Updated on Monday, 18January2021-01: 57

  • Share on Facebook

  • Share on Twitter

  • Send by email

Comment

Faced with the topic of the Latino wasteful, the figures indicate that we are making adequate progress in the art of saving.

According to the Bank of Spain, Spanish families have increased their deposits to almost 900,000 million euros and the Survey of Financial Skills (ECF) shows 61% of Spaniards saving in some way during the last 12 months.

Francisco Javier Pérez de la Huerta, director of Private Banking in Castilla y León at Banco Santander, recognizes first-hand that there is still a long way ahead and, also, the necessary vehicle to travel it: pedagogy.

That is why he participates as a volunteer trainer in the Finance for Mortals program, a financial education project of the UCEIF Foundation, Foundation of the University of Cantabria for the Study and Research of the Financial Sector, which is developed through the Santander Financial Institute with the support and patronage of Banco Santander.

Among others, different professionals from this financial institution provide training throughout Spain with the aim of bringing the world of the economy and basic finance closer, especially to young people, rural environments, social entrepreneurs and vulnerable groups.

Training seems key in our country due to the structural deficit since, for example, as Pérez de la Huerta recalls: "If we look a little further back, different studies reveal that we save about half that of other European countries."

The current acceleration springs precisely from our original sin: "we do it against the current, when we are obtaining less income, while when a boom comes, we get more debt."

This "error of origin", forging the "bad concept" of saving in our country, is due to a "short-term mentality. In general, we only activate savings when we see the wolf's ears; now, for example, in the face of the crisis caused by the coronavirus that we are experiencing. That is why in Spain the crises are deeper and the recoveries are faster. There should be a continuous dynamic to reach those moments with greater spending capacity, "he says.

Also, when we decide to save, too often, we stick to the most rudimentary formulas.

According to the ECF, 63% of Spaniards save through a checking account and 38%, outside the financial system (in cash or "under the mattress").

The drop in interest rates helps to overcome this problem, because "savers who want a certain yield have had to apply more sophisticated tools to their assets, although they continue to do so reluctantly," Pérez de la Huerta clarifies.

There are different methods to save, such as Kakebo, which emerged in Japan at the beginning of the last century to improve domestic savings, with a budget that reflects the expenses of each day: dividing between income and expenses, which in turn can be grouped into essentials, usual leisure and unnecessary or occasional expenses ... Or the ALP method ("Put the first thing aside"), which highlights that, if you know that you can only count on a part of your income, you will be able to manage to live for that month with the rest.

These and other simple and effective systems, such as the 50/30/20 rule (50% for your most basic expenses, 20% for savings and 30% for your personal expenses) or the Harv Eker method (which divides income into six parts: 50/55% destined to the fixed expenses of each day, 10% for investment, another 10% for education or professional development, 10% for savings and another 5/10% for charitable causes) are detailed, with explanatory videos, on the program website: www.finanzasparamortales.es

There are also technological advances that help users to save, such as some mobile applications, which allow you to see all accounts, cards and financial products, and even insurance, on the same screen.

In addition, they warn of commissions, overdrafts, duplicate charges, expirations, suspicious movements ...

Finally, the program takes a pedagogical tour of more complex financial savings products, such as fixed income (treasury bills, promissory notes, bonds and obligations), which returns everything invested with fixed interest, and variable income (shares in stock market and funds that group several different products), in which the risk and, therefore, the returns go up.

And, of course, the famous long-term pension plans for that retirement that will come sooner than we expect ...

Pérez de la Huerta always advises savers to start by checking their "time horizon."

Although the short term may make sense from time to time, "there always has to be a basic saving, a cushion for any eventuality".

For this medium-long term, one of the most recommended vehicles is the investment fund, "a subject in which we Spaniards are not well versed".

In collaboration with Banco Santander

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

See links of interest

  • Coronavirus today

  • Napoli - Fiorentina

  • Aston Villa - Everton

  • Sheffield United - Tottenham Hotspur

  • Crotone - Benevento

  • The final of the Super Cup, live: Barcelona - Athletic