We have all been there.

We are happy when we receive our first paycheck. But when we are near the end of the month, we always wonder where all our savings went. Surely it does not “magically disappear”, isn’t it?

Or the moment when one of your friends with similar income level announce that he / she is able to make a downpayment for their HDB unit, while you are still struggling to make ends meet.

You might wonder, you might curse the air or question everything about yourself at that time. But one thing for sure, it all comes down to the concept of money.

Here are several tips that you can take away on how you can say good-bye to these situations. But it will require some works from your side.

1. Money is merely a tool, the owner is the one responsible for ALL – Think of a weapon (for instance gun). The gun itself is not dangerous. But the person who hold it that choose to shoot is the dangerous one. And the choice of saving versus spending of the money is ultimately decided by you (the owner).
2. Not pay your credit card on time – it is already bad enough to buy something with the money you don’t have. But not paying in time those purchases and slapped with a sky-high interest is worse. (If you are buying things that save you money or make you money with credit card, that’s another story altogether).
3. Don’t make a budget – I always wonder why it is so hard for people to make a budget and stick to it. A simple calculation of what you want, what you can do now and what you spend is a very good indication of your financial forecasting. You definitely wouldn’t want that money of yours to “disappear” without you knowing where you have spent it.
4. Didn’t cancel your subscription – Many businesses will have this 30 days money back guarantee or 30 days trial period of things you use. And 30 days is not a long period. By the time 30 days come, you will be amazed on how fast that payment will crawl into your account and how lazy it is for you to cancel it (most people usually will try to cancel at the 29th days, but somehow forget it until 31st day. Amazing).
5. Not having emergency funds – The emergency fund is like your umbrella for bad periods. The company lay you off? Accident happen? Emergency situation arise? Don’t worry. Now that you have your emergency funds, you can (at least) reduce your stress level not to hit depression mark. We recommend that you have a separate saving account that worth 6 times your salary. Better safe than sorry right?
6. Overspending on things to show off – We recognise that buying premium stuff is personal stuff. Yes, it is your money and you have the right of doing whatever you want with it. But it is proven so many times that most people will regret this when bad things happen.

Hopefully, you learn something from these finance lessons. And be wise with your money okay?