Like most of you, I do worry about money. But these days I do worry less compare to my younger days. These are some the little tricks I still practice in managing my finances so I get to spend without feeling guilty.
1. Do I want it or I need it? And very important we have to be honest with that answer. So I also use the old trick of delaying purchases. Sleep on it. Ask again next week if I still want to buy.
2. Set up a splurge fund. Every month I park money aside for mindless spending. Especially for travelling because I can’t do backpacking.
3. I have a no-touch bank account. Every month I will transfer some money to a bank account for rainy days. I don’t have an ATM card for the account to withdraw. Then it has a complicated username and password to access online banking to make it so inconvenient to use money from this bank account.
4. Gamify cost control. Like for eg. I fix an amount I can spend for the day. Then I challenge myself to spend within that budget. All the extra I managed to save, I will donate to charity.
And the golden rule: Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.
Bimbo
