Managing Your Money

Everyone knows that spending the money you have is easy, but saving the money you have can be hard. The trick is to learn how to manage it. Managing your money can be harder for someone with mood swings. When your manic you tend to buy a lot more than you need or even want, and when your depressed you may not spend anything at all. Spending or saving money can also be a compulsion for some people. Like most teens I like to spend the money I make, but I also know that I should put some into savings. Here’s a few tips I’ve found worked (most of the time anyway) 1. Put a certain amount in savings every time I put one third of my paycheck into savings every time. That way I’ll have a steady stream of income and at the same time a steady stream of savings. The same thing works for allowances. Put aside a certain amount every time, even if it’s just 50 cents, and you’ll be surprised how fast it adds up. 2. Only carry small bills If you don’t want to spend all your money at once leave most of it home, and only carry however much you feel is ok to spend. And no that doesn’t mean leave 15 and carry 50. That means carry 15 and leave 50. If you find something you absolutely have to buy and you don’t have enough money remember you can always come back later. That also allows you enough time to think about if you actually do want/need/can’t live without it, or if you just thought you did at the time. That’s a trick that helped me when I started buying a whole bunch of stuff I thought I needed/wanted at the time but later figured out I didn’t. 3. Bargain Buy When you look for bargains on stuff you want to buy you kill two birds with one stone. You get what you want, and you save money. But bargains are a two edged sword. They’re great for saving you money on something, but they also tend to make you want to buy something just because it’s on sale. When I first started paying more attention to when sale’s were going on I was excited at all the money I thought I could be saving, and I did save money. But what I found is that I actually spent more than I originally intended to because I bought so much stuff just because it was on sale. Even though it’s on sale it still costs something and If you get a lot of stuff on sale it can still be expensive. 4. Find What Works for You All of these things work for me but they may or may not work for you. If they do great, but if they don't than my next suggestion is to sit down (or stand up) and think about how you usually spend your money and what you can do to manage it better. Just doing that is a good thing, and I guarantee it will help you see things a little differently, and remember to actually put into practice what you say you’re going to in your head. There’s no point to figuring out how to manage your money if you don’t put it into practice. That’s my advice take it or leave it, and I really hope you take it. (My feelings would be very hurt if you didn’t at least try!)