If a person spends more than he earns or cannot save, he should consider saving. There are five ways to do this, and the first is to start budgeting. Aleksey Rodin, financial consultant and expert on the portal “Myfinance.rf” of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, told socialbites.ca about this.
“There are many mobile applications and services that allow you to manage your budget. You need to test them and choose the most suitable one. The first step is to start writing down and categorizing all your expenses. Next you need to calculate your income. “Analyze all categories and identify where costs can be reduced,” he explained.
Rodin explained that you should watch out for unnecessary expenses, such as taxi rides, lunches at restaurants, subscriptions to entertainment services and unnecessary apps. The expert concluded that saving on unnecessary expenses will allow you to allocate 10-15% of all money from the budget.
The second and third methods are to use debit cards with cash back (cashback from purchases) and pay attention to promotions in stores.
“Having a cashback will allow you to get an additional 400-500 rubles per month from expenses. And in some banks the interest on the balance is comparable to the return on deposits. Having a prepared grocery shopping list will help you avoid impulse purchases. And within the framework of promotions you need to remember one more rule – “Buy only what you would buy without a discount,” the expert advised.
The two remaining ways are to use tax breaks and pause before making big purchases.
“Tax deductions allow you to legally avoid paying some fees altogether or refund some of them. For example, social tax deductions allow for the annual refund of 13 percent of the 120 thousand rubles spent on education, treatment and sports,” Rodin said.
For example, if a person pays personal income tax (13%) and goes to the gym, he has the right to apply to the tax office at the end of the year and receive up to 15,600 rubles.
“Before making a big purchase, add the item to your wish list and postpone it for a few days or even weeks. If the product is still needed after this period, it would be useful to take a few more days to examine all offers on the market and choose the most profitable option,” concluded Rodin.
Before that socialbites.ca saidHow to save and increase money in 2023.
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