1. Save 10% of your salary
The first advice to put in place should relate to our income and therefore our salary, or what gives us a living, for example a pension or another kind of income, since it is the money we are going to invest and spend during the month and year. Affecting our salary by immediately paying taxes and bills would lead us to have to sacrifice part of it immediately. If instead we put aside a small percentage of our salary as soon as it is paid into our account, this will allow us to save immediately, before facing other types of situations that we will see later.
An average salary in Italy is € 1500 net per month on average, therefore less than €30,000 gross a year. Obviously this is an average calculation, which means that not everyone takes € 1500 a month, but only a part. In fact, those who work as clerks, workers or employees receive a much lower salary. We are the ninth country in Europe in terms of average salary, Spaniards do worse, in tenth place. The crisis has invaded all of Europe and even many other countries in the world, but Italy is one of those that has suffered it the most.
95% of people employed by private companies in Italy are classified as employees or workers. Only 1.4% are managers and 4.3% are executives, who receive a higher salary. Lombardy is the region with the highest salary, where the average salary is € 31,000 gross a year. Trentino and Liguria follow. The lowest salary is received in Sicily with about € 23,000 gross a year. There is a clear division between north and south, and this does not only apply to salaries but to general living conditions.
In Europe the situation is different, for example the lowest salaries are paid in eastern countries but at the same time these are countries in which companies, including Italian ones, go to invest. The country with the highest salaries is Denmark.
Receiving an average salary of € 1500, we could save 10% of this at the exact moment when it is paid into our bank account, by doing so we could at least guarantee a small monthly saving that otherwise we would spend for something else, be it a whim or a bill. Picking up 10% and setting it aside we will already have a small nest egg to put in our piggy bank. 1500 * 10/100 = 150. Not bad to start our adventure in the world of savings.
THIS ADVICE WILL ALLOW YOU TO SAVE € 150 PER MONTH (€ 1800 YEARLY).
2. Keeping fit autonomously without signing up to gym
For each of us health should be placed first in our scale of values and needs of life. Keeping fit therefore should be one of our prerogatives. Given the importance of this aspect of our lives, we place physical activity as the first one of the long list of examples we’re going to do.
We all signed up to the gym at least once in our lives for different reasons, but all linked by a single purpose, to keep fit, maybe for the summer to come.
Just the fact of enrolling in the gym, having paid a subscription even for a short time, often stimulates our mind to keep with our commitment not so much for our body, but often for our portfolio.
Thinking about the € 300 we spent on an annual gym membership triggers the input to go and train at least a couple of times a week and to not feel guilty about spending money. It is a purely psychological factor, we are all able to be constant in an activity even if we do not spend millions. We need only the will and a precise goal.
Without making a bundle of grass, we can say that surely there are people who sign up the gym or other activities because they are determined to achieve a perfect shape in their eyes, to feel better, to take their mind off the stressful routine or simply to know new people.
Regardless of which of these reasons pushes a person to buy a gym membership, you can practice sports for free by adding just a little extra willpower.
As a first step you could draw up a list with the days in which to train and which exercises or activities you want to do.
For example, if you are a fan of running or, in the gym, you usually do Cardio, the perfect places for this type of activity are the promenade, a park, a pine forest, a cycle path, which are often equipped with tools suitable for those who do train, as parallel and traction bars. But you can also go home after a long run, lay a towel on the ground, do some stretching and then do pushups, sit-ups, leg exercises, etc. Doing all these exercises costs nothing, if not a few hours of our time.
If, on the other hand, you are not us to practicing sports or you are afraid of not doing the exercises in the right way, you can take a brisk walk outside, doing only some simple exercises. In case you don’t love walking or running and you just want to devote yourself to exercises, you can set up a mini DIY gym with some of the items we already have at home. A towel on which to do the exercises, a broomstick to do squats, a stool in case you want to do step, belts of the bathrobe instead of elastic bands for stretching, a wall of the home for exercises in which you need support and much more, just a little imagination is enough and, on the base of one’s needs, everyone could set up their sports space without too much difficulty.
Furthermore, it must be said that today the web offers a lot and it is easy to find video tutorials or personal trainers that explain the exercises in the best way and help to follow a satisfying sporting journey.
Even our smartphones could be of help, downloading from the stores some Apps that allow you to record the data of the completed sport activity, give suggestions for feeding and remind the user when there is the next training session. For iOs and Android there is Runkeeper, an app for runners created by Asics, Keep Training, in different versions, depending on the sports field you need, or MyFitnessPal, which helps you achieve goals such as weight loss.
Finally, another activity you can do at home or outdoors, using a tutorial or an app, is yoga, famous and known by everyone activity. It is a complete activity that manages to balance body and mind at the same time leaving the wallet intact. To date, oriental disciplines are very popular in the West and it is increasingly common to see people who practice them and follow a routine according to ancient patterns, such as Ayurveda, of which the yoga discipline is part.
As regards clothing, you can use old and worn clothing that you no longer use as before. The only minimum cost to afford could be the shoes, that can be found at low price. Shoes are important because if you walk badly or run incorrectly, you can have back problems, and the right shoes help.
So, a minimum subscription to the gym costs € 50 per month, adding € 40 for the medical certificate that you need to start the course and about € 20 for signing up, thus spending € 110 initially. Instead, by making an annual subscription, which can cost around € 300, the cost will be around € 360.
Not enrolling in the gym but setting up a space at home with a minimum of equipment that includes dumbbells (on average € 10), elastic bands (€ 20), exercise bikes (about € 100), parallel bars (€ 50), you would spend about € 180, which is half of the previous example.
Finally, by not enrolling in the gym and not buying any type of specific equipment, so practicing a sporting activity using the objects you have at home, or doing it in the open air, you would not spend anything. The advantage of giving up a gym membership is to stay in shape by putting aside some savings that can be used for a future project.
THIS SIMPLE ADVICE WILL ALLOW YOU TO SAVE FROM € 180 TO € 360.
