The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a free trade agreement among several Pacific Rim countries which aims to eliminate trade barriers and establish a common frame in intellectual property, environmental regulation and internet usage, amongst others things. It kicked off in 2005 when Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore signed a similar treaty, but it really got boosted after it awakened the interest of the USA. In 2015 new countries joined: Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam, putting an end to 7 years of complex negotiations. The TPP represents 40% of the global economy and could become the largest regional treaty to date.

After all Christmas expenses and annual bills, which are usually paid during January, it is time to live austerely to avoid getting drowned in the post-holiday budget crunch. Here we propose 5 keys to overcome this crunch with positive energy:

• Make a list of all debts in 2016: calculate your annual salary and discount your total debts, divide it by 12 and you will have your real salary and know how much you can spend per month, if you actually want to pay off your debts.

• Cut off unnecessary expenses: like trips, going out for dinner, press subscriptions, paid TV; realize what is really important and indispensable for you, and what you can sacrifice to face this difficult financial season.

You will be surprised to know that $ 444.000 millions coming from remittances are injected in developing economies, (which will be like the full GDP of Sweden, or almost the triple of Ecuador) it seems quite obvious how remittances are necessary and in some cases, vital for millions of families around the world.

Taking into account that remittances save 750 millions of people from poverty, it is easy to understand the positive effects of this money coming from expats who have abandoned their home country in search for a better life. In under-developed nations, remittances are the engine of the economy and as an example, just in Latin America it represented $ 66.000 millions in 2014.

One of the most outstanding benefits of the remittances is without a doubt education. Millions of families can support their children´s education costs thanks to the money that family or friends send from abroad, and otherwise it would be very difficult or even impossible to confront school fees. The same happens with nutrition and good health; children and entire families can escape from devastating malnutrition thanks to that extra help.

The first thing you need to take into account to manage your savings well is to spend time on it. Take at least half an hour every week to study your finances and elaborate a picture of the situation. You can download your bank statement and go through all the expenses and bills, highlight the ones you don´t really know where they come from and add your daily receipts. By doing this you will understand what your mandatory expenses are and how many unnecessary things you purchase monthly. This will also allow you to understand on what you spend most money. With all this information you will be ready to make a monthly budget with all your fixed-costs.

One of the most common mistakes is to spend more than you earn. Credit cards are very dangerous if you don´t use them smartly and this also applies to micro-credits. Before asking for a loan you should make a budget that reflects your income and expenses and revise if you can really afford it.