Tips for Saving Money for Trading
How much money do you have in your trading account right now? $100? $200? $500? The majority of binary options traders are trading on a shoestring budget. That is one of the reasons that binary options have become so popular over recent years. The entry barriers are low, and you can get started with only a few hundred dollars. Trading on a shoestring budget imposes a number of challenges though. You profit very slowly, which is a struggle all in itself. And then there is the struggle to hold onto your patience. When you wish you were profiting more quickly, and when you really need the money, it can be difficult to restrain yourself from making bad trading decisions.
That is why it is necessary to learn how to save up money in your day-to-day life for trading. You definitely do not want to be withdrawing regularly from your trading account to pay your bills. Optimally, you should be putting money in your trading account each trade—not to make up for losses in your account, but simply to grow it with your savings. Trading allows you to invest your savings. If you do a good job of it, you can compound your savings exponentially with binary options trading. Read these warnings before jumping in.
How do you save money, though, when you are already struggling to make ends meet? Following is a list of basic suggestions for living on a tight budget. You may already be an expert at doing this, but every day, billions of people spend money they do not have to, even though they are already struggling. See if you can improve your financial life through any of these simple suggestions.
- Keep a strict budget and save receipts.
- Regularly check your progress.
- Do not deal with a bank that does not respect you.
- Avoid impulse buys.
- Pay your credit card off in full each month.
- Ask companies for discounts.
- Cook your own food.
- Shop around for the best gas prices.
- Do not waste money on unnecessary utilities.
- Buy clothing and household items secondhand.
- Keep a strict budget and save receipts.
It is amazing how many people neglect to do this. This is probably because firstly, it is a lot of work, and secondly, it can be discouraging when you are not meeting your goals and you have to see that on paper. If you do not save your receipts and log your expenditures, however, you have no idea where your money is going each month. And if you do not understand your own expenses, there is no way you can save money.
Setting a budget and tracking your expenses is all about keeping track of your energy. Money is energy once removed. It is how we measure the energy we put into our work, and the value our work is given. How you spend your money tells you how you value your own time. If you truly value the time you spend in the office each day (which is generally a sacrifice), you will take the time to track what you do with the money you are paid. You will do your best to save up everything you can so that you can spend that money on something truly important to you, like trading. It is hard work at first, but you will get used to it, and within a couple of months, you will be able to run the numbers very quickly.
- Regularly check your progress.
It is important to “check in” with your budgeting several times a month. You should avoid becoming obsessive about it, but it is a great idea to routinely measure your progress. Find out how much you have spent, what you have spent it on, how much you have saved, and how much you can project yourself saving by the end of the month. See if you are still on target to your savings goals halfway through the month, and if you need to adjust your spending behavior in any way to meet your goals. Knowledge is power, and nowhere is that more true than when it comes to how you spend your own money.
- Do not deal with a bank that does not respect you.
How much money have you lost to bank fees this past year? Many bank customers pay hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees, minimum threshold fees, maintenance fees, and more each year. Banks are often vague about their terms, and may even charge customers for their own mistakes. If your bank charges you with fees left and right, and does not provide you with the highest caliber of customer service, it is time to find a new bank. Imagine if you saved all those fees up and invested them in a trading account!
- Avoid impulse buys.
We are all tempted by impulse buys now and again. Sometimes it is a $5 latte at the coffee shop, other times it may be a $100 designer top. Whatever it is that tempts you, think carefully about whether you really need it. It is wise to budget a certain amount of money for impulse buys and extras each month. That way you can still make some smaller impulse buys without driving yourself crazy. But for more expensive items, it is best to deliberate for 24 hours. Would you rather have that $100 top, or would you rather put $100 in your binary options account?
- Pay your credit card off in full each month.
Do what you can to catch up on your credit card bills. The more you allow your bills to stack up unpaid, the more money you lose in interest, which is exactly what credit card companies are counting on. They want you to pay them that money. Shouldn’t you value your own money more than they do? Figure out how much you paid in credit card interest last year, and now think about how much money you could have made if you had been trading that money instead. Click here to get out of debt.
- Ask companies for discounts.
If you pay a lot for your utilities bills each month, consider asking your providers whether any low income deals are available. Sometimes phone and internet companies and cable providers will cut you a break if you ask nicely. If not, you lose nothing but a few minutes of your time. Never be afraid to ask customer service people if there is anything that could help you save money. You may be surprised how often they jump to help you, simply because you asked.
- Cook your own food.
See if you can limit times you eat out to once a week, and cook the rest of your food yourself. Bring your own lunch to work and heat it up in the microwave. Or just snack on carrots and apples and other snacks throughout the day that you do not need to heat up. Cook soups, stews, casseroles, and other dishes at home in the evenings which provide you with days of food on a relatively low budget.
- Shop around for the best gas prices.
Do you always head to the closest gas station, because it is convenient? Oftentimes you can get a better deal on gasoline if you just shop around a bit until you find lower prices. You also can save money on gas by limiting your car trips to those which are really necessary. Try to combine shopping trips so that you can save money on gas each month.
- Do not waste money on unnecessary utilities.
Do you really need 500 cable channels? And do you really need 500 phone minutes every month? Do you need to heat your whole house, or can you just use a space heater? Do you really need to run your air conditioner when you are not even at home? A lot of us pay for utilities which we do not really need. Cut these unnecessary expenses and watch your savings grow.
- Buy clothing and household items secondhand.
A lot of perfectly good clothing ends up in thrift stores every day, much of it hardly worn. You can even snag some pretty amazing deals on designer clothing this way. Instead of paying $50 for a shirt, you can pay $5. You may also find a lot of useful household items (especially kitchenware) at secondhand shops.
By taking all of these steps, you can save money every month. Depending on your financial situation, it may not be a lot, but at least it will be something. And you may very well discover as you go along that there are other areas where you can save money as well. Learning how to save is like learning anything else. There is a curve, and you will probably struggle at the beginning of it, but as you start saving, you will come up with more and more innovative ways to save even more.
Beyond the obvious, there is another advantage of saving up money when it comes to trading binary options. Yes, you will be building up your trading account with every dollar that you save, but you will also be developing self discipline and sound money management principles in your daily life. Your lifestyle makes a difference, because those same qualities will help you to trade the money you do have more responsibly. Believe it or not, you have a better shot at becoming a professional trader if you are starting out with $200 and the right attitude than you would if you were starting out with $20,000 and the wrong one. So save up money, learn how to manage what you do have, and aim for success!