6) Check costs of services for which you pay for and do not use
Once you write down all your income and expenses, pay attention to the expenses you have done and that make no sense, such as high bank charges, fitness plans that have not been 100% enjoyed and wireline services and signatures that can be cut without major problems (see 10 things for which you may be paying too expensive).
7) Re-evaluate your heaviest spending
If your expenses are greater than your pocket can hold and cut small expenditures, such as those suggested in the previous section do not solve anything your problem, it may be the case to attack the heaviest spending budget, as their fixed accounts.
In this case, the solution may require more drastic measures such as switching to a smaller property, to reduce spending on finance and condominium, or the sale of your car, which may require a change in your lifestyle.
How are significant changes, it is important to reflect calmly to you makes more sense to keep that kind of good, even though it would require major financial sacrifices, or if more would be worth giving it away to have more freedom in the budget, either with spending leisure, or with others who bring you pleasure.
8) Organize your life in general
Concerning previously published by EXAME.com, the company Be Personal Organizer, specializing in personal organization, showed that a more organized life can lead to reductions of up to 30% in monthly expenses.
According to the company, all it has to be administered from a pillowcase to a property. If you have a full wardrobe, so it needs more time to manage it.
By organizing the closet, for example, it can separate parts that need repair and realize that if you are donating unused clothing, you have probably made unnecessary purchases. In addition to spending less time to dress (and time is money), keeping in mind what clothes you have, you can understand if you really need to buy a new piece or if the purchase is made on impulse.
Without the pantry and organized refrigerator is also very likely that you buy items repeated in the supermarket and forget to bring what was missing. To leave everything organized, and not to waste food, you do not throw your money away and reduce their level of consumption.
9) Organize your wallet
Organize the portfolio may be something surprisingly useful for financial planning. By bringing together the cards that are lost in your wallet, you can remember to close one bank account that is standing for years, and cancel the cards whose tuition and fees are being debited from your account without you noticing.
Cleaning the portfolio can also help you find loyalty cards, such as those of Starbucks that guarantee a free drink every ten bought, or vouchers for discounts and amenities. You can still find recent receipts for purchases and better reflect on how it has spent its money.
10) Download the app from your bank
A great tip to avoid delaying payments and facilitate transfers and balance inquiries is to download the application from your bank on the phone. These apps allow the customer to perform most operations that are made at the branches. So you start to control your account from anywhere and not have to go to an ATM or branch and pick up a kilometric queue to make your payments.
11) View other features of your bank that can help you
Many banks offer alert services via e-mail or SMS that bring updated information about the current account balance and expenses incurred on the card.
These notifications can help you better control spending to avoid you to make mental calculations that lead you to think that your account is bluer than you think. It is also a great outlet for those who are too lazy to check the balance or afraid of the situation and frustrating.
It is worth talking to your manager to see which services the bank offers so that you keep spending under control. Some service providers such as telephone companies also offer notifications on accounts by phone or by email.
12) Consider changing bank if your not contribute to the organization
If your bank does not offer features that help control spending, such as warnings of balance by SMS, or their extracts are extremely confusing, perhaps the case to check if another bank would ease your life accordingly.
As reminds the financial advisor André Massaro, the client can not forget that first of all the bank is a service provider. "The bank must provide a quality service and the information is part of the service. If he does not fulfill this function, it may be appropriate to exchange bank, yes. It is important to press them for that, "he says.
Source: Survey
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.