Having good financial health is not as difficult as you imagine. Leave bad habits in the past and start a healthy financial life with these tips that will make you more aware of your consumption habits and expenses.

Many Colombians and, in general, people tend to live day to day. This thought of “every day comes with its effort” is a serious mistake and even more so when it comes to money because this habit is what little by little destroys finances and causes over-indebtedness.

The difficult thing is not saving, investing, or managing expenses, what is complicated is creating the habit, starting with things as small as avoiding spending on a dessert or a daily coffee. Think about it, how many times were you able to save at least $100 thousand, did you spend it on an item of clothing or something that you didn’t need?

Before spending your money, remember to plan for your future and think long term, because as grandmas would say: “You don’t have the same 20 years all your life.” Old age is very important and what better way to be prepared when the time comes? Therefore, to start living a full financial life, follow these 7 tips:

1. Save

Many people have the imagination that they should save what is left over, that is, after all the expenses of the month. However, this is a decision that must be made from the beginning of the month and not at the end. It is recommended to allocate at least 10% of your income to savings.

2. Keep track of your expenses

If you want to get a clear picture of what is happening with your expenses, making a budget is very important. At first, it will be hard, but constant monitoring of each movement will allow you to know whether or not you have a deficit or how you can use the money you have free. Remember that there are mobile applications that will help you organize this budget: Accounting Registry, Wallet, Fintonic, Monefy, and Spendee, among others.

3. Don’t buy impulsively

The key question when faced with a situation of doubt is: ‘Can I continue living without making this purchase?’ If the answer is yes, there is not much to think about. Refrain from buying something that you will surely regret later. If not, apply the ‘rest on it’ method, and if after 24 hours you think you need it, make the purchase.

4.  Do not pay more than 1 installment

Some use credit cards for everything: trips, clothes, markets, dinners, among others, and forget that this payment method is a tool that allows you to make purchases and pay the value later, but they are not an extension of income. Additionally, the more installments you use to defer payment, the value of the purchase will increase due to interest. The idea is that you make purchases in a single installment and do not make advances.

5. Take good advantage of the discount

Although there are promotions that deserve to be considered, thinking that all the offers that appear on the market justify your purchase is a serious mistake, since not all discounts are real. You should be skeptical of those big discounts that say “only for today” since there will always be sales and not all of them are as good as they seem.

6. Use the 70/30 rule

It consists of allocating 70% of your income for basic expenses, which are housing, education, health, and transportation; and the remaining 30% for debt payment, savings, and entertainment. This can only be achieved by doing a judicious record-keeping exercise (tip #2).

7. Review your contributions:

Why check your pension statement, make sure to periodically check that your company is making the corresponding contributions to health and pension, this way you will save yourself problems in the future if you are missing weeks of contributions or a little money for your pension allowance.