‘Not every sale is a bargain’: How to avoid common money mistakes

According to results of a new poll, while Canadians spend a lot of time worrying about their finances, many continue to overspend.

Wealth management expert Robyn Thompson says there are very simple ways people can save money.

“The first thing is to get a great handle on where your money is actually going,” Thompson told CTV’s Your Morning on Thursday, suggesting it sounds obvious, but it works. “You need to start with a budget.”

Once people can track their spending, Thompson says it’s easier to reduce expenses in certain categories, as well as investing and saving.

“From there, you’ll be able to identify what are the different places that I’m spending money on, that I may not need to be spending money on,” she said. “And then you can allocate that money towards paying down extra debt or putting money towards investments.”

Thompson also had some advice for shopping trips, suggesting people need to be wary of spending money for no reason.

“Not every sale is a bargain,” Thompson said. “There is a trade-off. And when it comes to spending, when it comes to buying, we need to understand our behaviours or the psychology around why we’re spending the money that we do.”

That means carefully considering the value of a potential purchase relative to saving money.

“You want to make sure that you’re spending money on the things that really provide value for you,” she said. “Advertising tricks our brain into feeling sometimes that these things we see online, can actually fix perhaps deeper rooted problems that we’re going through.”

To hear more of Thompson’s personal finance tips, click the video at the top of this article.