Cashless Living: A Lifestyle Without Cash

Cashless living makes life more wasteful? It could be true if you do not have good financial management. With the development of financial technology, of course, the way of management cannot be the same as in the old days which still used the envelope system. Important note, if you do not start planning from now on, then your financial health can be bad. Then, how to wisely run life in the era of a cashless society?

Life in the digital era turns out to change people's lifestyles in terms of managing their finances. A cashless society is a term known as a society that conducts financial transactions using a non-cash method. In Indonesia, the national non-cash movement began to be campaigned by Bank Indonesia since August 2014. Until 2018, non-cash users have also jumped and even grown more than 60% over the past year. Without cash, payment transactions take place electronically. In Indonesia, there are many types of non-cash payment facilities ranging from electronic wallets, debit cards, online loans and credit cards.

The main advantage of cashless living is the ease and security in depositing money. Just imagine, without having to change locations, you can already make payment transactions for almost all needs.

In financial planning, the advantages of cashless living are easily analyzed. Many people ask where the monthly income runs. Actually it is highly recommended because almost all expenditure transactions are recorded so that practical financial check-ups can be done every month. With the help of the application, you can compare the monthly budget and the actual usage. In this way, you can see the biggest financial leakage comes from which post.

However, it turns out the ease of cashless living also has a significant impact, which is to encourage someone to be more consumptive. There are almost no goods and services that cannot be purchased. Midnight hungry stomach? Just order online. Want to buy the latest gadget? Just buy and then pay in instalments with an online loan. Or suddenly want a vacation? You can even buy the payment and then do it later. Does this also happen to you?

When spending cash, a person generally feels the pain of removing physical money from a wallet that is sad because the bills are reduced. However, with non-cash, someone just swipes the card, tap the bar code, or just click the transaction. If you are not careful, it could be that your lifestyle expenditure item has suddenly increased! If this also disturbs your finances, then the following tips can be used.

1. Sort out the use of non-cash facilities according to the monthly budget.
   I recommend using a debit card as a means of payment transactions for various routine expenses such as monthly shopping, daily food purchases, gas filling, and others. Allocate income according to the monthly budget after payday in a separate account that is intended for routine expenditure items. Meanwhile, monthly bill payments can use transfer assistance from mobile banking.
   Simply put, for income for 3 things, namely routine living (Living) 50%, savings and investment (Saving) 30%, and having fun (Playing) 20%. If you rarely cook at home, that means spending on food messages will go to the Living post. Meanwhile, for additional snacks will go to the Playing post.
2. Use an electronic wallet for lifestyle transactions.
   Set the electronic wallet allocation only to fulfil secondary transactions such as snacks, movie tickets, and others. Regardless of the size of the promo, you also have to be disciplined to only fill the electronic wallet balance at the beginning of the month. So, we are free to use the wallet balance while the funds are still there.
   Understand the form of promos whether direct discounts, cash-back money, cash-back in the form of points, and exchange points. The most fun, of course, is a discount or direct cash-back, because it means you really save money.
3. 3. Not easily tempted to make instalments
   Online loans offered by the rise in various online shopping platforms have made life even easier. The problem will arise if you are not wise when taking a loan. Self-control is the biggest challenge that must be resisted. If you still have a mortgage loan, then the maximum online loan limit is only 10% of monthly income. If you don't have a monthly income, I don't recommend taking this type of loan.
4. 4. Use excess funds to save
   Promo to save money, not to make shopping without control. Therefore, each of you can get more funds from the promo, immediately buy investment products from the remaining funds.

Live a Beautiful Life!

Written by: Prita Ghozie from ZAP Finance