11 Sep 2022 | 6 mins
Overview

Sometimes getting money tips can feel a little like getting fitness advice from your sports captain - their idea of ‘fun’ can be a little different from the average person. With that in mind, we’ve consulted with our resident team of people who feel physically ill when they look at an Excel spreadsheet to give you these hot tips on making managing your money as fun as possible.

 

1. Get visual!

Looking at a table or a bunch of rows with transaction records might be fun for some, but if you’re reading this article, chances are that kind of thing would send you to sleep faster than the best ASMR vid. There are some great tools out there that can help you take a look at where your money’s going and how it’s growing.

You don't have to become an Excel whiz to make yourself some nice graphs. Money Brilliant uses AI technology to categorise your purchases for you, and shows you visual reminders of things like your everyday budgets, spending categories and heaps more!


2. Make sure you treat yourself from time to time

If you try and live like some kind of monk to save up money, you’re probably going to feel pretty miserable, and you put yourself at risk of getting fed up with it and spending all those hard-earned savings on something pretty average.

Getting better at spending and saving money isn’t about an all-or-nothing approach. It’s about making lots of small choices over time to help you feel in control of your finances. Put a little money aside for spending however you like it - whether that’s on yourself, on your friends and family, or even donating to a cause you care a lot about.

3. Make a vision board for your goal

This tip is less of a manifesting, The Secret type thing, than it is more of a motivation type of thing. Elite sports stars often talk about something called visualisation that they use when they’re preparing for a big event. When they’re in the gym putting in the hard yards, they think about what it’s going to be like to step onto the podium, to hear the roar of the crowds and feel that medal hanging around their neck.

While your goals might be slightly less ambitious than a gold medal at the next Olympics, you can use the same technique to help you save. When you’re on that grind, imagine how good your life’s gonna be when you buy your first car, go on holidays, or even just don’t have the stress of those overdue bills.

4. Get your mates involved for some friendly competition

Do you remember doing those fundraiser challenges at school where your classes would compete with each other to raise the most money or collect the most cans? Use your competitive streak to your advantage by seeing if you’ve got some mates who have similar savings goals to you, and set up some kind of prize for being the best saver.
It’s probably best for this one that the prize isn’t too expensive, or you might just undo all of your hard work!

5. Bribe yourself to do your least favourite money tasks

Look - sometimes you just need to sweeten the deal a little for yourself when it comes to working in those good habits. Think about some things you can do during or after your money-managing activities to get that reward centre in your brain firing off. Maybe it’s listening to your favourite hype-up songs while you look through your transaction accounts, or taking your bike out for a ride once you’re done researching side hustles.
You can even work in a little bit of retail therapy if that’s what you respond to best. Look at it this way. Rewarding yourself with a $5 treat after saving $20 on something else still means you’ve squirrelled away $15 to put towards your goals that you wouldn’t have otherwise!

6. A goal by any other name

Did you know that you can change your account names? It might seem like a pretty small feature, but if you’re planning on saving up for one big thing, it could be a great shout. Let’s say you’re saving up for a big trip using a savings account. Why not change the name of that account to something like ‘Europe 2023’? That way every time you’re moving money in, you can see your holiday funds going up in real time.

Having dedicated accounts for different purposes can also help you out if you have a few different things you’re saving for. You could have one account for your emergency fund, another for treating yourself and a third one for saving up for a deposit on a new home.

7. Take it out of mind entirely

If all of these other options feel a little too high-effort, why not let your bank do the hard work for you? Mobile banking apps like Westpac’s have a few different tricks up their sleeve to help you automate your savings plan.

The biggest one is automatic transactions, which you can schedule ahead of time to move your money between your accounts. You could use this to automatically move some of your paycheck straight into savings, leaving the rest for you to spend however you want!

Another great feature is round-ups, which gives you the option to round up any transaction you make to the nearest dollar and transfer the extra cents into your savings.

Hopefully, a few of these tips just might help you hit your savings goals - but if you want to take a bit of a deeper dive, we’ve got just the right thing for you. We’ve teamed up with our mates at Westpac to bring you an easy-breezy, super-short course all about how to up your game when it comes to saving and spending money. Take a look-see over here!

The following content has been created by Year 13 in conjunction with Westpac as part of a paid partnership. The information is general advice only, does not take into account your personal circumstances and you should do your own research and seek advice before acting on this content.