By now you are likely to be putting in the time to complete your taxes, with RRSPs perhaps being a part of your tax file this year. With the deadline for your RRSP contributions being March 1st, you may unfortunately have missed out on topping up your RRSP and thus not being able to receive as much as you can towards your tax return.
With that being said, there are many other ways you can look to boost your finances, such as finding different methods of saving some additional money this year.
If this is the case, and you have in fact missed the RRSP deadline – here are 3 other ways to save.
1) Making a Realistic Budget
In order to first attempt to try and manage your finances and in turn to save money, you will need to begin by creating a budget. Not just any budget however, this budget needs to be a realistic one. That being said, each individual must examine their own finances, in areas that include, incoming money and outgoing money.
More specifically, you need to look at how much you are earning, and the total amount of money that goes towards paying all of your bills and credit sources each month.
After doing so, you can get a better idea of how much you are spending and how much you are able to save. Here you do not want to set a goal of saving too much, if it is not realistic in comparison your overall financial position because then it will not be an effective budget. In the end, when your budget is aligned with your finances, you can set yourself up for success.
2) Cutting Back on Expenses
Moving forward, this second method also ties in nicely with your budget. During the organization of your budget, you are also able to track your specific spending patterns, and while doing so, identify two different types of expenses.
One type of expenses are of course the fixed kind. For example, your monthly expenses that will not/can not be altered. Some of these may include, your credit payments, like your mortgage, your car payments or your rent, etc.
Secondly, there are other monthly expenses that may be the kind in which you can change. For example, the amount of money you spend towards areas, such as household items, electricity, cable, internet and cell phone services, and entertainment.
This second category of expenses can then be those where you could look to cut back on. Cutting back on expenses, therefore can be a beneficial method of saving some additional money each month. Once again, examining your most recent spending patterns can shed light on which specific areas you could significantly cut back on each month, allowing you to save even more.
3) Setting Up Automatic Savings Deposits
Last but not least, if you are looking to save some additional money, perhaps even some that will go towards your retirement savings, you may then want to set up automatic deposits into a designated savings account.
There are actually various ways that making these automatic deposits can help to step up your savings. First and foremost, sometimes money gets used too quickly and we forget to transfer it to our savings. To counteract this occurrence, money will automatically be transferred to your designated savings account on the same day of each month, so you don’t even have to think about it.
Furthermore, while you may remember to transfer the money to your savings account sometimes, you may find that you miss transferring it each month, as well as not transferring the entire amount you mean to save each time. Automated payments however will transfer the money and ensure the same amount will be saved each and every month.
In the end, setting up automatic savings deposits will enable you to consistently save month after month, without fail.
When all is said and done, if you have not been able to make the highest contribution to you RRSP this year, don’t fret – there are other methods of saving the money you need. Beginning with budgeting, cutting back on expenses and then by automatically transferring money to your savings account each month, you can maximize your savings and improve your finances – even fending off debt as you go.
