Personal finances and the family economic situation constitute the main sources of financial stress in Spain, mainly because financial education continues to be a pending subject for many.
However, building a solid foundation for managing family finances is easier than it seems. How to achieve it?
A practice as simple as opening an Excel sheet and writing down all monthly expenses will help control the amount of money you spend each month. This allows us to identify, for example, if we pay too much for electricity or if leisure consumes too high a percentage of our income.
From here, you can create a monthly budget, establishing how much will be allocated to each expense each month. HelpMyCash experts point out that “this is the first step to organizing personal finances and consciously choosing how we spend our money.”
Saving, no matter how little, is one of the basic principles for having a healthy domestic economy and being able to overcome unforeseen future events. To do this, experts recommend setting specific savings goals, such as buying a car. In addition, they emphasize the importance of allocating a percentage of the payroll to savings as soon as the salary is received.
“To start saving, there is a key concept that must be transformed: saving is not what is left over each month, but the other way around. As soon as we receive the payroll, the ideal is to allocate a percentage to savings, another to fixed expenses and adjust our expenses to what is left over,” HelpMyCash emphasizes.
And how much should be saved? According to the 50/30/20 rule, the payroll should be distributed as follows: half for essential expenses, 30% for optional expenses and 20% for savings. However, the comparator's experts emphasize that “everyone can adjust these percentages to their possibilities. The important thing is to start saving, no matter how much.”
In an environment of high interest rates, banks offer many attractive products to grow savings, without assuming practically any risk. For example, remunerated accounts offer returns of around 2.5% APR and are backed by the Deposit Guarantee Fund, which guarantees the safety of savings as long as they do not exceed 100,000 per bank and per holder. In addition, they allow you to withdraw money at any time.
Some of the most attractive rates are found, for example, in the N26 Savings Account, which offers 2.26% APR with no maximum amount; or in the Evo Welcome Smart Account, with 2.5% APR up to 30,000 euros.
Another option to grow savings is monetary funds. These are low-risk investment funds that invest in very short-term fixed income products, such as Treasury bills, deposits or company promissory notes.
The inbestMe savings portfolio, for example, has a risk of just 1 out of 7, according to the CNMV, and offers an expected return of up to 3.25%.
When choosing a product to make your savings profitable, knowing concepts such as TIN, APR or commissions will help you understand the fine print of the services.
To obtain information, you can use the multiple sources on the internet, such as the Bank of Spain's Banking Client Portal, or comparators, such as HelpMyCash.com, which dedicate a large part of their space to explaining these key concepts and resolving doubts. that consumers may have.
Finally, it is advisable to regularly review the account and card statements. This will not only help you know the balance, but will also allow you to react quickly if you are a victim of fraud.
