Having a healthy savings amount is really an important element towards one's goal of financial independence. Hence, be it saving up before investing or just saving up in general, I would always try to optimise my savings strategies on how to save and where to save it. How to save efficiently As we all know, there are two inputs to savings: our income and expenses. Unlike income where it is difficult for me to influence, it is relatively easier for me to control my expenses to increase my savings. The goal here is to track and reduce my expenses as much as possible to drive the amount I save up. To track expenses, there are generally two methods that I use which are daily and monthly trackings. Daily tracking Firstly, I use an app called 'Money Manager' to manage my daily expenses. Whenever I make a transaction, I would record it accordingly in the app. It can be quite tedious at the start but does get easier over time as the habit develops. As seen above, after
Like many others, I am no stranger to the FOMO feeling whereby there is a constant fear of missing out on opportunities in the market. However, navigating the markets can be an extremely risky endeavor if there is minimal protection. Look through any financial blogs/videos and there is a 101% chance you will come across the statement ' time in the market beats timing the market '. While its intention is good, it does not necessarily translate to impulse investing. As such, before I started investing, I came up with a simple checklist to try and protect myself. These are the three items that I felt are relatively more important to consider: Firstly, I looked at my own savings. The idea here is that one should always have a rainy day fund in case of unforeseen circumstances. To create this fund, I looked at my own expenses and liabilities to project my own 6 months fund. To illustrate, I look firstly at my own expenses, which is roughly $500 per month. With this, I forecaste