Today, financial literacy is the cornerstone for anyone who wants to secure a comfortable life for themselves. This is the ability to realise, in time, that you are about to invest in a financial pyramid, and not a promising, innovative project. It is about distributing your budget and increasing it through investments. Sounds difficult, right? That is why we invited Lectera experts to help – they have created more than a dozen financial literacy courses, so they will tell you how to finally master it.
1. Budgeting
At our Lectera courses, we always advise you to plan your budget in tables. For example, use Google Sheets – it’s free and very close to the traditional Excel. If you are unfamiliar with the programme, learn the basics through YouTube – it will come in handy.
In the tables, you can set up formulas and automatically calculate how much money you spent for a given period. Record your expenses (rent, utilities) and income and segment them. This will be enough for you to understand how budgeting works.
2. Saving money
Our Lectera courses focus on creating savings, since they can be considered the first investment. We know it’s hard, but instead of buying something unnecessary, you can put money into a bank account at a minimum interest. Let it be 5% of your monthly income or even less. If you want to become financially literate, save money and learn to differentiate the importance of purchases. If you have a bank account, you can set up automatic replenishment – from each of your salaries, a certain percentage will be transferred to it. Additionally, it is better to keep the money you save in multiple currencies: traditionally, these are the euro and the dollar. Even conservative investors use such a strategy.
3. A new attitude towards spending
Sometimes it’s hard to resist impulse purchases, and we at Lectera know it well. These days, we are surrounded by billboards and marketing communications, and it can be very difficult to give up your favourite small things, such as daily coffee runs. So here is a checklist to use every time before making a purchase.
Lectera’s checklist on purchase priority
- Pause. Wait 24 hours and then see if you are as eager to buy this product or service as you were before.
- Pass the “stranger test”. Imagine that you are offered to receive a product or service that you want to buy for free, or an equivalent amount of money. If you choose money, you don’t need the product.
- Stop spending money as a reward. Treat yourself in a more budgetary way: go to a museum or read a book.
Get started on your financial literacy journey today! Create your first budget allocation plan, learn about loans and investments, watch videos about economics and marketing. You can do this at free financial literacy courses from the Lectera educational platform.