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Planning a Large Purchase? Tips for Saving
23-07-2020 | treasuryXL | XE |
When there’s a lot you need to save, it can seem daunting, and you might not know where to start. We want to help you with your savings plan.
Most of our purchases are pretty mundane. Think about the purchases you’ve made this week. They were probably more along the lines of swiping your card at the gas pump and paying your bills online than the lines of booking an extravagant trip or buying a new vehicle, right? But every so often, we will make those larger purchases.
Whether it’s a solid investment for your family and lifestyle (like a home) or a well-deserved bit of fun (like a hot tub), these purchases won’t be as easy. You may have enough saved up to make this purchase right now, but it’s more likely that this purchase is going to require a bit of saving.
When there’s a lot you need to save, it can seem daunting, and you might not know where to start. We wanted to share some of our tips to simplify the saving process for your next exciting purchase.
1. Figure out your timeline and use it to create your savings plan
Depending on the type of purchase that you’re making, there may be a specific date by which you’ll need to make your purchase. Even if you aren’t working towards a set deadline, it’s a good idea to set one for yourself so you can determine how much you want to save each month.
If there’s no rush, you can base your savings plan on how much you can comfortably put away each month, without having to make any changes to your current spending habits. But if you have a target date for your purchase or you’d prefer to shorten the process, read on to see how you can save more each month.
2. Make a separate savings account for this purchase
You may already have a general savings account (and if you don’t, try to open one as soon as possible). But creating a new savings account just for this purchase has a few benefits:
You can visualize how much you’ve saved more quickly and easily;
You won’t be tempted to pull from your emergency savings or other important savings (and vice versa);
You can utilize accounts, tools, and services that you might not be using with your current savings account.
When you open this new savings account, take advantage of this opportunity to shop around your bank’s offerings or even other banks’ accounts. Some banks offer financial planning tools that can help you with your savings, or you could find a bank or account that will generate greater interest on what you’ve saved. Don’t just go with the first option available; take time to find the one that best suits your goals.
3. Reassess your budget
In general, you should revisit your budget on an annual basis, or any time you experience a change in your life or financial circumstances (such as starting or losing a job or combining finances with a spouse). Creating a savings plan is another time when you should take another look at your current spending. Determine how much you could comfortably put away each month, and how long it would take you to save at that rate. If you’re not happy with that timeline, try making a few changes to your budget to improve the efficacy of your savings.
There are some expenses that you can’t cut from your budget. Even when you’re saving up for a big purchase, you’ll still need to pay your bills, buy groceries, and put gas in your car in the meantime. But look at the subscriptions you pay for and the non-essentials that you buy and consider whether you need to budget for them
Even for the essential purchases, small changes like switching from name brands to generic, buying used, or comparison shopping online can add up to increased savings.
Need another currency for your purchase? Consider an Xe money transfer
You could be purchasing property in another country, or you could be making an investment. In these cases, your payment would. Sure, you couldjust make a card payment and let the exchange sort itself out in the payment process, or you could make a wire transfer. But when it comes to large purchases, there are a few unique advantages to using money transfer for your transaction.
When you’re exchanging a large amount of currency, the exchange rate can make a big difference in how much you need to provide. If you pay with your card or make a bank or wire transfer, your transfer will be made at their exchange rate. These exchange rates often come with hidden margins or are designed to favor the provider over you, meaning that you won’t get as much bang for your buck.
If you make your transaction through a money transfer provider, on the other hand, you can check the rates ahead of time and get a rate that you know you’ll be happy with. If you transfer money with Xe, you can guarantee that you’ll get a fair, honest exchange rate that comes from the live currency markets, with no hidden margins.
If you’re not on a time limit, there are a few tools you can take advantage of to ensure that you’ll get the best rate possible for your transfer. You can set a Rate Alert that will let you know as soon as your desired rate is live, or if you have the funds you can set a Market Order that will automatically purchase your currency when your ideal rate is live.
Or, if the rates are currently in your favor but you lack the funds or don’t want to make your purchase right away, a Forward Contract will allow you to lock in the current exchange rate and make your exchange or purchase at a future date.
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About XE.com
XE can help safeguard your profit margins and improve cashflow through quantifying the FX risk you face and implementing unique strategies to mitigate it. XE Business Solutions provides a comprehensive range of currency services and products to help businesses access competitive rates with greater control.
Deciding when to make an international payment and at what rate can be critical. XE Business Solutions work with businesses to protect bottom-line from exchange rate fluctuations, while the currency experts and risk management specialists act as eyes and ears in the market to protect your profits from the world’s volatile currency markets.
Your company money is safe with XE, their NASDAQ listed parent company, Euronet Worldwide Inc., has a multi billion-dollar market capitalization, and an investment grade credit rating. With offices in the UK, Canada, Europe, APAC and North America they have a truly global coverage.
Are you curious to know more about XE?
Maurits Houthoff, senior business development manager at XE.com, is always in for a cup of coffee, mail or call to provide you detailed information.
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Meet our Experts – Vincenzo Masile
21-07-2020 | Vincenzo Masile | treasuryXL
Welcome to interview #9 of the ‘Meet the Expert” series. This time we interviewed our Expert and Treasury Specialist Vincenzo Masile. He is an experienced international finance manager who lived and developed his career in Italy, The United Kingdom, Switzerland and The Netherlands. Currently, he lives in Amsterdam, and enjoys working with people from different countries.
His fields of expertise are:
We asked him 11 questions, let’s go!
1. How did your treasury journey start?
Back in 2008 I was working as a credit manager for a large US agricultural commodities, ADM, at their cocoa operations in The Netherlands and I was asked to spend six months in Switzerland at the newly created treasury hub.
2. What do you like about working in Treasury?
I enjoy the variety of the tasks and the communication with the different company stakeholders.
3. What is your Treasury Expertise?
Cash Management, People Management, Project Management, FX, Reporting, Banks Relationships
4. Do you have examples of risk mitigation, creation of opportunities and/or cost savings?
I was the PMO of a hedging project at Netapp for the EMEA region back to 2012. Cost savings opportunities were identified improving the process accuracy on Oracle 11 and simplifying the reporting to corporate.
At Affidea I changed the cash flow forecast reporting moving from a fully manual version to a partial automated version. This change generated time saving and more accuracy.
5. What has been your best experience in your treasury career until today?
On April this year I completed an eighteen months assignment at Affidea B.V., a Dutch pan-European medical healthcare and I worked mainly from their finance ops in Budapest and occasionally from their holding office in Amsterdam.
It was a very interesting and valuable experience.
6. What has been your biggest challenge in treasury?
Lack of cash visibility especially at country level has been one of the biggest challenges I had to face to.
7. What’s the most important lesson that you’ve learned as a treasurer?
A treasurer has a watchdog role over all aspects of financial management and indeed cash will be always the King!
8. How have you seen the role of Corporate Treasury evolve over the years?
Treasury evolved from a traditional finance role into a business enabler supporting the company growth. In that respect effective communication & collaboration across different areas of business is the key.
9. The coronavirus is undoubtedly an unprecedented crisis. In general, can you elaborate on the impact this virus has on treasury from your perspective?
My view here is that treasurers should take the following steps going forward:
10. What developments do you expect in corporate treasury in the near and further future?
Technology will play a major role in the future and this can be only beneficial to corporate treasury. Payments platforms, Fintech, Trade finance blockchain solutions, outline that the future is already here.
11. What is your best advice for businesses without a Treasurer?
It depends on the size of the company but generally speaking I strongly recommend to have on board a treasurer.
Vincenzo Masile
Treasury Expert/ Credit Risk Manager
Does your business need support in Treasury or a Treasury QuickScan?
Cultural differences and Trade Finance
| 20-07-2020 | Ger van Rosmalen | treasuryXL
What do Trade Finance and Cultural Differences have in common?
If you want to do business internationally, it is important to understand which risks you could encounter. These are not only payment or transport risks, but certainly also communication risks
This blog is in Dutch language.
Over betaal-en transport risico’s laten mensen zich graag voorlichten en op dat punt gaat men graag met de opgedane kennis aan de slag. Toch levert dat niet altijd het beoogde resultaat op. Hoe komt dat dan? Vaak denken wij Nederlanders met onze buitenlandse zakenpartners hele goede gesprekken te voeren terwijl de nuances van de gesprekspartners volledig aan ons voorbij gaan. We begrijpen niet dat er iets anders bedoeld wordt dan wat er wordt gezegd. Dan kan het zomaar gebeuren dat de deal aan je neus voorbij gaat.
(H)erkennen
Erkennen en herkennen dat er culturele verschillen zijn is een goed startpunt. De volgende stap is hoe maak ik mij die kennis eigen en hoe ga ik dat toepassen in mijn dagelijks werk? Kennis vergaren is kennis in huis halen door gebruik te maken van ervaren trainers/docenten die de cultuur van het bedrijf als startpunt nemen om je vervolgens mee te nemen in jouw wereld van internationaal zakendoen. Met welke delen van de wereld doe je zaken? Leren hoe je met die zakenpartners op een effectieve manier kunt communiceren. Dat kan zijn als je elkaar ontmoet of per email, videoconference of telefoongesprek spreekt. In ieder van deze communicatievormen zijn andere aandachtspunten waar je rekening mee kan houden. Immers bij een telefoongesprek spreek je elkaar maar zie je elkaar niet en gaat het om een andere vorm van communicatie dan wanneer je elkaar via een video conference spreekt. Nu zie je elkaar ook en kan jouw zakenpartner ineens non-verbale signalen afgeven die je in een telefoongesprek niet had gezien.
Culturele verschillen binnen het bedrijf
Culturele verschillen is in mijn ogen een ondergewaardeerd onderwerp in het internationaal zakendoen. Ik ben er van overtuigd wat het bedrijven kan brengen en heb diverse trainingen mogen bijwonen bij bedrijven. Er ging een wereld voor de mensen open, zoveel voorbeelden van miscommunicatie, elkaar niet begrijpen en soms herkenning als voorbeelden worden gegeven hoe het mis kan gaan en ik mensen zie lachen die dergelijke situatie hebben meegemaakt. Ik heb ook een keer een training bijgewoond bij een groot internationaal bedrijf waar ik dagvoorzitter was. Doel was om te praten over culturele verschillen als je over de hele wereld zaken doet. Er waren 20 deelnemers met 18 verschillende nationaliteiten. Het bleek dat culturele verschillen binnen het bedrijf zelf al een groot probleem bleek te zijn. Collega’s die elkaar niet begrijpen, die dicht klappen als wij “Hollanders” de druk even stevig opvoeren. Ik kan u vertellen de trainer heeft die dag niet gesproken over culturele verschillen met buitenlandse zakenpartners maar wel over culturele verschillen binnen het bedrijf. Het was een openbaring en verademing voor de deelnemers om daar over te kunnen spreken. Deelnemers die vanuit hun culturele achtergrond niet snel op de voorgrond zullen treden konden en mochten zich uitspreken. Het is een zeer openhartige training geworden wat de collegialiteit een enorme positieve boost heeft gegeven.
Wil je meer weten hoe een beter begrip van culturele verschillen jou verder kan helpen?
Neem dan contact op
Ger van Rosmalen
Trade Finance Specialist