Budget
What Is a Budget?
A budget is a useful tool for gaining an overview of your finances. The budget allows you to see the relationship between what you earn, your income, and what you spend, which are your expenses.
By setting up a budget, you can ensure that you have enough money to pay bills when they fall due. In addition, it helps you find opportunities for saving.
Five good reasons why you should set up a budget
Kickstart a healthy financial situation
A budget is an opportunity to take control of your own finances
Get an overview and control
You need to obtain an overview of all income and expenses
Become a conscious consumer
Develop a conscious relationship with what your money actually goes towards
Start saving or investing
Cutting unnecessary expenses opens up saving opportunities
Avoid debt
Provides the opportunity to plan debt repayment
Peace of mind
Avoid uncertainties, have financial peace of mind and gain inner calm
Create your budget
Here you can add all the expense items that suit you, so you get a better overview of your finances. Remember to download the Excel file if you want to save this.
Get a better overview
The mobile banking app has a range of smart features that help you with your finances.
Spending in the mobile banking app
Spending gives you an overview of what you spend money on.
How large a buffer should you actually have
The golden rule for how large a buffer you should have, regardless of your life situation, is: Many assets – large buffer. Few assets – smaller buffer.
Unexpected expenses have an unfortunate tendency to appear at regular intervals, and not everyone has thousands to spend when it happens. With little saved funds, a broken dishwasher or a car in the garage can quickly become a challenge. It is then easy to resort to the credit card or take out unfavourable consumer loans. Such quick solutions can prevent you from getting a grip on your finances. Therefore, having a buffer account is important for achieving greater financial peace of mind.
Tips for buffer savings
Your life situation determines the amount
How large an emergency fund you should have depends on your life situation. Most experts agree that the emergency fund should be at least one and preferably two months' salary, and the size can vary depending on where you are in life.
As a young person or student, you typically have fewer assets that can break down. If you are single, without children and do not own a car or property, you do not need a large buffer either, and you will probably manage with one month's salary.
If you are a family with children, a home, a car and many assets, the likelihood of unexpected expenses increases. In that case, a good emergency fund could be two to three months' salary.
How to build up an emergency fund?
There are many ways to save towards an emergency fund. You can, for example, start with micro-saving – or "savings goal" – where a small amount is transferred each time you use your debit card. Setting up a monthly transfer to the account on payday is another smart method to get started. If you start with NOK 500 per month, you will have saved NOK 6,000 in one year! But do not think you have to reach the ideal amount as quickly as possible – the most important thing is that you get started.
Avoid this mistake
Before you start building your emergency fund, it is important not to make the mistake of leaving the money freely available in your current account – as it is then easier for it to be spent on everyday expenses. Therefore, open a separate emergency fund account in your online bank, and preferably choose a savings account with a higher interest rate. This creates a higher threshold for using the money for anything other than its intended purpose. It can also be a good idea to hide the emergency fund account in your mobile banking app – this makes it less accessible to yourself.
Have you discovered your pocket thieves?
Meet the 'pocket thieves': The invisible small purchases and habits that slowly drain your account.
Wondering what your pocket thieves are? To get an overview of which purchases you might be able to do without, you can check your online bank or your recent account statements. You can also use the mobile banking app and go to 'Spending'. Here you can see, in as much detail as you wish, what your money is being spent on. The tool has already calculated everything for you, so you can see your spending in different categories such as food and drink, car and transport, home and household, credit card, holidays and leisure.