27 Easy Ways To Save Money To Trade

Saving money to trade, or in general, can be a pain. Either it drops your quality of life, or you find that you just can’t save a cent at the end of the month. No matter what you’re earning, I’m going to show you exactly how to save money the easy way. Here are my 27 favourite money savings tips with a couple of personal notes… SAVINGS TIP #1: Stick to your shopping list   Write your shopping list down on a piece of paper or on your phone, and stick to it to avoid overspending. When you have a list of items to buy, this will more likely stop you from buying extra items you don’t need.  SAVINGS TIP #2: Pay with hard cash Pay using real money instead of swiping your debit or credit cards. When you pay with a card, instead of cash, you’ll find that you’ll spend more money on unnecessary items than you should or with money you don’t even have. Personal note: While I’ve been living and trading in Greece, I find this is the best savings tip I’ve used so far. SAVINGS TIP #3: Pay yourself first As soon as you’re paid your salary, wage or income for the month – deposit a portion of that money straight into your trading or savings account. Personal note: I like to use the 10% rule, but this all depends on what you can afford to deposit. This means, if you earn R60,000 per month deposit R6,000 into your trading account or savings account each month. SAVINGS TIP #4: Don’t shop when ‘hangry’ or emotional Avoid shopping when you’re feeling hungry, thirsty, angry or upset. You’ll find you’ll spend more money than you should. In a recent study: Hungry mall shoppers who were hungry spent on average 64% MORE than non-hungry shoppers. Make sure you have a nice meal and drink lots of water, before you go on your next shopping trip. SAVINGS TIP #5: The ‘cookie-jar’ approach When you empty your pockets, at the end of the day, drop them into a yearly cookie jar for your savings. You’ll be surprised how many thousands of rands you’ll be able to save, collect and be able to deposit into your trading account for the next year. SAVINGS TIP #6: Use the 24-Hour-Rule Before paying money for non-essential and expensive items on clothes, cosmetics, appliances or even tools, just wait 24 hours before buying it. You may find that you’ll lose that desire to buy them after 24 hours, which will save you tens of thousands of rands a year. Maybe when your parents said “sleep on it”, there was method behind their madness. SAVINGS TIP #7:              Go generic          Save a ton of money by buying the generic prescription medicines instead of paying a fortune for the name branded drugs. Ask your local pharmacist or physician if you can have the generic prescription drugs instead of the brand-name drugs. You’ll find that the generic products cost far less than the brand names, and will work equally well. SAVINGS TIP #8: A quick breakfast that lasts a week Breakfasts are not only the most important meal of the day, but can also be the quickest, easiest and most inexpensive meal for the day. When you eat a full and healthy breakfast, you’ll find it will keep you from going out to eat an expensive lunch… Personal note: For the last two years, I have had the same breakfast which I make once and it lasts an entire week. This has truly been life-changing as it makes my day start with one less decision to make before I get on with the rest of the day. It’s called “Overnight Oats”. If you’d like to see my personal recipe feel free to click here… SAVINGS TIP #9: Follow the 30-Day-Rule Before you buy something really expensive, give it 30 days and then decide if it’s worth it. I’m talking about items like jewellery, motorbikes, paintings, juice extractors and any other item that can cost over R3,000. SAVINGS TIP #10: Don’t be fooled by sales Avoid sales and don’t be duped by discounts, special offers, buy 1 get one free etc… Remember this for every time you see a sale for 50% at the next Black Friday’s Special.   “You’re not saving 50% of your money, you’re spending 50% of your money that you weren’t planning to spend in the first place.” SAVINGS TIP #11: Skip the alcohol and bottled water! When you go out to a restaurant, avoid spending unnecessary money on alcohol and expensive water bottles. A standard restaurant can mark up their cost of alcohol by three to five times. Instead order just plain water or even a sugar free soda. Personal note: In Europe I have noticed that when you ask for tap water, they pour it from a bottle of expensive water (R30) anyway. This is due to the danger of drinking tap water in Europe. SAVINGS TIP #12:       Own your doggy bag Ask your waiter to put the food that you didn’t finish in a doggy bag, so you can save money on lunch for the next day. People are far too embarrassed about everything nowadays which I think needs to stop. There should not be a stigma attached to taking leftover food home. Everybody easts, drinks and sleeps. And when it comes to the food you ordered at the restaurant, you paid for it so why waste it? This will also save you money, time and effort the next day for lunch, which will make your trip to the restaurant EVEN MORE WORTH IT. SAVINGS TIP #13: Put three items back after shopping When you’ve added extra items to your shopping that weren’t on the list, to avoid overspending, put back at least three items that you believe you can live without. It’s very easy to walk through the final naughty aisle grabbing a whole bunch of crisps, chocolates, biltong, dried fruit and even a bottle of juice. SAVINGS TIP #14: Cut down on smoking and drinking Try to cut down your smoking and drinking by half the number per day. This is really tricky to do but if you put your mind to it and challenge yourself, I know you can achieve this. Personal note: What I do with smoking is I’ve limited it to two in the morning, two in the afternoon and two at night. This tip has saved me hundreds of rands per week from buying more boxes and I will continue to try cut it down until I’ve quit completely. SAVINGS TIP #15: Fill up your milk with water As soon as the milk reaches, the half way mark – fill it up with water. YOU WON’T TASTE THE DIFFERENCE.   As a parent or as a milk drinker, it can be extremely expensive to buy milk on a daily basis. SAVINGS TIP #16: Become a vegetarian (at least once a week) At least once a week, switch to meatless dishes which will help drop your grocery bill. Replace it with: Chickpeas, couscous, okra, rice, sauerkraut, quinoa, beans, nuts, pasta dishes etc… You’ll be surprised what you can find at your local supermarket. Personal note: Inspired by my cousin, she insisted I cut meat out just once a week. I call this day “Meatless Monday”.   EXTRA MONEY SAVINGS TIPS #17: Grow your own vegetables #18: Sign up for loyalty cards #19: Track your spending on your finance budget app #20: Make meals that will last a week e.g. Lasagna, casserole, giouvetsi, curries, gemista, soups, pastitsio, roasts, ratatouille etc… #21: Buy the generic foods rather than the expensive name branded foods #22: Pay careful attention to expiration dates #23: Check your eggs in their boxes and your vegetables in their packets #24: Freeze your foods in bulk #25: Eat a meal before going to a restaurant #26: Keep to Pay-As-You-Go with your cell phone account and use the Wi-Fi to call on WhatAapp    This will be fun! With these savings tips you can watch your money grow in your savings and trading account! Let me know your savings tip that we can add to the list to make it 27 by emailing timon@timonandmati.com

Thank you for this!

Hi there. I just wanted to send you a short thank you note for making MATI Trader what it is today.

You are the reason I wake up each morning to create and prepare these videos, lessons, calculators and even FB & Instagram posts!

I have compiled a collage of some of the most dear and memorable events that I’ve had the honour of running and sharing through my 18 year trading experiences and mistakes with over 257,000 aspiring traders all over the world.

Why You Should Love Your Trading Losses

We are brought up in society to WIN, WIN, WIN!

Throughout our upbringing we must either:

• Achieve top grades
• Drive the fanciest cars
• Wear and own the best brands

In other words, we are raised to win with everything we do in life, until you get welcomed into the world of trading.

Today I’m going to be the contrarian and share with you why you should love, embrace and own your losses in order to ensure you grow your portfolio on a consistent basis.

Let’s start with:

What happens after a winning streak?

There will be a time during your trading career, where you’re going to endure a magical time where you end up taking sometimes 6, 8 to even 10 winning trades in a row.

Your portfolio will be smiling at a new all-time-high and, you’ll feel invincible. You may think that you’ve cracked the holy-grail of trading where you can quit your job and just make a living with the markets.

Research shows that individuals tend to invest and trade more actively when their most recent trading performance was successful. In fact, here are:

4 DANGEROUS Actions Traders Take During A Winning Streak:

1. They take on more trades.
2. They upper their trading positions.
3. They start to go against their trading strategy.
4. Their self-confidence and greed levels pick up.

Winning streaks are normal and INEVITABLE, but eventually they’ll end and the losing streak will begin.

No matter how good you believe you are as a trader or how perfect your trading execution skills are, there will be a time when the honey-moon phase for your trading strategy will be over and the markets will stop acting in your favour every time.

The reason is that due to the conditions of supply and demand, the markets environment will eventually change.

A market that was trending up or down, could enter into a 3-months sideways phase very easily. When this happens, you will enter into a drawdown (downside) phase.

The problem is not the downside for the next three months. The problem is how you’ll treat your trading going forward, based on the DANGEROUS actions you would have taken during your winning streak.

Let’s bring them back, to see what will happen to ‘invincible traders’ portfolios and minds with their unexpected losing streak…

1. They start to take on more trades –
   THIS MEANS MORE LOSSES.
    

2. They upper their trading positions –
   THIS MEANS BIGGER LOSSES.
    

3. They start to go against their trading strategy –
   THIS MEANS UNEXPECTED LOSSES.
    

4. Their self-confidence and greed levels pick up –
   THIS MEANS DEPRESSION MAY KICK IN WHICH WILL LEAD TO QUITTING.

Now going back to what we said in the beginning.

When a winning streak ends, you should love, embrace and own your losses because of these five reasons.

5 Reasons To Love Your Trading Losses

Reason #1: Losses are part of your trading success journey

Once you have a winning and proven trading strategy, you’ll need to go back to your trading journal to remind you of the flow of winning streaks, losing streaks, average gain & loss per trade and other historical statistics.

I’ve back, forward and real-tested the MATI Trader System strategy for over two decades and so I know exactly what kind of winning and losing streaks are to come and that I’ll end up profitable in the medium to long term.

Reason #2: Losses help keep your emotions in check

Knowing there are inevitable losses to come, this should curb the ego, greed and fear emotions.

Reason #3: Losses should keep your risk low

With a losing streak that is inevitable to enter your trading results, this alone should be a reason to keep your losses low.

I personally never risk more than 2% or my portfolio in any one trade, no matter how many winning trades I take in a row. You can read more about the timeless money management rules in lesson three of the MATI Trader System programme.

Reason #4: Losses stop the “Hot Hand Fallacy”

Another reason that I love losses when trading is that it reminds me that the winning streak will come to an end.

This keeps me humbled and grounded to know that there will be a time where I’ll need to give back to the market, when the trading environment is less conducive to the trading strategy.

Reason #5: Losses don’t take me back to the drawing board

After a winning streak ends, you’ll find new traders will then quit trading and look for another system to find that will work for them during the changing market environment.

The thing is they don’t realise and accept that losses come with the trading territory and that one should never throw a profitable system away because a market enters into a drawdown phase.

There are only so many words I can explain why I love losses, but nothing explains it better than the video for the week.

Make sure you watch this free video so you to can love, embrace own and prepare for the losses to come for your trading success.

9 Top Online Trading Brokers In South Africa

QUESTION #1

Q. "When it comes to trading short term markets, which are the best brokers you can recommend from your experience?” ~ Mark P

ANSWER:

I understand that there are a high number of brokers and financial institutions you can trade with nowadays.

In my two-decade's trading experience I will list my top 9 online trading brokers that I recommend and have had the pleasure of working with.

1. Rand Swiss
2. GT247.com
3. BlackStone Futures
4. IG Markets
5. Saxo Bank
6. Oanda.com
7. DWT Securities
8. Standard Bank Online Share Trading
9. Pro Trader

Feel free to let them know that Timon Rossolimos, recommended you to one of these broker’s and if you’re lucky you may get a special rate or offer.
 

What a MATI Trader member has to share:

"Hey Timon, just wanted to say "GREAT JOB" with the last 7 winning trades in a row. I have followed your tips to the letter and have made a nice little gain. Keep it up. Can't wait for the next tip to be released. Awesome Job!!!! "
~ V."
Find out the trading system I used to bank these 7 winners in a row here...
 
QUESTION #2

Q. “Hello Timon Rossolimos, I would like to know when trading CFD stocks, can we generate capital on the Bull side and the Bear side of the market?”
~ Lindo

Absolutely, that is the main beauty about trading CFDs…

Buy low – Sell high – PROFIT

You’ll either buy the CFD based on the share you’re trading at a LOWER price, with the speculation that you’ll sell it at a HIGHER price for a profit.

This is also known as buying or “going long” a market.


Sell high – Buy low - PROFIT

The other method is where you’ll sell a CFD based on the share you’re trading at a HIGHER price, with the idea that the price will drop, where you’ll re-buy it at a LOWER price for a profit.

This method is also known as selling or “going short” a market.


 
Technical answer further explained

When you sell “go short” a market, you’ll basically sell securities that you don’t own and hope to buy them back at a lower price where you’ll bank a profit.

There is a three step process when you go short.

Step #1: Borrow them

First you’ll choose the market to short and the amount of shares you’d like to borrow from someone who owns them.

Step #2: Sell them

Next you’ll sell the borrowed shares at a higher price, as you expect the price to drop.

Step #3: Buy them back for a profit

Hopefully the share price will drop where you’ll then be able to rebuy them back at a lower price for a profit.

There are two scenarios that can occur:

Scenario 1: Good

If the market drops, you will buy the shares back at lower price than what you sold them at and make a gross profit after you include costs, interest, dividends,

Scenario 2: Bad

If the market rises and you buy the shares back at a higher price that what you sold them, you will make a gross loss after you include costs, interest and dividends.

AUTHOR NOTE: If you have a basic or an advanced trading question, please don’t hesitate to ask us at info@timonandmati.com or on our Facebook group with over 5,000 members and you may stand a chance to be featured in one of the MATI Trader Newsletters.