Often Fail to Earn? Try Applying the Financial Post Method to Achieve Life Goals

Illustration of managing finances. (Generated by AI)

JAKARTA - Saving often feels easy at first, but it's hard to maintain when needs keep coming. The salary that has just entered the account can be spent without feeling because it is used for various purposes at once.

It's no wonder that many people feel they've worked hard, but financial goals such as vacations, emergency funds, buying a house, or starting a business actually feel further away.

Later, more and more people began to implement a simpler way, namely dividing money into several positions or financial pockets according to the purpose.

This method is considered to help a person be more aware of spending priorities while reducing the habit of taking savings for unplanned needs.

Instead of having only one account for all needs, each goal has its own "home". For example, there is a special post for daily needs, emergency funds, investments, vacations, and pursuing long-term dreams.

This way, a person can more easily monitor the progress of each target without having to mix all the money in one place.

This approach is also one way to build healthier financial habits. Because managing money is not only about the size of income, but how a person places money according to the priorities of his life.

This view prompted Bank Jago to present the Inspirasi Kantong feature in their application. This feature helps users to arrange various financial pockets based on goals, habits, and characters in managing money.

"Everyone has different goals and ways of managing money, for that we present the Inspiration Pocket to help users find ideas for the composition of the pocket that is appropriate and relevant to their personal situation and finances in the Jago Application," said Michael Hartawan, Head of Retail Banking Brand & Marketing Bank Jago in a statement to VOI, Monday, June 13.

To understand how each person manages money, Bank Jago also held a Reality Challenge: The Art of Putting Money which involved 10 participants from different backgrounds and professions. Each of them received the same amount of additional funds to manage for 30 days.

Interestingly, before the challenge began, most participants admitted that they preferred having more money than the ability to manage money. However, after undergoing the challenge, most of them actually changed their views.

"Before the Reality Challenge began, participants were given a simple question, namely 'If given a choice, which would you choose, having more money or becoming better at managing money?'. The results showed an interesting change in perspective. When everyone receives the same amount of money, what is more important is not the nominal amount of money, but how to manage money according to each person's goals, priorities, and lives," said Michael.

The participants' experiences show that everyone has a different definition of the purpose of life. Some want to build a business, some are preparing for education funds, maintaining the stability of the family's finances, to pursuing the dream of sending parents to worship or realizing a trip abroad.

A participant named Andini, for example, used the financial post distribution to separate the operational funds for yoga classes, the purchase of raw materials, to the development of the wellness business that is being initiated. Meanwhile, other participants choose to allocate money to pursue the target of a music concert while preparing funds for the umrah for parents.

The journey of each participant is also different because there are no specific rules regarding how the money should be used.

"There is no script, no direction regarding the decisions to be made. As a result, each participant presents a different and authentic reaction, story, and journey about how they prioritize money according to their respective needs and life goals," said Michael.

For many young people, the method of creating several financial posts can actually be applied without having to be complicated. The first step can start by determining the most important goals, such as daily needs, emergency funds, savings, entertainment, or big targets that want to be achieved in the next few years. After that, allocate a portion of the income consistently to each post.

This simple way can help reduce impulsive decisions because every money has a clear function from the start. In addition, the development towards the target is also easier to monitor so that the process of achieving life goals feels more realistic.