ACCOUNTANT EXPLAINS: 10 ways you should be saving in 2023

• Hi everyone, welcome back to the channel.
• In this video I'm sharing with you, 10 things you can do to keep more of what you make doing.
• These 10 things, of which most of them take less than five minutes, has left me with so much more money left over every month without sacrificing on my quality of life.
• So let's get into what they are.

Hi everyone, welcome back to the channel. In this video I'm sharing with you, 10 things you can do to keep more of what you make doing. These 10 things, of which most of them take less than five minutes, has left me with so much more money left over every month without sacrificing on my quality of life. So let's get into what they are.

Number one: Switching bank account.
This is such an obvious one, but so few people do it. By opening a high-interest bank account you could earn almost 10 times the national average of a basic current account. Many online or app-only accounts offer even higher rates because they have lower overheads.

To make the most of your money, put your emergency fund and your income straight into a high-interest savings account that's easily accessible. And then for your long-term saving goals that you don't need to access, at least for the next year or two, consider putting that into a fixed-rate account that typically offers even higher interest rates.

There is however an exception to this rule where switching to a high-interest savings account might actually make you worse off. And I'll go into that in a bit more detail later in this video.

Number two: Reshuffle your energy consumption.
The government has just extended the energy price guarantee for a further three months, but right now energy bills are one of the highest fixed expenses for the majority of us, so this is a place where you can really make some changes.

Something I saw recommended was to turn your thermostat down by one degree. This sounds ridiculous, but the World Health Organization suggests that 18 degrees is the ideal temperature for healthy adults. By turning your thermostat down by one degree you can save between 10 to 15% of your heating bill.

Another thing you can change which will save you the most amount of money with your energy bills according to the Energy Saving Trust is to proof your windows and doors.

The third thing that I've done which has been the highest return on my time investment is measuring where my money is going. Most of the spending we do is done on autopilot, but you'll be surprised at how much you can actually save just by knowing what is coming in and out of your account.

Research shows that the most effective way to do this is instead of using a monthly tracker where you will leave out a lot of the one-offs, to instead use a yearly tracker. So spend a day mapping out your ingo and outgoings over a year and then as you go through your tracker, ask yourself three questions:

1. Can I pay less and get that same thing somewhere else?
2. Do I need it?
3. If I do need it, can I live with less of it?

You can use any yearly tracker. You can create your own. If you want to use the same one that I use, I have a link to that in my bio.

The fourth thing to do is turn off the dripping taps.
If there was a dripping tap in your home, you probably wouldn't think anything of it. You wouldn't even think it's that annoying. But over time it will accumulate and a lot of water will be wasted. The same thing applies to your finances.

You probably have small things that are slowly picking away at your finances and you want to turn them off. This means subscriptions for reoccurring payments for things that aren't a necessity, like beauty subscriptions, Amazon Prime, and Save subscriptions.

When you set these subscriptions up to be automatic, you will find that you're probably spending more money on them than if you instead paid for that service every time you used it.

The fifth thing is paying off your high-interest debt.
In the majority of cases, you want to do this before you save money and before you try to switch to any high-interest savings account, which I spoke about earlier.

Put simply, when you save money, you're actually lending your cash to the bank for it to lend on to other people. The difference between that rate in which it borrows money from you, which is a savings rate, and the rate it then charges to other people, which is their borrowing rate, is the bank's profit.

So on the whole, it always costs more to borrow than you can earn by saving, which is why you want to focus on paying off your debt before you focus on saving. For example, if you have $1,000 of credit card debt at 22% interest, that is costing you $220 in interest over a year.

Now, say instead of paying that off, you decide to save, you save that $1,000 in a high-interest account paying 3%. Then you're earning $30 in interest over the year, so you're essentially $190 worse off. Debts usually cost more than savings earn.

The sixth thing is maintenance before replacement.
The moment something looks a bit outdated or doesn't work as efficiently, we convince ourselves that we need to get the new upgraded version instead of first seeing if it can be fixed or if a bit of maintenance can instead get the job done.

One of the ways I make sure my Mac lasts as long as possible and stays working as fast as it did on day one is by using an app called CleanMyMac, who are sponsoring this video. CleanMyMac has millions of users in 185 countries and is notarized by Apple.

One of the app's most popular features, and my favorite, is the Smart Scan. This is a tool for Mac optimization, so it essentially does three jobs with one button: clean up, protect, and speed up. All of this takes a couple of seconds.

The new feature of the app also has a redesigned menu. It's a little dashboard with informative monitors about every aspect of your Mac performance: what's your battery temperature, how much space is left, and what's the speed of the Internet connection? It tells you everything. It's also super user-friendly, which is exactly what someone like me needs.

If you do want to give it a go before you pay for a new laptop altogether, then you can get a free 7-day trial. Use the link in my bio.

The seventh thing is avoid brand loyalty, except if it affects utility.
This point is especially relevant when it comes to non-essential items, and in these cases, the brand name often represents a status symbol rather than the actual value or benefit of it.

So before I buy something that is more expensive than the average price of that product, I ask myself: what am I paying the premium for? Is it for the convenience, for efficiency, or is it just for the perceived value of the brand?

For example, I'd rather spend $50 on a good quality jumper than $500 on the same quality jumper just because it has a specific brand on it, because it still does what it's meant to do. But I will still splurge on a MacBook because for me I'm paying for the ease of use, the editing software, and the performance.

Number eight: Autosave.
How often have you said, "I'm going to save $100 next month," and then next month comes around and you either forgot you said that or you convince yourself that you don't actually need to and you'd rather spend it on something else that you don't even need?

A way to stop this from happening is by setting up the right systems to make the process of saving ultimately take care of itself. I have my account set up so that at the start of the month, a portion of my money is moved from my current account to my long-term savings account and then another portion to my investment account.

The reason I automate this is because it removes any obstacles that get in the way of saving money. And because all of this is happening in the background of your life, it's almost like it was never even there in the first place.

Number nine is to remember the phrase: buyer once, cry once. It's better to invest in a high-quality product than buying a cheaper and lower-quality product that you'll need to replace sooner and more often.

Even though the first option might seem more expensive upfront, it can actually save you more money in the long run. This principle applies to almost everything: household appliances, furniture, clothing. By investing in high-quality items that last longer, you can avoid having to replace them as frequently and ultimately get better value for your money.

The tenth thing you can do is cut back on your bills.
The vast majority of people are overpaying on their bills, especially on things like their car insurance and their phone bill. Price comparison websites allow you to compare the prices of different providers for a particular service so you can quickly see which providers are offering the best deals and prices.

This can help you decide whether you want to switch providers and use one that's cheaper or use that information to negotiate a better deal with your existing provider. Most providers will offer discounts or other incentives to keep your business, so it's always worth asking.

Finally, number eleven, which is a bit of a bonus point here, is to define your lifestyle. If you take some time to carve out what is important to you, what your big goals are, and what you're saving for, it makes it so much easier to ruthlessly cut costs everywhere else.

People think that if all you do is save, you must be miserable and that you’re forgetting to live your life to the fullest. But that is definitely not the case. Living below your means and saving for peace of mind or to invest isn't about deprivation; it's about prioritization.

The whole point of this is to give you optionality and choices, not the other way around. It's about spending on things that matter to you and really cutting down on things that don't really make a difference.

Those are some of my favorite tips. If you have any others that have worked for you, I'd love to hear what they are. If you want more ideas on things that I no longer buy, then I have a video on that which you may also enjoy.

Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already and I hope to see you in my next video.