16 Aug 2024
Thousands of Bangladeshis are living and working in Ireland. The robust Irish economy, with a nominal GDP of $545.63 billion and a GDP Per Capita income of $103,684.9, attracts Bangladeshis to Ireland who earn a living there and send money online to Bangladesh from Ireland to offer financial aid back home.
Developed countries, including Ireland, offer you multiple job opportunities to earn a living. But the real question is: what do you do to save money in a foreign country where resisting temptations to spend money lavishly is almost impossible? This blog answers this critically important question to help you save money while living in Ireland.
Have you ever thought about your financials after you retire? Did you even think about the scenario when you are no longer able to earn a living with your need to have money only increasing every day?
Forget about what you are earning currently in Ireland as a Bangladeshi migrant. Given the robust Irish economy, it is likely that you are earning a fairly handsome amount. But if you ever think about these questions, you will likely get several sleepless nights because:
· If you do not have money, you will be financially dependent
· Your financial struggle will continue unabated
Contrast this scenario with another one in which you have enough savings to allow you the fiscal space you need post-retirement. Therefore, when you earn a living in Ireland and send money to Bangladesh online from Ireland, you must ignore how much you are earning in the present and rather focus on saving money to secure your future financially. Take a look below.
The first tip to save money in Ireland as a Bangladeshi migrant is to set your financial goals. When you have goals to achieve, monetary or otherwise, you are less likely to go astray and spend money unnecessarily. Therefore, specific financial goals should be set. But remember that your financial goals must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
This framework ensures that your goals are clear, realistic, and trackable, helping you stay focused and motivated. By setting and adhering to these financial goals, you can better manage your money and achieve your savings targets efficiently.
Your financial goals must be specific and precise, allowing you to focus sharply on them.
Set financial goals whose progress you can measure, check over time, and measure how much you are behind in achieving them.
Make sure to set financial goals that are realistically and practically attainable
Set financial goals that are aligned with what you are doing. These goals should also be relevant to where you stand today financially, where you are headed and where you will be in the future.
Set timelines for each of your financial goals. You can either set an overall timeline or short timelines for each financial goal separately.
These SMART financial goals can be short-term and long-term. But remember that once you set these goals you a) stick to them and b) divert your financial struggles towards achieving them. These goals will also keep you sharply focused.
The next tip is to know what you are earning and what you are spending in real-time. Ignore an increment, for example, if you are likely to get one in the future, and rather focus on what you have at hand in the present.
You can do this by recording your income and expenses either manually or with the help of digital tools like digital wallets and other apps. But the most important point is to keep visiting your records to see where your expenses are justified and where they are not.
The service provider you choose plays a critically important role in how you save money. You pay service charges on a money transfer from Ireland to Bangladesh. Right? More transactions, more payments. Moreover, you also get currency exchange rates.
Therefore, always choose a service provider that not only charges you a low fee but also offers you live and market-competitive currency exchange rates. These live exchange rates will compensate you for the fees you pay on your online money transfers.
While your income is largely fixed, your expenses vary and fluctuate. Therefore, you should bring variations in your expenses every month. For example, list your expenses for the coming month now and come next month according to the list.
If in the current month, vacation planning and spending take precedence over all else, in the next month some other activity should be your priority. Vacations should ideally not be added to the list, in the first place, but if the addition is inevitable, it must be near the bottom of the list.
Another tip to save money abroad is to open a bank account and contribute to it regularly. If you think that with one bank account, that is your checking or current account, you will be able to save money, you might have to think again.
Therefore, open a separate savings account and add funds to it regularly. Make sure to first add funds to your savings account each month the day you get your salary and then spend and manage your other expenses from the remaining amount.
One of the primary tips to save money while you are living abroad is to create a budget and live on it. A budget helps you set financial boundaries for you. And when you pledge to live on it, the alarm bells ring when you get too close to the boundaries.
Always remember that you can easily create a budget despite it being a technical area; living on it is more important. Click HERE to learn how to create a budget. Living on a budget also keeps you aligned with your financial goals and objectives.
When it comes to paying back debts, many people adopt the wrong approach. Mostly, people will try to pay small amounts first and leave the big amounts for later. This is wrong. For savings, make sure to pay the bigger amounts first.
When you do this, you will get rid of the interest payments that you have to make on top of the principal amount, in case the lender is a bank or another financial institution. This will help you with your savings as a Bangladeshi migrant in Ireland.
It is easy to just enter one shop and shop your entire grocery. But this can make you pay a little more than required. Therefore, search different markets and shops, ascertain rates from different areas and stop where the rates are relatively low. Remember that it is an effective way to save money on your monthly groceries.
If you choose your online money transfer service provider with care when you send money to Bangladesh from Ireland, it will help you save money, given that the process is repetitive and incurs costs. Moreover, choosing a service provider that charges you a low fee and offers you live and market-competitive currency exchange rates will help you even more with savings because live exchange rates can likely compensate you for the fees you pay for the transactions.
You leave your family, friends, and loved ones behind and travel to foreign countries to earn a better income so that your family can enjoy a financially viable life. Saving money during your stay abroad will help you financially once you retire and return. Saving money is important for your financially challenging days and emergencies.
If you do not save money during your stay abroad, you will likely stand nowhere in your financial life after you retire and return from abroad. A time will come when you will no longer be able to work because of being old but your need to have money will intensify only. At that time you will face financial miseries, saving from which requires saving money.
Budgeting is a process in which you realistically take into account your income and expenses in real-time and then set boundaries around you and decide what you will spend, how, why and when. Remember that while creating a budget you must look at what you are earning in the present instead of planning based on what you might earn in the future.
You must set both long-term and short-term financial goals for your financial future. But every financial goal has to be SMART. It means that every financial goal should be Specific with a clear vision and objective; Measurable so that you measure its progress; Attainable so that you can achieve it; Relevant and aligned with what you are doing, and Time-Bound so that it can be easily achieved within the specific time frame.
Some of the essential and easy tips to follow to save money while living abroad are to set SMART financial goals, measure and record your income and expenses, choose a money transfer service provider with care, bring variations in expenses, create a budget and live on it, create an emergency fund and contribute regularly, shop around for groceries, and pay your big debts first.
Resource(s)
· Irish GDP
(GDP (current US$) - Ireland | Data (worldbank.org)
· Irish GDP Per Capita
(GDP per capita (current US$) - Ireland | Data (worldbank.org)
