How To Spend Your 13th Month Salary

1. Pay any outstanding debts: Sort out everything, if you can. There’s nothing better than starting a new year knowing you don’t owe anyone.

2. Pay a tithe or give to charity: If this is something you believe in, do it quickly.

3. Save 50% for January: It always feels like an extra-long month, so create a Fixed Pocket on your Kuda app and put 50% of the money away for expenses: food, transportation, fuel, and everything else.

4. Invest 30% wisely: Now that you’ve covered your essentials, consider making an investment with 30% of the money. That could be buying stocks on the Kuda app. Just make sure you speak to an investment expert before investing.

5. Contribute to your emergency fund: Ideally, you should have three to six months of salary saved for unexpected expenses. If you don’t, you can put a bit of your 13th month salary in that fund.

6. Enjoy yourself: Whatever money you have left is your guilt-free enjoyment fund, and you should give yourself the permission to spend this money.

Before you go, always remember to avoid these two money traps:

• The competitive spending trap: If you have friends visiting from abroad in December, remember that they’ll be coming with foreign currencies. Don’t, ever, try to match their spending. That’s a highway to overspending.
• The spontaneous upgrade trap: Getting an extra salary payment might make you feel like upgrading things that don’t need to be upgraded. Don’t do it. Make the money work for you instead of making a clearly unnecessary purchase.

Enjoy! 💜