#HighIncomeSavers #BudgetingTips #PersonalFinance
Hey there fellow high income earners with a bit of a spending habit! 🌟
So, I’ve been living the high life, enjoying nights out, traveling the world, and having a blast. But I’ve come to realize that maybe I could be a bit better at saving some of that hard-earned cash. 💸
I want to hear from those of you who have turned things around and found a balance between saving and still living your best life. How did you do it? Here are a few things I’m thinking about trying:
– Tracking my expenses to see where my money is really going
– Creating a budget and sticking to it
– Finding cheaper ways to have fun, like exploring local spots instead of always jetting off to exotic destinations
What do you think? Any other tips or tricks for reigning in the spending while still enjoying life to the fullest? Let’s help each other out and level up our savings game! 🚀
Put 20% of your pay into a savings account (don’t touch it) and live within the means of what’s left.
Got paid into an account i didn’t have an app or card for. Just a basic account with an auto payment set up to transfer most of it into my everyday account, and make the rest disappear. Had that set up until i got a mortgage with an offset i want to see and now i’m terrible again.
Set up daily account. Put $1000 or whatever you please to go in automatically. Don’t change this amount, you may only save $100pf now but as your wage increases it means you will save more.
Everything else you save, if desperate use that account. Make savings account harder to access.
I get payroll to put $750 pf into spending account everything else savings which could be 3k or 10k+, I never see extra cash in account and go ohhhh let me buy …..
Salary sacrifice into super.
I sucked at saving so doing it in a way where I don’t get it helped a lot. Especially when I can use it for a house
Might sound obvious but start by focusing on your spending that is not related to going out and travelling. If you were buying a lot of lunches or ordering takeaway etc then try cut that out because it’s not directly related to socialising or travelling. Once you have minimised those if you still want to save more then you might need to be more savvy about how you have fun or travel, or do less of it. It’s a balance and a slow process.
I also try to think about if purchases are really going to make my life better. Am I going to look back in 5 years and remember them and be glad I made them.
You’re getting some good tips coming through … but what I’ll add that worked for me was having a bit of a f*ck moment.
A friend and I were on similar high incomes and we both got our properties with similar sized mortgages same time. Friend lives a generally simple life. Me on the other hand, well it was like your life. About 5 years go by, friend mentions they’ve bloody paid off their mortgage. WTF. And they managed to do it during the low interest years whereas I’d been busy living it up.
Nothing like a bit of a reality check, and a healthy dose of fear to light a fire underneath a person. So moral of the story, you need a why or a big reason that makes you want to cut back. Then all the other tips are easy to carry out because you’ll want to put your money to better use.
Start small, transfer $50 a pay into a new account (seperate bank means out of sight, out of mind) and gradually raise the amount your saving. Thats how I saved my house deposit. I had pay roll do it so I didn’t even have to think about it except when I upped the amount.
Fantastic question, OP.
Everyone else, send help! ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
Pretend it’s a loan repayment. Open up a fresh account with a different bank, bin the card, get rid of the account login details (you can access them via the walk in bank with your ID if you must), auto transfer every pay cycle
1. Earn less money
2. Have to decide between buying chicken breast or toilet paper for many months because you don’t have enough money
3. Get more money again
4. Constantly remember the sacrifices you had to make before you had more money
5. Save money so it never happens again
What is your definition of a high income earner?
Download your bank account and credit card transactions for the past 12 months. Create sensible categories and mark each transaction. Make a summary of spending in each category for each month. Reflect on whether your spending aligns with what is important to you. If saving is more important than your actions, what is less important that you can cut. Maybe it’s eating out, or shopping, or X. Then make a rough budget of how you’d like it to be different. Put it in action and check in monthly. Pro tip: It’s a good idea to bring your partner along on this journey from the beginning.
Once I found out I was expecting the arrival of our first child, I became a reformed over-spender.
Automated my savings to come straight out of my account after pay day and I love getting coffee or lunch out but just do it a bit less.
Be prepared for a lot of words but hope it helps…
I’m not a high income earner but went from a spendaholic accusing a lot of debt and now I am paying it back aggressively while still saving more than I’ve ever had before.
First you need to work out your expenses and add more than needed into that account
Eg. If rent, bills etc per month is $2500 always put in $2750-$3000. Never take money out of this account for fun, all the extra money is to cover a random expense that might be more like a higher power bill or rent increasing.
Then work out what you want to save for… if you have a goal of just save money it I’d hard to justify. Once you have an idea of what you want put a time frame on it. Eg. Save 50K in 5 years for a house. Then work out how much you’ll need to send in to achieve that. If possible add in more because one thing I find is a random event like a payslip being lower, unexpected tax bill or insurance claim yoi might have shouldn’t stop you from achieve that. But I’d you are putting in at a starter 12K+ a year the last few years will be easier to save and you’ll be able to reduce it towards the end or add to it.
Then have your emergency fund and build it as you need. I don’t have a large amount of funds in my emergency fund because I have income insurance, a stable full-time job, my car is fully paid off and I don’t own a house so I don’t really have any will expenses like water destroying my house or repairs/renovations that will effect me financially.
And then have a fun accoint. Make sure to give yourself a generous amount of money. Overspending happens usually when you just shift around your money and always prioritise spending over saving. But… if you are to tight in your fun money account I guarantee you’ll dip into your savings or expense accounts for that holiday you want or those nice shoes. Also, plan in advance. The further in advance you plan the cheaper deals you can get on travelling, consider not eating at the fanciest restaurants when travelling, stay in decent but not 5 star accommodation and cut down on your take out and eat in. Do meal preparation. I used to spend $10+ a day on snacks and then $10-$20 per day on lunch for takeaway and also dinner too.
That was losing me up to $250 per week and that was before buying groceries, fuel, clubbing, drinks etc. And last thing, check ALL your subs and cancel all but 1. You usually can’t watch all the shows on a subscription at once. I have 1 music, 1 tv/movie limit. Netflix + Spotify, then when I run out of shit to watch I cancel Netflix and get Disney+ for a month when it is on special. I get prime on the 3 months for $10 deals. Cancel Spotify and get the 3 months for price of 1 and always threaten all my bills with cancellation. I worked in saves team. Everyone gives you discounts if you know what to say “I want to change providers because of money” most can instantly apply credits, Adobe halves your sub fee. From $100 down to $40 per month for 12 months to keep you subbing.
In 2021 I’d accrued $100,000 in debt through my business as well as a car loan I foolishly took in 2018. I sold the car and cut the debt down. Now, in 2024, I only owe $31K and have $16K saved up from zero savings back in 2022 and no job. So I know that it is very achievable if you are super committed. I only earn 75K per year before tax and I salary sacrifice 5% to super on top of the 12.5% my employer sends. So my Super is now at $54,433. It’ll take me a few years from now to get a serious amount of savings amassed but I’m confident I’ll be able to buy a house in about 5 years time coming from a shit credit rating and an obsession with living paycheck to paycheck using every dollar I earnt.
Apart from doing a salary sacrifice to super have a savings account separate to your everyday account. The day after payday have an automatic transfer into savings account. Except for dire emergency you don’t touch your savings account.
You can also have another account for bills. Add up all your bills for a year like utilities, rego, rates car service etc, divide the total by number of paydays. Say it come to 250 per pay period. Have that amount auto transferred every payday and after a few months you will have money to cover all your bills.
If you use a credit card pay it off monthly.
Set up automated transfers on pay day – whatever I’m left with is what I get to spend per cycle.
Each pay goes into 13 savings accounts covering every liability, goal or unforseen event.
There is no linked card to these accounts.
Been doing this since 2018. Never have to worry about a loan for anything.
6-year new car account just matured as projected. Can now trade current 2016 model in for a ’20-’22 model.
If I don’t see it I don’t spend it, trust in the process and have patience, the rewards are worth it.
Just get a bigger mortgage or a job that forces you to travel. Or both.
Cut back on the coke, gambling, heroin and hookwes. Duh
It comes down to budgeting. You know what you take home each week. Set aside the hierarchy, obvious priority is the roof over your head and the utilities. Second you think about how much food you actually need, and plan your shop accordingly. I do my grocery shops online now so I don’t blow over $150 on shit I let go to waste. I ration out future car expenses, medical expenses, gifts, adhoc stuff in separate savings accounts through UpBank. Usually leave myself $300 a fortnight as a buffer for extra shit like take out, clothing, cosmetics, drinks after work…
If none of this works, hide money from yourself with a direct debit to an out of sight HISA. Don’t look at it. After 12 months, throw it all at your mortgage.
Auto contributions to Super before I receive my pay.
I find it works best when you have something to save for, a goal. Otherwise I feel it’s just numbers in an account that mean nothing so I spend knowing the number will be replenished
do a Pareto analysis of your expenditure in the past 3 months.
Create 10 groups – Extract your statements, itemise your stuff into the 10 groups.. Chart the costs to see where you’re spending your money. Make conscious decisions to lower that costs across certain groups. A great example of a pareto analysis I did showed me that my top 4 expenditure was take away > groceries > credit card interest > fuel.
I didn’t even know I was getting hit with credit card interest so that was an instant saving, and I realised I could spend like 40% more per week on groceries, to reduce my take away by over 50% which actually netted me like a $300/mth saving.
In saying that – you have to ‘want’ to change things and not just go out and have fun.
Having a fun money account where all the eating out and other discretionary retail spending comes from including skin care, haircuts etc.
Automated transfers to a HISA a day or so after pay day that is off limits.
Keep an eye on the predicted bills feature in the banking app to prepare for higher cost months so I’m prepared without needing to sacrifice the transfers to my HISA.
Not high income, but I save by using the fact that opal weekly cap is $25/wk concession ($50 adult).
I do all my trips on opal, and weekend go intercity for free. That solves the “travel” part of spending haha.
Stop buying bags lol.
I’ve gone from low income earner to average income earner, but never started spending more as I earned more. Just rather pay my house off, and I paid it off at 36. And bought another 4 properties by the age of 31. My lunch costs $2.50 a day, don’t go to restaurants, don’t get Uber eats or any of those other scum services, I haven’t been on a plane in my adulthood. Don’t finance cars (if you have to finance a car, you can’t afford the car). I try to keep bills low, $15 a month phone bill for example, and try to only have 1 streaming service, then swap it once I’m bored with it. And while they may seem restrictive, I’m almost completely happy with it, especially knowing I’m coming out the other end of tight savings, and won’t have to worry about money ever again, which is something most people my age will never get to say,
And now I get to have my fun.
I started using an expenses and net worth tracker like Frollo or Pocketsmith. I’ve become obsessed with watching it grow as I’ve become more aware of where my money was going. This has helped to curb my spending.