Many experts always advise that you live below your means. What does this mean? Well, to my knowledge, living below your means not spending more than your financial earnings.
Is it possible to live below your means? Yes, you can and there are conscious steps you can apply to achieve that.
You can live below your means and be happy. Despite your income, you should spend less than what you receive and channel the excess to valuable savings and assets.
There are many tips you can adopt to live below your means. Below are 10 best tips you can quickly adapt to living below your means.
1. Know your income and expenses
You get to keep tabs of your income and expenses. You should know what is coming in and what is going out. Calculate all of your incomes and all of your expenses.
Make sure that all sources of income are taken into consideration. The same rule goes for the calculation of your expenses.
When calculating your expenses, separate your fixed expenses from your variable expenses.
You have limited control over your fixed expenses, but you have great control over your variable expenses.
To live within your expenses, make sure that your income is greater than your expenses, especially your variable income which may often get out of control.
2. Track your expenses
You can live within your means if you consistently track your expenses. You have to plan all your spending and ensure your track the progress made or lack of progress thereof.
Tracking your expenses per time can help you stay focused so you don’t spend more than necessary.
Tracking your expenses will give you an idea of where and how your money is spent. This will help you make better plans to save more money.
You also solve the problem of excessive spending doing this.
There are many budgeting apps out there you can use to track your expenses. Use them to track your expenses today.
3. Cut down on meaningless expenses
Living within your means is about spending money only on necessary things.
So, if you cut down on meaningless expenses, then you are making a great effort to live within your means. Write down you truly value and only put your money in them.
Cut down on those memberships and Cable TV channels that don’t add value to you.
4. Spend Less Money Than You Bring In
You can live within your means by spending less money than you bring in or earn.
It is natural that if your income is above your expenses than you have more money to spend or save.
You should make it a rule to spend less money than you bring in. Know how much you make and match your spending to fit your income.
Simple arithmetic is this: if you earn $200 then make sure you spend less than this amount to stick with it.
5. Boost Your Income and keep your expenses constant
One of them was to live within your means is to boost your income. This means that you have to expand your sources of earnings or income.
You can get a second job, get a promotion, or find a higher paying job, or change to a more profitable business, etc.
If you have more money, you spend less and gain more financial freedom.
If you have beautiful feet, you can even get paid by selling feet pics as a foot model or to those who have a foot fetish.
6. Build an Emergency Fund
To live within your means, you should consider creating an emergency fund. This is a savings account you keep for the unexpected.
If you have this fund, then it would be easier to draw from it to solve a financial emergency.
This way you are not stressed out nor resort to borrowing above your means.
You can start building an emergency fund with a percentage of your income. Save what you can afford to save.
7. Buy when you have the cash
You can live within your means by buying things only when you have the cash for it. Avoid using credit cards to buy what you want.
If you restrict yourself to the use of only cash, then you can avoid the debt trap.
Using credit cards before you get the cash to pay your bills to attract interests which would increase your expenses in the long run.
8. Go for used cars instead of brand new cars.
You can opt for used cars instead of going for brand new ones.
Used cars are cheaper than new cars, and they can also serve you well. After all, a car is meant for transportation, both new and used cars can do this for you.
9. Take advantage of Cashback Sites
You can live within your means by taking advantage of cashback sites.
These are sites that provide users with money as incentives to buy a specific product or to sign up for a service.
Cashbacks will help you save more money, and using them is a smart way to live within your means.
10. Don’t Try to be like others
Don’t try to be like others when it comes to material things. You must resist the pressure to have the same things that others have.
The person you are trying to keep up with may have better financial power than you.
Live within your means by sticking with your budget.
Conclusion
The above are 10 tips you should consider to live within your means.
The main point is that you must try to spend less than what you earn.
Don’t buy what you don’t need, and take advantage of every opportunity to save more.