7 Money-Saving Tips to Jumpstart Your 2024 Financial Journey

2023 was a challenging year for everyone’s wallets. Fortunately, there is a reason for cautious optimism this 2024 with news that inflation is dropping¹ and interest rates may shortly fall.²

Fresh from starting from a brand new year slate, there are several financial goals to pursue in 2024 for current and aspiring money savers. We’ve rounded up seven money-saving pointers to jumpstart your savings journey and into the path of better financial health. The following tips could both safeguard and expand your existing funds significantly throughout the year.

Don’t count on a sudden miracle that you’ll get rich overnight, establish your plans for financial success. For reference, some people’s financial goals are to have enough financial security to avoid stressing about money. While others aim to save enough money to afford a dream vacation or to buy a house. 

It’s gonna take some time planning so start listing and prioritizing your financial aspirations and then create a roadmap for achieving them. A well-known goal-setting technique is the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) Criteria:

Source: Mindtools.com

Without goals to strive for, your financial journey is likely to be less exciting and aimless so start your year right by making plans today.

The road to a better financial standing is tough but fulfilling. So make sure your roadmap is realistic. To ensure that you can consistently monitor your money-saving progress, it is important to create a budget. A simple budgeting framework to try is the 50/30/20 rule³:

• 50% of your income for needs (housing, food, transportation, etc.)
• 30% of your income for wants (travel, entertainment, etc.)
• 20% of your income to savings and debt repayment (examples include creating an emergency fund or saving for retirement)

By having a budget, you’ll better understand how much you earn and spend in a specific time period. This allows you to pinpoint where you should cut your expenses. Learning how to budget, especially with little to no experience, takes time and practice but it will be worth it in the end.

One of the first steps you take when you start saving money is to build an emergency fund, especially in today’s volatile and unpredictable economy. Setting money aside for unplanned financial setbacks ensures that you will be able to recover quicker and get back on track to reaching your financial goals.

A common suggestion is to have enough cash to cover three to six months of expenses.⁴ Also, you can consider keeping your emergency money in a separate bank account. This distinguishes the money set for emergencies from those allocated for regular expenses and savings goals.

If you haven’t already, it is time to catch up with the digital age and explore different money-saving apps. These include financial goal-setting, automated saving, and expense tracker apps that can make your money-saving journey in 2024 less of a hassle. In particular, the best budgeting apps monitor your savings, investments, debts, and/or credit score.

A fad nowadays is digital consumers looking to save on their online shopping expenses by availing of digital coupons or e-coupons. These are available nowadays on a store’s website, digital newsletters, digital coupon apps, coupon sites, and browser add-ons.⁵

There’s always a chance that you could lose your main source of income and the impact can be severe to your financial health. A solution to provide yourself a safety net is to diversify your sources of income. 

A common way is to build your passive income through making investments. The income can come from your portfolio’s investment mix of individual stocks and bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds. Investments can help you accumulate wealth over time. You could boost your net worth and financial freedom by allowing your investments to grow.

If you can, find a financial accountability partner. They should be a trusted person who can provide you with the accountability and support needed to stay consistent with your money-saving habits. Having a partner to share your financial goals with gives you a sense of shared responsibility and mutual motivation. It’s a plus if your partner is well-versed in financial planning because they can offer insights, identify potential challenges, and help with budgeting and growing your money.

The financial landscape is always changing. Keeping yourself informed and updated with what’s going on in banks, financial markets, and the global economy equips you with the knowledge to make wiser financial decisions. The best ways to stay updated with all financial news happening worldwide include checking credible news sites and listening to reputable podcasts. You can start being your own financial guru by simply installing financial news apps on your smartphone to receive real-time news alerts. Just be sure to develop a consistent routine of staying informed.

Empower yourself with more financial knowledge by reading the articles found in Global One Media’s blog.

^{1  World Bank Blog. Is the great inflation scare over? The case for cautious optimism.
2  CBS News. Federal Reserve leaves interest rate unchanged, but hints at cuts for 2024.
3  NerdWallet. Budgeting 101: How to Budget Money.
4  Securian Financial. 5 steps to building an emergency fund
5  Microsoft. Understanding digital coupons and e-coupons}