Lifestyle is a way of life established by society, culture, group or individual. This includes patterns of behavior, interaction, consumption, work, activity and interests that describe how a person spends their time. The scale of Lifestyle keeps on increasing day by day. And we try to keep pace with this new lifestyle. Nowadays under the name of Lifestyle Expenses, we keep on spending on unnecessary things. We think these expenses are mandatory to keep our Status intact. Did we have this kind of lifestyle when we were kids? Did our parents spend loads of money to keep their status high? Were they even bothered about this?
This pressure of maintaining a modern lifestyle keep toll on our savings. But we should not neglect Saving for our future.
Saving is a virtue. And we should convert it into a habit. Once any activity converted into the habit, your efforts to do it regularly reduces and you keep on going with it efficiently. Savings converted into investment makes money work for us. We should start saving for the future from the first pay cheque itself.
Most of the time we think of saving after all our expenses are met. By this way, we are never able to save. Expenses are bound to happen if we have money by our side. Expenses are never-ending. We should reverse this. It means we should keep aside some percentage of our monthly take home and spend the rest.
Saving rate depends upon your age and your responsibility. People from 20 to 30 age group can save more than those who are in their 40s as their family responsibilities are less compared to those of 40s.
You should save at least 20 to 30% of your monthly income. If you are single and no big responsibility on your shoulder then saving rate should be more than 50%. But in practically are we able to save 20 to 30% of our monthly salary? The answer may be No. We can save more if we do some changes in our expenditure pattern.
Following are the ways to curb our Lifestyle expenses.
- Write down your each and every expense. Penning down will help you to know where your money is going.
- Expenses are of two types. The first category is Fixed Expense. It includes expenses such as rent, society maintenance, school fees, fixed medicine cost, payment to maids, property tax, insurance premiums, etc. And the second one is Variable Expenses which are food, conveyance, electricity, telephone, entertainment, groceries, etc. While making changes n lifestyle we should focus on fixed expenses and try to reduce your variable expenses.
- Expenses can also be categorized as Needs and Wants. You should understand what is your need and which expense is for your want. Try to avoid spending on hoteling, short vacation, outings, cinema, parties, etc frequently. This will help us to focus on your Needs and save money too.
- Postpone your big purchases until it is very urgent. After some time you yourself will realize that it is not at all required. This especially applicable to electronics gadgets and apparels.
- Try to use public transport whenever possible. If you have postpaid mobile connection change it to prepaid which helps to keep an eye on your mobile uses.
- Pay your utility bills on time to avoid penalties.
- Instead of credit card start using the debit card by which you can see the bank balance after every expense.
- Start paying by cash if needed as it pinches more when we spend hard cash rather than plastic money.
- Try to find alternate income resource to fund your expenses. You can covert your hobbies into classes, can take up freelancing project, tutions, etc.
- Decide on your priority. Saving starts in your mind first and then on papers. You need to give the highest priority to Saving over maintaining the lifestyle.
- Meanwhile, try to improve your technical and educational skill to take up a higher paid job.
Hope All these things will help you to control lifestyle expenses and save more.