How do you imagine a financially literate person?
Probably, a successful businessman or bank director would come to mind first? If you have no experience in saving and accumulating money, it is difficult to start with large amounts. Even 10% or 20% of your income may seem like a tangible figure at first. Start small – try to save 3% to 5% every month. Gradually, you will be able to increase this amount when you get used to putting small amounts of money away all the time.
Advice for tracking and managing expenses
In our opinion, a financially literate person has the following basic skills:
- Keeps own/family budget under control
- A financially literate person keeps records of income and expenses; knows how much and what they spend and optimizes these expenses; plans income and expenses in advance.
- Spends less than earn
- They do not take out loans, live on their earnings and build up savings from them.
Set a goal for yourself
You don’t have to strive to buy an apartment or a car right away – it’s expensive and you’ll most likely have to save up for it for so long that, sooner or later, you’ll get bored. To start with, plan some small purchases, like a new watch, a favorite book in a beautiful paperback, or new sneakers. You’ll see how nice it is to buy something you’ve wanted for a long time but have been putting off with honestly saved money. Gradually increase your goal – after a new book, start saving for a new phone and so on. This way, you will learn to save and eventually be able to save up for a larger purchase.
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Investing basics and strategies: real examples
Alex: If a person earns 10-12 thousand dollars, it will be easy to save money. I once conducted a survey on Facebook, and most participants indicated the amount of $1,000 per family member per month as a living wage.
Max: The golden rule is to save 10% of your income. And then I formed a “framework” for saving money for myself. The first step is to save 10%. The second is a 5% “tax” on any purchase above $100. The third is to put a small amount of money in the piggy bank every day. The fourth step is to put 50% of any unplanned income into the same piggy bank. If you follow these rules, at the end of the month you get a good amount for investment.
Daniel: I represent supporters of the FIRE (Financial Independence & Retire Early) movement. These are people who strive to build enough capital to live a free life before they retire. With smaller amounts, we learn and get our feet wet, but if it’s $500 a month, you’ll have a good amount of capital in a year. If you have only $500 now and are itching to invest, then crypto assets and NFTs are riskier, but don’t expect this money to be returned to you.
