Most Useful Money Investment and Saving Tricks

Making money is one thing and saving money is another thing. Lets understand this two important terminologies. Investment and Saving.

Wikipedia defined Investment as the purchase of goods that are not consumed today but are used in the future to create wealth.

On the other hand, Saving is income not spent, or deferred consumption. This two things are really worth learning how they work.

How to save money

I will like to start by giving this illustration given by Saurabh.

If you ever go out eating at places like McDonald’s, Burger King or any other fast food corner then lets break it down. There is a psychological trick that the servers use to make you buy more than you initially wanted to without you realizing it. I’ll take a pretty simple example. Suppose I want to grab a plain veg burger, nothing special. I go to the counter and the conversation goes like:

Waiter: Morning, sir. What would you like to have?

Me: A veg burger.

Waiter: Bingo, sir! With single layer of cheese or double?

Me (thinking there’s a long queue behind me, not wanting to take much time): Single layer!

Waiter: Fine! There you go (hands me the burger).

Now the catch here is that the burger could be bought without any cheese at all! I used to end up paying extra on food items like that every time I used to go out eating. It’s the same trick at most places — restaurants, cafes, bars, fast food corners and so on. What do I do nowadays? Hmm. See:

Waiter: Morning, sir. What would you like to have?

Me: A veg burger.

Waiter: Bingo, sir! With single layer of cheese or double?

Me (ahem!): Without cheese, dear!

Waiter: Fine! There you go (hands me the burger).

Actually, it’s not only about one petty burger or food items, but this thing works at most of the places where you go shopping. The person trying to sell you uses such psychological hacks that you end up buying more than you intend to.

The most useful money investment and saving tricks

1. Spending = Earnings – Savings. A golden mantra which you should follow every month.
2. Start an SIP at a very young age. Try to invest at least 15 – 25% of your earnings every month.
3. Do not let this sentence scare you ever. “Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks. Please read the offer document carefully before investing”. Most people avoid investing in mutual funds just because of this one warning. Yes, there is a market risk, but do look at the history and the growth of mutual funds.
4. Avoid buying a car, unless you use it every day. Taking Uber/Ola would be a better choice in that case.
5. At least 20% of your wealth should be liquid as an emergency fund, so you can utilize it whenever necessary.
6. Never take unnecessary loans.
7. Avoid buying property on loans as it eats most of your earnings, unless you have a clear plan for its repayment. It’s important to monitor cash flow. Though, the house will be your asset, your liability will be much more.
8. Do not have a belief that property and car make you rich. It is what you save and invest, that is more important always.
9. Considering inflation, you are actually losing money if it is in a savings bank account. Do not keep huge corpus as savings in your bank account.
10. Never invest in insurance for returns. Insurance is not an investment option. It is just a risk management tool.
11. Never use Credit Cards for lavish spending. Use them intelligently and pay the bills before due date, to avoid hefty interests. Avoid EMIs as much as possible.
12. Cancel all credit cards before you die. Or inform family about all your accounts, credit cards, loans and savings, now itself. Even a small residue will cost your family much in the long run.
13. If you invest in stocks, pay due attention. Also try to have a separate account for Delivery investment and Intraday investment. It is easy to monitor this way and also makes tax calculation easy.
14. Always have a plan for future events on your career, life, spending and finance.
15. Always have a reserve on your savings for contingency and urgent situations.
16. Invest on yourself first and then make investments.
17. Your personal life and health are the most important investments. Do have a regular health check and do healthy workout every day. Stay healthy and live happily!