How to use Spaces to organize and savey money
Whether setting apart monthly expenses or saving money for future plans, using Spaces can make your financial organization easier. Here's some examples.
August 11, 2022
Redação N26
Did you know that the human brain does a thing called mental accounting? It sorts the money you spend in order of importance. He knows that your rent money is more important than delivery money, for example. That's why you end up spending more “easily” on food, without thinking straight, than on bigger things. Crazy, huh? But can you imagine being able to apply this in practice, with more control and direct to your account? Here at N26 we call it Spaces.
What is Spaces and how does it work
Spaces is N26's most popular tool. Created in Europe in 2018, it basically works as a more practical way than a savings or an investment to be able to separate, organize and save money.
Imagine each space as a place to put part of your money, creating a division within your main account. As you can have several, these spaces work as sub-accounts, which can be created for any function or purpose.
In addition to creating and deleting, moving money between them is also easy. In the app, you can move any value between one space and another just with drag and drop.
Oh, and the money yields 100% of the CDI within the spaces, ok? Daily.
Organizing your money with Spaces
Ok, but how do you use it, huh? Depends on what you want to do. There are those who prefer to create spaces for regular spendings, for example. There are also those who use theirs thinking about future plans. And yet, those who combines the two.
Organizing regular spending with Spaces
Imagine that you want to separate groceries money every month. Or everyday bills (rent, internet, condominium, electricity, gas, etc.). A space for each of these things ensures that the money won't be spent on a barbecue or drinks on the weekend - you can also create a space just to hang out.
Control spending with Spaces
Picture an iFood Space where you put a certain amount every month. That's your limit to spend with delivery. If it's over, it's over. A space can be a way to control spending and create limits within your budget. Even because you can spend money without guilt on several things, not everything is about saving.
Making plans with Spaces
If you like to get ahead to achieve your goals, having a space for those can also help. You can create one just for vacations, for example. Got a bonus coming at work? A new house space can receive this value. Do you want to travel to see the World Cup in the host country? Create one. Spaces are for that. In each space, you can put as much as you want - and when you can.
Automatic savings on your space with Loops
A cool way to put money into a Space is to set up an automatic transfer. To do this, you create a loop. You just need to define the day of the month or week and the amount, and the money will go directly from your main account to the space you defined on that day.
You can set up an automatic transfer to your space by creating a loop. For example, you can set up a loop that transfers 10% of the value of your main account to your “Future me 👵” space every 1st of the month after you have already transferred your salary to your N26 account. This way, you are already saving without thinking about it.
You can also send 100% of the money to your “Travel around” space every Friday, for example. This is a good strategy for saving for a goal: you leave in the main account the amount that you can spend per week, so if the week is over and there is money left, it goes straight to the goal ❤️.
You can set up an automatic transfer to your “Essentials” space by creating a loop. You just need to sum up how much you spend on fixed expenses such as rent, electricity, and internet, which usually have the same value. Then, near the day you receive your salary, you can set up a loop to send the amount to your “Contas fixas” Space. When it’s time to pay, the money is protected there and has even earned interest.
