How to manage your monthly finances? 5 tips to get started now.

Even though it's something extremely important for everyone, it's rare for us to receive adequate financial education.

How to manage your money wisely.

As mentioned earlier, financial education is very important, but still scarce in Brazil. Despite the intimidating name, the basic principle of this practice is knowing how to manage resources and expenses intelligently.

There are simple things that help you save money, such as spending less than you earn, making a shopping list before going to the supermarket, creating a savings account, among other things that you can check out in the topics below.

5 tips for managing money

With the money management tips you'll see below, it's possible to achieve your goals. Just be careful with your income and expenses, know how to save, and stay focused.

These tips can also help with planning and organizing your finances. Check them out!

Create a monthly budget.

The first step to managing your money well is creating a monthly budget. To do this, you need to start by listing your net salary. Next, you need to record all your fixed expenses, that is, the bills that arrive every month, such as water, electricity, internet, rent, and others.

In addition to fixed expenses, you need to record all your spending, whether it's on food delivery, Uber, weekend outings, personal hygiene products, in short, all your expenses.

Controlling your "inflow and outflow" means you won't find yourself in a situation where you've spent a month's worth of money in a week, preventing you from going into debt and having a financial burden at the end of the month.

Avoid impulse purchases.

Without a doubt, this is one of the most treacherous actions for those who wish to control their spending. For those with a habit of impulse buying, there is no escape other than self-control.

Some ways to control these purchases include using lists. By sticking to what has already been planned, it becomes more difficult to deviate from the plan and spend more.

It's also a good idea to take some time to think before actually making the purchase.

Create an emergency fund.

Unexpected events can happen, and sometimes in unpleasant ways. Therefore, it is essential to have an emergency fund for when these unpleasant surprises occur.

Ideally, you should have the equivalent of 6 months' worth of expenses in savings. If that's not feasible for you, aim for the equivalent of 2 months.

GET MONEY FAST

CONTINUE

Make use of the sharing economy.

The sharing economy is a new phenomenon that arrived with technology. While this practice helps save money, it can also serve as a source of extra income.

There are apps and platforms that are already part of people's daily lives, and because they are so ubiquitous, people fail to see the opportunity there.

In short, the sharing economy is based on the exchange and sharing of access to products, services, and knowledge.

BlaBlaCar, Airbnb, and Waze are good examples of apps and platforms for the sharing economy.

Apps for managing money

Leaving all the financial organization to the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper, can complicate the process a bit. And we don't want complications, right?

Therefore, there are apps, some of them free, that can be great helpers at this time!

We've selected a few options for you; some include features for creating weekly, monthly, and annual budgets and display your expenses in spreadsheets and graphs so you can better visualize where your money is going.

Check out the best apps

Organize: It presents a kind of dashboard showing the user's main expenses and their respective percentages of total spending, as well as classifying expenses into categories and subcategories. The app has a free version with basic features and a paid version with more features. It is available for Android and iOS.
My Savings: It features control tools, a dream manager, charts, and reports so you can keep an eye on your money. By creating an account in the app, your financial planning is synchronized across all your devices. Also available for iOS and Android.
My Money: Great for those who need to track personal, family, or even small business cash flow. Users can view income and expenses by category, as well as control credit card spending, attach payment receipts, and import bank SMS messages.
GuiaBolso: In partnership with Santander, Itaú, Banco do Brasil, Bradesco, and HSBC banks, simply enter your account details and electronic password so that GuiaBolso can start helping you plan your monthly expenses securely.
MoneyWise: It helps the user create budgets to achieve goals and avoid going into debt. The data can be exported to a computer and imported into a spreadsheet app, allowing the user to create a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly budget. Available only for Android.