Engineer's Finance

I was wondering is it possible to save money with least effort. Generally for me, savings become the last option once the paycheck hits my account. I don’t think much about savings. The priority of savings is generally last or somewhere close to last. It is not a good sign and I know that. I was wondering if at all I decide to change the situation and make savings as an important priority then what could be done and it flashed to me that I consider savings as an expense and which is mandatory. I do spend the money that I earn, I thought every week I fill petrol for my bike, it is necessary similarly I will deposit some amount of money in the savings account thinking that it is necessary.

Generally once I get the pay, I start paying off my bills in the following order. Firstly, I pay my telephone and internet bill, then my phone bill, then my credit card bill and lastly some money for miscellaneous errands. I mostly buy goods with the credit card so that I can have a look at my expenditure. The problem with the money is that it is difficult to track, i.e. I have to manually write it down some where clearly so that I can recollect it at a later stage. It is not difficult to track it but the pains of book keeping are not something I would enjoy doing. I did try to manually keep an account of every rupee I used to spend but that did not hold my interests for a long time.

Expenditure is always there and savings was just about there. I have really worked hard to save up money. It is not easy as I used to think. When I was not aware of the funky gadgets, I never had the urge to own them, now that I know those things exist; the urge to buy them is more than saving money.  I thought over it and decided that I will make automatic payments to my savings account from my salary account.

The first thing that I do is now, I transfer 10% of my salary to a savings account automatically and run the show with rest of the money that I have. I have cut down on my expenses. I don’t buy stuff with just an impulse. I think over it and decide whether is it really required and if I get the answer more than once and the decision holds good for more than a week, I make the purchase else it will be in my wanted list which is just a list that I am maintaining so that I can buy stuff when I have loads of cash at my disposal. I know for that I have to progress a long way but I can tell you with confidence that I am in the right direction, I may require more time than needed for an average person but surely I will be there (with loads of cash at my disposal).