'How can I find the balance between saving money and treating myself?'

Q: I want to be more committed to saving money, kaso every time dumadating yung paycheck ko, I always feel like "treating myself." Lagi kong iniisip, "deserve ko 'to." And then before I know it, halos wala na kong malagay sa savings account ko. Some months are better than others pero how do I become consistent about it and finding a balance?

***

It's normal to want to ~treat~ yourself for working hard, and this reward is different for each person. For Charm de Leon, the founder of Ready2Adult PH, hoarding, saving, or investing money is her "reward"—she actually finds it difficult to spend money, especially if it's for herself.

Charm told Cosmopolitan Philippines, "Personal finance is really about psychology. It's not just about looking at numbers in a bank account. You can design a reward system for yourself, but make sure that you save first. There's this very famous formula: When you get your income, what we usually do is, you go through your expenses and what's left is your savings. Your savings is mostly zero, negative, or maliit lang. But if you do income minus savings, tapos you budget the rest for your expenses, that way you can spend guilt free. You can even have a reward system that can be derived out of that formula."

She makes sure to stay within her limits: "Because it's like any other habit—like dieting or working out. Small increment habits that we can change—if gamifying it works for you. Doing a 52-week challenge; 365-day challenge; saving, let's say, P5, P10, or P20 every day. That really adds up during the duration of the year. And because you see the results, you get this euphoria. You get this extra push to keep going. You have to find something that works for you. There's no one size fits all."

Hear more about how to effectively save money:

[youtube:{"videoId":"479","youtubeId":"hTzvcTOeg-U", "caption":"", "contributor":"Alyza Angeles"}]

Check out Ready2Adult PH on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

Do you need career, life, love, money, or mental health advice? We're here to help you, bb. Join our Cosmo Community on Facebook, post your question—btw, you can do this anonymously now—and use the hashtag #AskACosmoCoach. 

Follow Ysa on Instagram.

[ArticleReco:{"articles":["77514","77519","77412","77322"], "widget":"More from cosmo"}]

Source: Cosmo PH