Absolute majority of people are financially illiterate. This is used by interested individuals from the top, banks, credit organizations, scammers, sellers and many more. Today we offer to your attention a list of short, simple, understandable and very effective rules of financial management that will daily help you in life.

1. Spend less than get

If there is a key fundamental rule of financial management, then this is it: your expenses should be less than income. You MUST follow this rule, otherwise your whole future life is put under a big question.

2. Simplify your financial life

The more loans and credit cards, the greater the chance not to notice the loss of funds or to miss another payment. The more deposits and accounts, the more difficult it is to monitor them and it is easier not to have time to react to emerging problems. The more complex your financial life, the more time and effort it takes. Together with this, the chance to get confused and make a financial mistake is growing.

3. Never let the "future self" manage the situation in the present

Do you want to buy something that you can not afford now, because in the future you will receive more and easily pay off debts? Most likely, you will regret this decision for a very long time, because your "future self" can receive as much and even less, or lose your job altogether.

Even if in the future your financial situation improves, there will appear other expenses, which will not be easy to cope with and without the mistakes of the past.

4. Begin the path to good financial management

  • Step 1: Create a cash reserve for emergencies. Cash is still necessary and solves the arising unforeseen problems quickly, on the spot, without going to the bank, without fuss with bank cards and maintenance problems. Start creating a reserve is very simple. Begin to save a certain percentage of your income each month. For example, 10%. Or 15%. This is in full compliance with the first rule of financial management, and in a year you will be able to rejoice in a decent amount of accumulated money, which will help you in any emergency situation. In the future, some of the accumulated funds can be transferred to a deposit or let into the business.
  • Step 2: get rid of debts with the highest percentage. Sort out your debts by increasing the debt, select the one with the highest interest, then start paying off this debt twice as fast, that is, with double payments. Do this monthly until the debt is repaid. Then completely add the liberated amount of money that was spent to pay off, to pay for the second debt, and until it is repaid. And so for all subsequent debts.
  • Step 3: when there is a stash in case of emergency, and debts are closed, you can start thinking about retirement. This can be a bank account, investments and any other ways to save and increase capital.

5. Create a budget, just do it right

The budget is the best way to control and plan finances, but only if the right approach is taken.

How does an intelligent person plan the budget? He does this on the basis of expenditure statistics for the previous months. That is, you can fantasize and say to yourself: "Well, well, I will spend so much, and not more, on food." But then a harsh reality will come and put everything in its place. It is better to rely not on assumptions, but on real expenditure statistics.

You are keeping statistics of expenses, right? It will help not only to plan, but also to find articles of overspending.

6. Optimize all your planned expenses

We get a lot of bills. You can start with the same services as a mobile operator.

Do you need all the connected paid functions? Here 50 rubles, there are 20 rubles, 100 rubles somewhere else. In the sum it will turn out very decently, and all this you just give each month. Such a spring cleaning is useful to do every few months.

7. Calculate your real earnings

Subtract from the annual earnings tax and all expenses directly related to work, including lunch outside the home, work clothes and such things. Then consider how many hours a year you actually spend on work, including all overtime and reworking from home. Divide real income by the real number of working hours. That's how much you actually get for an hour of work.

8. Use real earnings as a unit of measure for any purchases

Now it will become much more interesting to buy.

The purchase price becomes the numerator, and the real earnings - the denominator.

This application is equal to two o'clock in my life. Is it worth it? Is this TV worth two months of life? Maybe it's better to take that one, smaller? Now you can always answer your own question: "What do I spend my life on?".

9. Ignore the "experts"

The media are full of articles from various financial "experts". However, you can not remember the name of any such connoisseur, to which the phrase would apply: "The things he spoke of really helped". The same applies to all kinds of predictors and other advisers. Their publications can be paid for, directed at the interests of third parties, but not on yours.

Why would such an expert publicly disclose some valuable information? He is paid for it? Then the company for which he works, certainly took advantage of the advice, and you will get at best a crumb. A third-party expert will never know everything that happens to the reader of his publication. Their data can be erroneous and often unreasonable.

If you are not able to make plans and forecasts based on independent analysis and you necessarily need an expert, then you have a problem. True predict the future, which is not surprising, no one has learned. If you fear for the future, then the only alternative for you is more conservative investment. The rest is yours - work on your own resistance to risks.

10. Set big goals and remind yourself about them.

What do you want? For what this whole thing is moving with money? This is a difficult question, but it is he who can become the strongest motivator for you, and also will prompt the right ways in life and help them pass.

Do you want to stop working early? Do you want to start your own business? Trip around the world? Whatever it is, remember the goal, keep in mind. Surround yourself with reminders of your main goal. They will help to make the right decisions in numerous situations on the way to the desired.

11. Buy a practical car

Practicality is the low cost of maintenance and repair, low fuel consumption, minimum transport tax and the imputed cost of insurance. Otherwise, you get sucking money monster, which will take a decent share of revenue.

Showing off is more expensive than money - the main truth of life of a fool. Nobody cares about you and your car.

12. Treat a car as an intelligent person

If we are talking about savings, then do not forget about the fines and fuel consumption depending on the speed.

When engineers create a practical car, they usually count on driving around the city and at the speed that is acceptable in the city. In this mode, the engine consumes less fuel, and constant acceleration at high speeds from traffic lights to traffic lights is the way to more frequent refueling and premature repair. Insufficient pressure in the tires increases fuel consumption, and ignoring minor signals about a car failure can lead to a major breakdown and an accident.

13. Understand the payment of housing and other bills

Perhaps, you still pay for the radio, the receiver of which was thrown out during the previous repair. Calculate the feasibility and size of savings in the transition from average tariffs for water and gas accounting and a two-rate electricity meter. And buy these energy-saving light bulbs. They really reduce bills for light.

14. Master the basic skills of repairing the house

We do not offer you to lay the tiles yourself in the bathroom or to repair the pipes, but replacing the outlet or changing the gasket in the leaking faucet is so simple. On the Internet there are many understandable video tutorials on these topics.

15. Teach children about financial literacy by your example

As stated at the beginning of the article, we were not taught this. But now you can become a teacher to develop these skills in your children, in practice demonstrating the advantages of literate money treatment. It is important not just to broadcast, but also to show them these rules in everyday life.

16. Ignore the advertisement

Perhaps, in importance, this rule can be put immediately after the first fundamental law on the prevalence of income over expenditure. We live in a consumer society. Demand in such a society is not born in the minds of people, but is imposed from the outside. Advertising creates artificial needs, values ​​and ideals. And she does it so competently that we sincerely believe that a certain icon on an ordinary smartphone makes it exceptional, and a specific tag on a shirt made of ordinary cotton raises its price by a factor of 10 quite justifiably.

Brands, image, style - we have long relied on concepts that are far beyond what is really necessary for a comfortable life of things.

Realizing everything that is happening around, an intelligent person will not rush to extremes, that is, he will not want to become an ascetic. He will only avoid maximum external imposing and buy things only on the basis of his own needs analysis.

If you learn not to buy things you do not need, you can save the lion's share of income for more rational spending.

17. Find a non-waste hobby

Many hobbies require decent cash injections. The saying that hobby costs do not count, is invented by cunning people selling something relating to one or another hobby. The only question is what kind of passion you choose for yourself: collecting unique mechanical watches or improving the playing skills on a musical instrument that you already have.

18. Look for and try for free

People in one way or another seek to find like-minded people. So clubs are formed according to interests. They are non-commercial, that is, they will not shake money from you there. So you can find good friends and never overpay.

For sure in your city there are lovers of fishing at any time of the year, not offering to rent an expensive vessel and inventory. There are desperate travelers, NOT a travel agency. Thanks to social networks, it became easier to find such communities. Try to give them a chance. It is possible that this will allow you to do what you love in a company of the same enthusiastic people and you will not be overpaying for anything.

19. Do not pay attention to what others think

The laws of the consumer society are not only meaningless, but also very aggressive. Do not follow the rules? You will become an outcast. Fortunately, this works only with very close people, and more or less a reasonable person understands that neither the machine nor any other attributes will impress the other as much as intelligence, intellect, ideas and actions.

20. Do not pay attention to how others spend their money

Do you have the idea that this person is better than you, because he is driving a sports car, and you are not? You do not have to spend money on things that other people like. Spend them on what you like.

21. Invest time in building good, reliable, lasting relationships.

Having a lot of personal and professional connections with other people will serve you well in life. It is an emotional, social, professional, spiritual and financial support for all your ideas and beginnings.

Becoming a support for others, you will find support for them.

22. Spend one hour a week analyzing your finances, career and life

The more often you review your current situation and situation, the more likely the early detection of discrepancies with your goals. Analyze the events that occurred over the past week. Think for a week ahead.

Does everything fit into the concept of your long-term goals? What is your greatest achievement this week? What's wrong and why? How to avoid this in the future? Are your long-term goals as desirable for you as before?

23. Make the dream your secondary business

Each of us has a lesson to which we would like to dedicate our lives. The problem is that we do not see any way to monetize this activity, and therefore we leave it only in dreams. Try to allocate for this matter some of your free time.

Just start doing what you dreamed of. In the process, you will probably come up with a way to earn money by pursuing your dream. This can be a YouTube channel, a website, or a book. Just start working on your dream job in your spare time.

24. Use the 10 seconds rule for cheap purchases

Fighting with impulsive purchases helps rule 10 seconds.

Saw something inexpensive and immediately wanted to purchase? Hold this thought in your head for 10 seconds and honestly ask yourself the question: is this thing really necessary for you?

Do not hide from yourself the negative side of the purchase. Actively go through the reasons why you should not buy this thing. Will this purchase help in achieving your goals? Is the benefit of this purchase comparable with its price? Often these 10 seconds are enough to understand if you really need a thing.

25. Use the 30 days rule for expensive purchases

For expensive things, the rule of 10 seconds will not work, because in this case it is a question of purchase, the expediency of which can not be determined in such a short time. When there is a question about serious expenses, it is necessary to wait 30 days.

You will clearly notice the first impulse, the first internal call for purchase, after which you calmly wait a month. During these days you will be able to thoroughly study the planned purchase, learn about it a lot of new things. That you will not be shown in advertising. With a high probability in 30 days from your keen desire to buy this thing there will be no trace.

26. Create a menu for the week

A clear diet is not only good for health and figure, but also saving. Improvisation in matters of "what to take for dinner" leads to an increase in the cost of food. Once again, you will just be too lazy to think, and you will order a pizza. Or decide to go to the junk-café. All this is harmful, including for finance.

27. Go for groceries only with a shopping list

The App Store and Google Play dozens of shopping lists. For these purposes, you can adapt the built-in reminders and in general any application where you can compile a simple list. Nobody canceled the usual sheet of paper either.

The meaning of shopping lists is not only to not forget to buy anything, but also not to buy too much. Walked on the list, left everything planned in the basket - and to the cashiers.

All this yummy, especially on an empty stomach, can make you make an impulsive purchase, but with a pre-planned list, the chance to do a rash action is greatly reduced.

28. Buy well-stocked products in cheaper hypermarkets

There are perishable products that we buy almost every day. Constantly to go behind them in the remote hypermarket with lower prices is not always justified. But a planned large-scale purchase of well-stored products, which you carry out once a month or even less often, is useful to produce in shops with lower prices.

Even if the difference in the cost of each individual product seems to be minimal, in aggregate a large purchase will save a decent amount. If you do not practice the planned replenishment of provisions, it's time to start doing it. Trading networks compensate for a large number of outlets and the next step-by-step availability of higher prices for goods.

29. Find the cheapest shop nearby to buy perishable food 

You can go to the same store for years for a habit, and at the same distance from your home there is another store, where prices are lower. Devote a walk to exploring nearby shops. Write down the prices for products that you often buy, and compare them.

30. Reduce the number of consumed semi-finished products

 By semi-finished products are meant products that are partially or completely ready for use. Almost always the cost of such products is overstated, and their harm is difficult to overestimate. You pay for convenience not only with an extra ruble, but also with health. Learning to cook simple meals at home is easy, and you will always know their composition.

31. Prepare for the weekend In the weekend, too lazy to do something.

Even cooking. Here comes the idea of ​​ordering a pizza or strolling to fast food.

32. Save on bad habits 

The decision to rethink your approach to finance is the ideal time to get rid of bad habits at the same time. Enough to convince yourself that you do not interfere with alcohol and nicotine, and soda is not as harmful as doctors say about it. You put your health at your own expense. Is there much stupidity in this world?

33. And remember: things will never make you happy Happiness comes from within.