Thoughts on finances and money

This is the time of the year where all your finances are at risk. You should spend carefully and prepare for what is to come for next year. The time of the year where most of the yearly payments are due and then everyone is thinking of gifts, trips and vacations and even family time can cost significantly more just because the time of the year we are currently placed now.

_{Last old bills of the month, I tend to save the bills and coins that look good or near perfect, it breaks my heart when people do not care about their money, it just suggests how their finances look like}

I must admit that I really enjoy this part of the year and not really for the reasons most people do. Here in Costa Rica we call aguinaldo which is an extra payment every year that equals to your lats 12 salaries added and divided by 12, and that becomes your 13th salary very important for the end of the year payments, it is not free as is, because it is a percentage you are not truly getting every month and then added together for you at the end of the year to promote economy, vacations, gifts and family time.

Yearly expenses

• Car insurance
• Car taxes
• Housing taxes
• Insurance
• Gifts
• Trips or vacations
• Extra food and extra drinks
• Entertainment activities like movies
  The common thinking should be that this time of the year is the correct to fix and improve your financial situation but instead people will go and visit other countries, buy stuff on black Friday deals (more on that soon) and then spend the 13th salary on things that usually get them into a worst financial situation and not really preparing them for what is to come. I'm not saying that people should not enjoy some vacation day in a nice hotel or buy the screen/laptop/technological gadget they wanted. I'm instead suggesting to plan your expenses accordingly and hopefully do the spending in the most appropriate and smart way possible.
  For me this time of the year means more like house cleaning and specially good to get all your stuff corrected on time. I tend to do lots of savings for different things and I usually find myself deciding whether or not to proceed on the purchased I intended to do couple months ago, sometimes the answer is that the desired thing I wanted is not a high priority for me anymore, on the other hand I still have the money for the newer thing I might need now and with a higher desired than the previous item.

Not all discounts are really good deals

Specially here in Costa Rica, where most of the people try to copy some other countries buying behavior. There are not really good deals on Black Friday if your fiscal year has gone (It ends in September here) and so the real good deals are near August and September and you can even claim those purchases to reduce the taxes you will pay at the end of the year, but people instead follow the black Friday deals and get in debt and no way to claim tax reduction for those purchases and no one really seems to see that.
There are other options like the tax free zone in the Southern Pacific in Costa Rica, where you can get even 50% on purchases all year long just by applying to a form where you present your citizen id to be added to a tax exoneration list and be able to purchase stuff without taxes, this zone was created as a backup plan when the banana plantation left the are toward its move to the Caribbean leaving lots of workers without a job and the Area needed another way to sustain its activities ( I believe tourism is first source of income).

I might be dreaming

I guess this is something that everyone should see but not really do. Plan your bigger purchases just as you apply your budget for smaller items. What I usually try to do is to open some saving plans for next year payments so when they are due to pay I will have the money plus some interest that will go towards funding some other things. I know everyone could possibly do that, it is hard to do at the beginning but is doable once you get into the healthy habit of reducing your expenses, plan the expenses and save something for when things are not right. I often find my self short on cash to spend but after few situations I've been more than happy that I have not cash handy in the first place as I could spend it without really needing to do so. I try to keep an emergency fund and as some financial advisers suggest keep that fund accessible but to to easy to access as you might be tempted to use it on things that are not really an emergency.

Getting out of the credit card rat race

It was really hard to do for me, cutting the credit card (without owning money) was something that was scary first and then funny. I was lucky not to own money to the credit card issuer and so I was just a waiting line and maybe 1 hour and few attempts to keep it with better conditions away of getting rid of it. They really try hard to keep you there, they might even double your rewards, increase discounts and whatever miles program they use will be extended, increase and miles will be given for free. And if you are asking why? It is not for your security and financial stability, you are cutting pretty much their earnings and business. Keep it up! you are one step ahead of many towards your financial freedom. But with that decision there might be a few times where you might feel scared, like myself booking flights, hotel reservations and even renting a car gets way too complicated without a credit card, but once you get used to: show them the money you will get easier through those obstacles and trust me not many can actually show them the money because most do not really have it.
Save money without having the credit card gets a higher priority than before because you will not be tempted to use it when you want, things that you want and are not on your budget should be delayed and bought at a later time, benefits like tasa 0 which is a 0 interest payment system implemented on your credit card to divide a big purchase in 3,6 or 12 months payments without paying interest and is directly charged on your credit card, but again you could of pay with cash and get a discount or even negotiate the price even the freedom to just walk away and see what options you have is a great feeling.

So why is that hard that people save money, plan their spending

Instant gratification, everyone wants everything now and without too much effort. That is the answer, why are people not saving? Because they know they do not really need to do it to get things. Why savings rate increases in economic depressed times? Because they value the benefit of freedom more than getting things out of a very bad credit terms. So, why do steemians leave the platform? Are they really just here because of the instant gratification earning crypto gives them? or maybe they do not want to put too much effort to earn something? Maybe they just want to be whales by doing nothing? And don't get me wrong, I've been there, I've had pain with the lack of interactions I've received on my posts (now that I'm even trying harder), engagement is too low nowadays but I'm sure it will pay off when things get better. But why new steemians requests support when they start, or those who left want the support levels back as prior leaving versus those that stayed and truly tried hard to keep posting, engaged in threads and support each other. I really feel that everything comes to the same problem, people want everything now, without too much effort and with the maximum benefits possible.

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@raserrano - Developer

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