Dear readers, the cost of living here has risen noteworthily. Just as I thought that the increasing prices of the daily food and drinks outside have seem to stabilise, I was shocked at just how my request of humble food dishes for a mixed vegetable rice, in recent days, has seemed to increase by around 50 cents or more? And also, it has now seem to be acceptable that for every $100 spent for better food in cafes and restaurants on weekends, around $10 more will go into service charges and the 8% GST.
It does seem demoralising for savers as for every $1 saved through say a deliberate choice to forego a drink during meals outside, much more can be spent occasionally, like the paying of GST and service charges for meals at cafes and restaurants, as I have described earlier.
In this post, let me share three ways to beat the high cost of living and inflation here.
First of All, SAVE DILIGENTLY
And it is no use when I just mention the word SAVE.
To implement SAVE, one must be able to implement a system to track where each and every dollar and cent goes to on a daily basis. If we are not able to track something, how are we going to measure just how much we save at the end of every month and how much has gone to unnecessarily expenses?
I have been using a simple excel spreadsheet for decades to track the inflows and outflows of my monies with a description tagged to every dollar and cent I save. And not only that, with the excel, I am able to find out the savings ratio (ratio of my income saved) on a monthly basis. It is precisely due to my tracking via the simple excel that I realise I have been spending a fair bit of monies on TOTO year-to-date and I have decided to cut down expenses in this area.
With the internet, there exists a gamut of monies tracking tool and you can also choose one that fits you the best.
Second of All, INVEST WISELY
I cannot underscore this point more. Like many investors, I have lost quite a significant amount of monies in my earlier part of investing journey. It pained my heart as hard-earned monies were gone just so easily through unwise investment. Hence, always invest wisely.
Third of All, PROTECT YOUR MONEY
The final point is to protect your monies. In these current times, it is not just unwise investments but we must guard ourselves against unsolicited calls and contacts.
To sum it all, if I can put it simply, to beat high cost of inflation and cost of living, one can choose much to simplify one’s life. Spend monies on needs, cut down on wants. Always have a discerning mind to where your monies will go to for investments or when being solicited.