Cash-strapped millionaires: Ideas on how to manage your money digitally

“That was the last drop,” you say after receiving €0.81 in loose change for that €2.19 morning coffee. You couldn’t scratch enough pennies together and now you have to deal with the consequences — jiggle, jiggle they go in your pocket. If only you would have paid by card…

It’s usually such small annoyances and inconveniences that push people over the edge. Perhaps you didn‘t have spare change to tip that nice bartender, or you couldn‘t split the café tab evenly and had the awkward dance of “Who gets the bill”.

“Next time I‘ll bring more change,” you think to yourself. The only problem is that you‘ve just committed to carrying around a huge wallet or purse with you.

In light of these precarious situations, you should be pondering the idea of going digital. Rightly so. Convenience is not the only benefit. There’s much more than meets the eye.

The following tips, however, won’t tell you the obvious ideas of how easy it is to pay with a contactless card.

Instead, this guide will seek to show newcomers the often unexplored potential of managing money online. Perhaps the old-dog will also learn a few tricks for his next trip to the digital clouds.

Schedule recurring payments

This should be standard procedure. Yet many people never set up their accounts to automatically pay for things like rent or fixed bills. Not only will this save you from late fees when you eventually forget paying, it will also remove the inconvenience from your already full list of daily chores and duties. A cappuccino break always beats the time spent worrying and paying recurring bills.

Outsource online

Your time is a valuable resource. There’s absolutely no need for you to spend your Saturday afternoon desperately trying to design your own poster or a flyer if there’s someone who can come up with a better design at a lower hourly rate.

In order to find out if you can afford to outsource, divide your month’s salary by the number of hours you’ve worked that month to get your hourly rate. If you’re far more efficient at what you do, you might find it better to carry on doing what you do best and hire a freelancer to take care of that particular task.

FinTech firms are offering foreign transactions at practically no fees, so the whole world is your potential labor pool to choose the right person.

Strategize your finances

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a freelancer with a nomadic lifestyle or settled 9-to-5 type of worker — if you want to sleep better at night, we suggest you start taking better care of your personal finances. Take notice of your expenses and get a grip of your real priorities and where your money is actually leaking.

The easiest way to do so is to go digital, sync-up your bank account to a finance-tracking application and set up a flexible budget. In addition, don’t just stash all your money in a single place.

When you receive a cheque, put away a portion of money into the Tax and bills account to cover — you guessed it — the essentials such as income tax, rent and other bills. A portion of your pay should also go into Daily expense fund that will cover your daily expenses such as food, transportation and groceries.

Sync-up your bank account to a finance-tracking application and set up a flexible budget.

Your short-term saving goals — holidays, gifts or big purchases (such as a new laptop) — should be transferred into your Short-term saving fund.

Don’t forget to also put something into the financial cushion. An Emergency fund is of utmost importance. You never know when you will need the money for an unexpected car crash, health accident or unannounced unemployment. Meanwhile, regular payments into your Retirement fund will protect your older self from poverty in dotage.

Although this system can seem complicated at first, it will absolutely improve the health of your current personal finances. For an easier journey, pick an expense-tracking application that does the work for you and experiment with the system until you are organized and comfortable with it.

We also recommend you set a date with your personal finances on the weekend and overview your next week’s expenses. Plan ahead.

Store your savings in multiple currencies

This tip benefits mostly those, who are constantly traveling and are earning their income in multiple currencies but can be applied by anyone who is a bit more financially savvy.

Although it might not seem like much, it is vital that you take into account the always-fluctuating exchange rate and inflation. The best way to guard your savings against these foes is to keep your long-term savings invested, and the cash you’ll need soon (i.e. your short-term savings) stored in different currencies.

If Euro spirals downwards, your American Dollar savings might restore the overall balance. The same could be said about British Pound and the Japanese Yen. Storing your savings in different currencies is made possible by FinTech offered products.

In summary

These are some of the tips that are only really employed by insiders. But they do get to the essence of what managing your money digitally is all about — automation and efficiency.

Furthermore, if you’re intrigued by these tips and want to instantly take advantage of them, ORCA Alliance is one of the most reliable platforms that can cover your needs. Visit here: www.orcaalliance.eu