When I was 22, my grandmother died. She was my favorite person. She didn't have a lot of money, but each of us grandchildren got a check for $3,000 from the will. I really, really wanted to do something special with that money, something to honor my grandmother, but I was young and dumb and broke, and it evaporated into rent and burritos and drinks and cigarettes and all the other "necessities" of my young, dumb 22-year-old life. I have had an "IOU" to myself for that money ever since and promised myself that one day, when I had an "extra" $3,000, that would be "grandma's money," and I'd do something special with it.
Do you remember a time in your city in Spain when bar and restaurant terraces were not packed with locals having fun (except for during the Covid-19 lockdown, of course)? No matter how tight finances are, Spaniards always seem to have the money for eating and drinking out. Some would say this carpe diem attitude is to be admired rather than sniffed at. After all, it goes hand in hand with the much-admired Spanish lifestyle - outdoors, in the company of others, enjoying the moment.
Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich and host of the Netflix series How to Get Rich, has built a following around one central claim: automation beats budgeting. His approach centers on setting up automatic transfers for bills, savings, and investments rather than manually tracking every dollar. The advice resonates because it simplifies money management and removes the emotional burden of constant decision-making.
Get rid of your ability to borrow - whether that's credit cards, if it's an overdraft you need to treat it like a loan. If you owe €500 in an overdraft, you need to say, 'Right, for the next 10 months, I'm going to put €50 a month off that and I'm going to create a new zero'. For a lot of people, an overdraft is an interesting one because they go to minus 500, they get paid, they get through the month, they go back to minus 500. That's your zero.
When my kids were little, I couponed, planned meals around the weekly specials, and tried to keep a tight rein on our grocery budget. But as they grew, I began working more. We all got busier, and I let some of those habits go. Slowly, without really realizing it, our grocery costs inched up. A few months ago, I tracked every grocery expenditure for the entire month and discovered our bill totaled $2,300. I about had a heart attack.
Budget 2026 didn't put money back into the average worker's pocket, but who said you can't take matters into your own hands? See the full guide here: Yesterday's budget proved to be a damp squib, especially for the average Irish worker, but there are ways to save money without having to rely on politicians. We have compiled a guide on how you can save €1,000 or more without having to wait around for income tax cuts or more Child Benefit.
"But you can take it at your own pace as well," he says. "There's no strict requirement. Some people do deliberately go slower. It can be hard to find that balance sometimes between saving now and wanting to live your life at the same time."
The "Great Lock-In" trend on TikTok has gained momentum as a strategy to help individuals achieve their goals, such as homeownership, by focusing intensely on saving and planning during the last few months of the year. This trend aims to motivate and support individuals in their financial journey toward homeownership. Let's delve into the key takeaways from this trend:
On the contrary, Bitcoin, being a scarce asset, which tends to appreciate over time by cyclically cutting its issuance until the maximum limit of 21 million, is proving to reduce the time preference. As it appreciates over time, small savings in the present can generate significant future benefits, thus increasing the propensity to save and plan for the future. This simple fact has profound implications at a social level, because it reflects in greater investment in education, deeper human relationships or greater care for the environment.
Depositors in Ireland face disappointingly low returns on savings accounts, with instant-access accounts yielding an average of just 0.13pc, making it one of the lowest in the eurozone.
AI remains a powerful driver of transformation for our clients and for IBM. Our generative AI book of business continues to accelerate and now stands at more than $7.5bn.
'One of the biggest issues people have is that they are ashamed of their financial lives. They feel that they've made poor financial decisions and dread confronting these uncomfortable realities.'
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