This article might not be related to HR issue directly but I think every salaried individual should read it.
One common thing that most employees are happy about is the payment date. Especially, when salary and bonus are coming together, it is the happiest day of the year.
However, after just a few days, all the money has gone.
As a salaried man, I think it is very difficult to save money. There are a lot of expenses waiting for us to pay inevitably, but all the expenses you have to pay might not be a “MUST”.
I recommend you to record all the spending from the first to the last day of each month, and then categorize each item in a simple way for you to understand. You will know which one is “need to have” or just “nice to have”. An example from one of my colleague who has 25,000 THB per month is as follows:
Details Amount
1. Mobile expenses 1,000
2. Room rental 5,500
3. Travel expenses 2,200
4. Food and expenses on working day 3,300
5. Food and expenses on weekend 4,000
6. Personal expenses 3,000
7. Give to parent 5,000
8. For saving 1,000
Saving only 1,000 THB per month!!! So, when will she have 100,000 THB?
My experience
At that time, I thought, I should share my secret of savings with my close friends at work. At least, I may be able to give them another new idea on financial planning. My intention is to only share my experience, not to show off at all.
I started saving money since my salary was 20,000 THB with these following ways…
1. On the day I get the payment, 1,000 THB will be transferred to my saving account that has no ATM card so it is very difficult to withdraw any money.
2. All 50 THB notes are my saving. Once I get the 50 baht note, I will not use it for any expenses. With this strategy I can save 1,200 – 1,500 THB per month.
3. I will save 30% of my bonus to buy a government savings bank’s lottery. It is similar to fixed saving with interest rate of 1-3%. Even though it does not give a great return, it has lottery awards that I may possibly win 300 THB or up to a million baht.
4. The difference between my previous and new salary after adjustment each year will be in my investment category. I think that I never get the additional amount of money before, so there should be no problem if I do not use it. That’s why I spend it all on LTF, which I have no idea what LTF is.
I told my friends that I don’t really care much about the income. I do care about the amount we can save each month. Last but not least, I share my friend the key success factor “Discipline”. This will help them change their behavior on spending money for life.
PS. After one week from sharing my experience, one of my friends came to me with her book bank, saving account without ATM card. I just can’t stop smiling.