As a salary earner, it’s easy to fall into the trap of putting off your savings till the next month or when you feel you earn enough. There is also the possibility of lifestyle inflation-where you constantly spend more than you should save. But all of these habits stunt your financial progress.
Saving prepares you for the future or even life’s emergencies. No matter how much you earn, you should always set aside something to save. It’s for you, only that you get to spend it at a more appropriate time. Here are ways to maximise your salary even when you earn a low income.
- Set financial goals: Financial goals keeps you focused and disciplined with your money. Therefore, ask yourself important questions like; what are you saving for? What is the time frame? How would this impact my life in general? With this, you’d be motivated to reach your goals.
- Create a budget and stick to it: Budgeting is the first step to financial success. It’s important to have a spending plan before you receive your salary. You can work with a spreadsheet or your notebook to create a budget. You need to be disciplined to enjoy the benefits of budgeting. The 50:30:20 budgeting rule is a perfect example to get started. You can switch up the percentages. But ensure that there is a sincere balance across your income, spending and saving.
- Track your expenses: What are your spending patterns like? Are you on track with your budget? What do you need to cut back on? This step is key to assessing your progress so you can make accurate changes where necessary.
- Save before you spend: The first thing to do when you receive your salary is to save. If you want to maximise your savings, you need to save before spending rather than save what’s left after spending. The personal savings plan on HerVest is a smart choice to save towards your short or long-term goals while earning high-yield returns on your money. Get started on HerVest today.
- Minimise eating out: Dining out all the time costs a lot. With good planning and discipline, you can meal prep at home and save yourself stress and money during the week.
- Automate your finances: With so much competing for our attention these days, Automation can ease the stress of manually topping up your savings. With the automated savings feature on HerVest, you can automatically schedule transfers from your bank accounts to your HerVest savings plan. This step gives no room for excuses to miss your savings.
- Live within your means: When it comes to maximising your income, you cannot eat your cake and have it. You cannot impulse purchase, disregard your budget or spend to impress. Spending to impress is the fastest way to have less money.
- Avoid debts: Avoid the bad debt trap by all means. If you can’t afford it or can’t work to afford it or even have no plan to pay up afterwards, then you don’t need it.
- Earn extra income: Earning extra income is one of the surest ways to boost your income and savings. You can channel this extra income into your savings and use your income for other things. Check out our article on how to monetise your skills to create multiple income streams
- Have an accountability partner: An African proverb says that if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go together. Having someone that keeps you accountable on your savings journey will help you go far in reaching your goals. Whether that’s a family friend or a community like HerVest, draw support, inspiration and strength from them when you need it.
Maximising your salary depends on setting the right financial goals and following through with them. The key is having a personal finance plan that works for you. It’s personal, not general. With HerVest, you can meet those financial targets with our highly competitive savings and impact investments plan. Get started here.
