How to incorporate automatic rules into your day-to-day finances

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If you close your eyes, you can still see it: a sharp blow and... CRACK! Your piggy bank explodes in a thousand pieces. Inside, your coins. Three, four, five. So many that, at first, they seem countless. There may even be one or two loose bills. Because everything adds up. Every expense on a whim that you were able to dodge. And that succession of small, although diligent, saving gestures. Now, your booty is covering the table, like a freshly discovered treasure.

Saving in adult life is not too different from what you did during childhood. The secret is being patient, disciplined and methodical. But does it have to be so difficult? Does it have to feel so uphill? Fortunately, not. Nowadays, technological advances provide us with access to a series of simple tools that try to make the task of saving much less burdensome.

Science has shown that the human brain tends to prioritize very short-term rewards. However, this propensity to immediate satisfaction can sometimes end up compromising our financial health. Therefore, in order to nurture saving, it becomes essential to take on all those small daily habits that, over time, will have a significant impact on our pockets.

The Rounding Off Rule is a very practical microsavings tool if you are a BBVA customer: whenever you make a purchase whose total price in euros is not a whole number, the change in cents will be transferred, at your choice, to your savings account or used as a contribution to your BBVA pension plan or investment fund.

This latter option is available only in the BBVA app. In the first case, for example, if you pay €6.50 for a tee-shirt, the difference between that amount and €7 (i.e. 50 cents) will be transferred to your savings account.

Likewise, the BBVA Goals Account can also help you maximize your saving capacity. If you have not heard of it, it is very straightforward: open your Goals Account and set a goal; that is, you decide how much you want to save and in how much time you would like to achieve this figure.

Among the many advantages of the Goals Account, one worth highlighting is that you can open up to five different goals at once, as it offers the option of scheduling regular contributions that help you increase your saved amount. In addition, this type of bank account has no administration or maintenance fees, and there is no cost for online transfers within the European Economic Area.

Another advantage of the Goals Account lies in its simplicity: you only have to make transfers from your BBVA associated account and assign each of them their savings goal. And, of course, your savings will always be available whenever you need them, with no fees or penalties.

When incorporating automatic rules to manage your day-to-day, you should never lose sight of one of the essential pillars of these saving tips: the maxim "pay yourself first" or, in other words, consider savings as a mandatory and unavoidable fixed expense.

Usually, when people obtain their income, they tend to spend it first on their needs and desires, and then save whatever remains, if anything is left, at the end of the month. The "pay yourself first" rule aims to reverse this idea and, as a result, reverse the order of expenses.

Paying yourself first involves that, as soon as you receive income, you destine a fixed amount to savings, and then you manage the rest of your finances. Obviously, you should never save an amount that could compromise the rest of your finances.

That is, never try to save more or faster than what is advisable. But if you apply the "pay yourself first" rule consistently over time, you will end up significantly impacting your saving power in the medium and long term, and you will reduce any financial stress when having to face any unforeseen events or setbacks.

Along with rounding off purchases, the "Set up your account" tool in the BBVA app has an option for directly saving through your paycheck. It is a feature by means of which you can automatically transfer a portion of your paycheck or pension, as soon as you receive it, to another account. As you do not see the money added to your checking account, it will be easier for you to save.

Lastly, keep in mind at all times that the basis of saving and expense control lies in knowing how to plan, anticipate income and disbursements and, above all, be very consistent. Just like when in childhood you patiently and decisively filled the piggy bank with coins until no more money fitted in it.