We all try our best to save money and do so many things like making a list before buying, cutting down on unnecessary expenses, controlling your spending, and what not? But even after doing all these, when you see your bills or payments not going down, it hurts a lot. It’s already hard to manage your expenses on a limited income, rising inflation makes it so stressful.

From groceries to gas, inflation is killing our purchasing power. It’s hitting hard on our wallets and also equity investments. The inflation might not be affecting everyone but for common people, it’s a big deal.

Then how to manage your money? lessen the burden on your wallet? and combat inflation?

Unfortunately, as you know we can not avoid inflation or there is not any magic wand to make it disappear. As a financial planner, I would like to suggest a few strategies to help decrease the impact of inflation on your money saving and investments.

–Track your expenses and money flows: You may be able to offset any increase in your expenses by tracking your expenses towards bills, credit card, or debt payments and cutting down on what you don’t need, and trying to postpone or reduce your spendings.

–Adjust your budget:- If you haven’t looked over your budget in a while, then make sure to do a review and adjust your budget.

–Consolidate your debt:-Consolidating debt or balance transfer for lower interest rate could make sense and positive impact on savings. Who will not be interested in paying less towards debts?

–Invest more-Rising inflation is a good time to review your overall investment performance and allocation to make sure it aligns with your goals. Down equity market is an opportunity to buy. Hence, if you have any idle cash to invest in the stock market after covering your basics, then you can do so. Do not make that idle cash lose its purchasing power. You can also invest in REITs, gold, or commodities. You can also invest in Bonds or instruments giving high interest for the short term. Though make sure not to make any dramatic changes and align your investments to your goals, risks, and duration.

–Avoid buying brand new furniture or products. Look for good deals or discounts if any or postpone your buying if possible.

-Increase your income sources:- Increasing your income sources is another way to combat the rising costs associated with high inflation. It could be any side gig or a new job. Negotiating with your current employer for a salary hike could also be an option.

As said earlier, we can not avoid inflation, but we can mitigate its effects by budgeting, saving, consolidating debt, increasing income sources, etc.