Magic Savings: Experience Enchantment in Financial Management
“Magic savings” is something that can be experienced by every person. It has the ability of spicing up and thereby putting a sense of “enchantment” to one’s practice of financial management, which can further strengthen his/her practice of saving for emergency situations. This is can be applicable to anyone earning income – employed and self-employed individuals alike.
Basic Financial Management
It is, first and foremost, important to check one’s income before doing so. For most individuals who are employees, receiving their salary every fifteen (15) days of each month, a thorough study of his/her pay slip and/or any similar type of document should be done. Meanwhile, income logbooks and/or accounting records should be carefully reviewed by those who are self-employed.
Details pertaining to extra pay from overtime work should be verified with the Human Resources and/or Payroll Department/s by those who are employed. Included in this verification are income deductions such as those that might have been incurred because of absences, tardiness, under time incidents, taxes, and insurance contributions, among others. For those who have their own businesses, net income should be analyzed meticulously in relation to deductions, which may be in the form of representation expenses, transport costs, and emergency expenditures, among others, from the enterprise’s gross income.
Budgeting for one’s basic needs, such as food, shelter, and clothing is what follows. The financial amount to be set aside for food expenses can be based on one’s quantity and/or regularity of food intake, which could be per day, week, and month. Planning for clothing expenses can be done based on one’s monthly requirements of them. And budgeting for one’s housing needs might be based on his/her expenses spent per month on rent and/or mortgage as well as residence maintenance expenditures.
Setting aside a certain amount for savings and investment is also important, which, as stated and proven by well-known financial gurus, are signs of good financial management. It is only after this that one should work on his/her budget for wants. Other individuals even go to the extent of setting a certain amount of their earnings to support noble causes – religious, environmental, and social, among others. This is what basic good financial management includes.
Magic Savings
If one wants to experience a sense of “enchantment” and consequently excitement on how he/she handles his financial resources he/she might want to practice what we may call “magic savings.” This is an exercise of setting aside money randomly for emergency purposes. Such exercise might resemble the practice of what is called “keeping cash under the mattress,” wherein one inconspicuously stores a certain amount of money in various areas and/or objects of his/her home for urgent situations, not marking the spots where he/she hid his/her savings but remembering where he/she place them. Areas and/or objects in one’s home where cash can be kept are, but are not limited to, small cracks on the floor, walls, windows, ceiling, behind the freezer, and PVC pipes.
Unlike “keeping cash under the mattress” however, the areas and/or objects where one hides his/her money in “magic savings,” are not be remembered by the person doing it. The financial amount for this type of practice in saving can be any amount. It can even be just what is left from one’s earnings after he/she has done budgeting for all his/her needs, wants, savings, investments, etc.
It is best to use bills instead of coins when doing “magic savings,” which are to be finely folded into very small and/or thin strips. These should be tiny and/or slim enough so that they can be inserted almost anywhere among one’s own belongings. It might be in secret pockets of wallets, small holes in jackets, tiny compartments in bags, cell phone cases, and soles of shoes, among others.
The more bills one set aside and the more frequent he/she does it, the greater amount of cash he/she will be able to save for emergency situations. A sense of “enchantment” and excitement can be experienced by the one practicing it when a need (usually in emergency cases) arises and, from “out of nowhere,” funds suddenly appear like “magic” – becoming available to him/her, simply because he/she has developed the habit of tucking in some extra bills here and there, from time to time among.
Financial “enchantment” can be experienced by everyone that can reinforce established good practices of financial management. This is can be applicable to anyone who earns income. All that is needed is needed is to exercise “magic savings,” tuck some cash now and then in one’s own personal belongings.
Photo Attribution:
Featured and 1st image by Stuart Miles / Freedigitalphotos
2nd image by Gualberto107 / Freedigitalphotos
3rd image by Artur84 / Freedigitalphotos
