Pay yourself first – Easier said than done! So many of us wish we could be saving, but then payday comes, we pay our accounts, buy groceries, debit orders go through, and if there’s a bit left we invariably spent on entertainment and treats.
Sound familiar? … and then payday comes again, and the cycle repeats itself…
The trick to paying yourself first is to build your spending around your savings and not the other way around. Turn your budget on its head.
With traditional budgeting, you start by listing your expenses, prioritising those that are fixed and then you move down until you reach those that are irregular and less important such as entertainment and luxuries.
Some people may even follow a 50/30/20 approach, where 50% is allocated to necessities, 30% to wants, and 20% to saving and debt repayments. I personally find this too rigid as we all live different lives and there is never a one size fits all.
Steps to budgeting the “pay yourself first” way
- Know what’s coming in
List your income (after tax) along with any other income you may receive, such as maintenance or side hustle income.
- Get a realistic picture of what you’re spending
There is no point in trying to budget if you don’t know what you’re actually spending, particularly on variable items such as petrol, clothing, or groceries. You may think, for example, that you spend R5,000 a month on groceries, but in fact, it’s much more if you add up all the stops on the way home from work. Scrutinise your bank and credit card statements for the past month to get a true picture.
- Identify your savings goals
Write down your goals and how much you wish to allocate to each goal. An emergency fund and saving for retirement should be your most important goals, followed by other goals such as a holiday, home repairs, or a new car. You may also include saving for your children’s education. Let’s say you bring home R20,000 a month. Your goals could be:
- Emergency fund: R500 a month
- Retirement fund: R1000 a month
- Children education: R300 a month
That’s R1,800 a month that you will set aside for saving. You have R18,200 to fund the rest of your expenses.
- Rebalance if needed
Hopefully, you have enough money coming in to cover your fixed expenses as well as your savings goals. If not, you will have to rework the numbers to balance your budget. The information which you gathered in step 1 becomes crucial – you don’t want to end up overspending because you miscalculated. If you need to generate more income, consider a side hustle, if you don’t already have one.
- Put your money to work
Keep each goal in a separate bank or investment account, so you can keep track. Set up debit orders for each goal. For long-term goals such as retirement or children’s education, invest in a retirement annuity or unit trust fund. Get professional advice around this. For your shorter-term goals, use savings pockets if your bank offers them, and name them (e.g. Holiday Fund, or Emergency Fund).
If your bank doesn’t offer separate savings pockets, open a new bank account for each goal, but it’s cheaper if your bank offers multiple pockets (such as Capitec with four extra savings pockets) as they only charge one service fee across the pockets.
FNB also has a nifty facility in that every time you swipe your debit card, the amount is rounded up to the nearest Rand, and this money is transferred into a savings pocket. It’s an easy way to start building up an emergency fund without any pain! You can also elect to top up the savings account with an extra R2, R5, R10, R20, or R50 every time you swipe.
This system is really easy to use and implement and you don’t have to stress or feel guilty because you are not saving every month. It’s all about financial balance – easy to achieve if you just pay yourself first!
This article was written by Sylvia Walker, financial planner, speaker and author of smartwoman. www.sylviawalker.co.za
Gents, do you ‘pay yourself first’? Have you learnt any new tips above?
Comment below and let us know
Never too late to get good money management skills! Nice advise… Thanks!
Worth a shot,will try these tips…but it really aint easy
This article really helped me. Thank you so much
very important when it comes to saving if you pay yourself first.
Will incentivise you to save
Wow this really me but still i fail to budget i have tried so many ways to but haybantase andikwazi shame seyade yabalisiko .
Never too late to get good money management skills! Nice advise… Thanks!
Ok I learnt something on this, I gues it’s never too late to start saving.
Really got me thinking because I can be quite aggressive with savings but as expected and required but I think it helped me to put some things into perspective.
Thank you so much for this article. It really helped me on identifying my saving goals. Once again thank you
This is quite an insightful read. I love the saving hacks.