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| Photo source : subdollar.com |
This is the one of the questions that I often hear. And in fact, this was also my dilemma before I learned to manage my finances.
The 'aha' moment was when I learned about the power of the 'latte factor'.
The Latte Factor is a term used by the author David Bach and is based on a simple idea that all you need to to do to finish rich is to look at the small things you spend your money on each day and see whether your can redirect that spending to yourself.
When I learned about this, I started to assess my spending patterns by giving myself a 7-day challenge which includes tracking the things I spend on.
Monitoring your expenses requires writing down every purchase you make no matter how big or small (including candy bars, coffee, softdrinks, transportation fare).
According to David Bach, the trick in this 7-day exercise is to be yourself and don't change your behavior. You should also spend money as you always have but you need to record or write all your expenses..
When I studied my expenses list, I quickly got the whole picture of where I'm wasting money. Then I decided on where it makes sense to cut back. It would help if you ask this question for each purchased item, "Do I really NEED this? Or do I just WANT this?"
An example of a list would be:
Date : March 1, 2012
Expenses
| Items Purchased | Amount | Want or Need? |
| Bus Fare | 12.00 | Need |
| MRT Fare | 14.00 | Need |
| Starbucks Caffe Latte | 110.00 | Want |
| Starbucks Croissant | 70.00 | Want |
| Chicken and Rice Lunch | 70.00 | Need |
| Chocolate bar | 50.00 | Want |
| Frozen yogurt | 130.00 | Want |
| Softdrinks | 30.00 | Want |
| Chips | 30.00 | Want |
| Fashion Magazine | 100.00 | Want |
| Blouse | 1000.00 | Want |
| Milk Tea | 95.00 | Want |
| Movie fee | 150.00 | Want |
| Popcorn | 50.00 | Want |
| Food for Dinner | 80.00 | Need |
I know some find this exercise too tedious but I think the writing part is necessary to give you a better understanding of where your money is going and to know the percentage of your income you can allocate for your necessities. Can you live with 60% of your income or maybe lower it down to 50%?
After you accomplish the 7-day challenge, you can stop jotting down your expenses (if you hate doing it) because when you know the percentage of your income that goes to your necessities, it would be easier for you to implement the money jar or the envelope system.
Let's go back to the above mentioned example. From the expenses list we can see that many of the purchases were just 'wants' and can be cut back to save a few pesos. The amount of the total expenses incurred is P1,991.00. The items that the person thinks she NEEDS would amount to P176.00 only. Therefore, the difference of P1,815 is the amount of cash that can be saved and can be put to an investment vehicle that could yield a higher returns (i.e. stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc).
Now, I'm not saying that you have to be a miser or a stingy person in order to be financially free. Of course, we want to enjoy what we are earning and give ourselves a treat once in a while. The point of this exercise is we need to learn to be conscious with our spending habits and see if there are things we can do without or replace it with something that costs less as not to deprive ourselves.
For example, if you are the type of person who can't start a day without coffee, you can consider drinking office coffee which is free or buy from a vendo machine that would cost less than P20 compared to Starbucks that costs more than is P100 per cup.
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In summary, the lesson we can derive from this money-saving strategy is that the thing that keeps us living from pay check to paycheck is that we spend more than we make on stuff we don't need. And putting aside a little as a few pesos a day for your future than spending it on little purchases such as lattes, bottled water, cigarette, magazines and so on can can really make a difference.
So, are you up for this challenge? Can you make the power of the Latte Factor work for you?
Very informative Marissa!
ReplyDeleteYes keeping track of your expenses lets you know the whole picture not only on how much you can save but also how you handle money in general.
i am not up for this challenge... but it doesn't mean i don't believe in it! :) it's true that we need to check what we need vs. what we want because we don't realize that those small change we use for our little indulgences amount to a lot din pala :)
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