How to save money as a student in the Philippines can be overcomplicated. With a limited income, limited time, and limited options, students often don’t know where to start and how to save. Well, here’s our 3 tips on how to save money as a student in the Philippines:
1) Be Realistic about Savings
One of the best advices I could probably give to students is simply to be realistic with saving money.
Lower the expectations. Don’t expect yourself to become a millionaire or also save 90% of your allowance. At the end of the day, you’re still a student: you need experiences and you need to live life. Remember that there will be no other time in your life where you don’t have to worry about bills
Adjust to the situation first. Aside from that, remember that you shouldn’t force yourself to make money where its more practical to focus on your education. Your education (and performance within it) will still determine the bulk of your income and your ability to save over the long run. So, adjust to your budget before anything else.
Keep it simple. Don’t make your savings more complicated than it needs to be! Pick one way that you want to save then simply go with it. There’s no need to add some extra complications: in fact, the simpler the better.
Keep the future in focus. In a study, people who saw a future version of themselves are more likely to accept delayed monetary reward. The last piece of being realistic is remembering that not everything also has to be enjoyed right now. Often, people forget to prepare for their own future largely because they don’t think about it. So, keep it in mind.
2) Build the Habit, Not the Savings
One of the most important things before you become a working professional is learning to put aside money regularly from your income, but here’s the truth: most people don’t build the habit when they’re young, so they don’t carry it when they’re older.
When you’re young, one of the easiest things you can do is to start building up the habit. So, how do you build up the habit?
Decide how much of your allowance you want to put away. Make a rule to yourself to put away a certain % of your allowance. For example, you can put aside 10% of everything you earn. This ensures that even when your allowance increases or decreases, you’re still going to put aside the savings regularly.
Pay Yourself First. A common, but undoubtedly timeless piece of advice is to pay yourself first. Whenever you get your income, immediately put it in your bank account or even piggy bank. As opposed to spending first and then seeing what you can save afterwards, you should save first and then see what you can spend afterwards.
Be Consistent. What matters about habits is that they are consistent. Above all else, consistently save and put aside money — when you get any form of income, put aside at least some of it. This ensures that you’re going to set yourself up not only for your financial future, but also psychologically with your approach to money.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, but continues on the hundreds of steps after that.
3) Learn, Learn, Learn!
Education is the most important. The best investment you can make is always going to be in yourself. Education has some of the highest reliable returns financially. So, if you plan to spend your money on anything (aside from the typical enjoyment), focus it on your education above all else. This can look like online courses, but also just making sure you get to study properly.
Learn more about financial literacy. One of the things you can do for yourself over the long run is going to be learning about different financial products. For example, you can learn about things like how to invest in stocks or the different ways of saving in the Philippines.
Above all else, your learning is the equivalent to your future earning. Learning a lot (and of course, applying it) will lead to a lot of future earnings!