How you can improve your financial well-being

Even though financial literacy is a necessary skill that is essential for our daily lives, only one in three adult European citizens have minimal financial literacy. We explain which steps you can take to optimise your finances.

Having finances under control, i.e. financial well-being is essential for our peace of mind and a basic pillar for achieving our personal goals. Knowing the basics of home economics and personal finance will help you to optimise your money and be more efficient with your spending.

Set financial goals

Clearly define your short, medium and long-term financial objectives, setting realistic and achievable goals. Whether you want to save for an emergency, buy a house or pay for your children’s education, breaking down your financial goals into smaller, achievable steps will allow you to celebrate achievements as you go along.

Create a budget

Write down how much money you earn each month and how much you spend in an Excel spreadsheet, diary or personal finance application to create a budget tailored to your situation. This budget should include income such as wages, investments, state benefits and fixed expenses such as rent/mortgage, credit, food and other non-essential expenses such as eating out, holidays and savings.

Pay bills on time

Ensure you are up-to-date with your bill payments by setting up a direct debit, i.e., authorising your bank to automatically debit your current account regularly and recurrently for the services you use: water, electricity, gas, mobile phone, etc. You can also use bill payment applications and set up payment reminders by email or SMS.

Prioritise debt repayment

Less debt means more funds available for unforeseen expenses and more emotional well-being. Prioritise repayment of debts with higher interest rates, and consider possible debt consolidation to reduce interest.

Save regularly

Establish an automatic savings routine with a reverse budgeting strategy, which involves choosing a savings goal, such as paying for school fees, deciding how much you want to contribute each month and setting this amount aside before spreading out the rest of your expenses. Of course, you don’t have to set a goal, but having a purpose can always motivate you to make the effort if none other than for an emergency fund.

11Onze is always by your side

Empowering citizens through financial education has been at the heart of 11Onze since its inception. Expanding our community’s knowledge of economics and finance, making all the necessary tools available to them, is one of the founding pillars of the first community fintech in Catalonia.

Since the launch of 11Onze Escola, a project that offers training sessions on the world of fintech so that schools, companies and professional associations throughout the country can teach their students the basics of economics and financial matters, we have a unique platform that complements the school curriculum by educating young people in monetary matters and provides them with tools for the creation of wealth.

With the same purpose of training our community, we promote the lessons in the Learning section, which offers content such as the series El Diner, the Formacions 11Onze made by the employees themselves or our short Courses. In addition, in the Descobreix section of 11Onze TV you will also find pieces by our agents on topics of interest for our day-to-day work. Because from the very beginning it was clear to us that without a good financial education, we will hardly be a free society that can decide its future.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, go to Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the ultimate safe-haven asset: physical gold.

This 2025 has been a year that will go down in history for the true explosion of gold. Beyond occasional spikes, the yellow metal has reaffirmed its role as a safe haven, a diversification asset, and a sign of distrust toward conventional assets. Now, with the 2026 horizon ahead, it is worth asking: is this only a temporary surge or the prelude to a new cycle? And above all, what will it mean for savers and investors like you?

For almost a decade, gold lived in a kind of exile. Modest returns, institutional disinterest, and a dominant narrative proclaiming that technological assets —and even cryptocurrencies— were “the future.” In this context, the yellow metal seemed like a relic useful only at specific moments of turbulence.

But 2025 has completely turned this script upside down. The price of gold has not only climbed; it has done so by breaking psychological and structural levels it had not breached for years. Financial demand has regained unexpected vigour: in the United States alone, gold ETFs recorded a 58% year-on-year increase in the third quarter, according to World Gold Council data. It is a move that had not been seen in a long time and reveals a profound shift in investor sentiment.

This reappearance is not accidental. It responds to a cocktail of factors that, combined, create the kind of scenario that has historically fueled gold bull markets:

• Geopolitical uncertainty. Conflicts in Europe, rising tension in the Middle East, and a reconfiguration of global power among blocs. When political maps tremble, capital seeks refuge.
• Inflation that does not give way. Despite the slowdown from the 2023 peak, inflation remains above central bank targets. The loss of purchasing power becomes a real threat… and gold returns as the traditional shield against this phenomenon.
• Structural doubts about the dollar. U.S. fiscal policy, runaway debt, and de-dollarization moves led by emerging countries put pressure on the hegemonic currency. When the dollar hesitates, gold advances.
  

Taken together, these factors have made gold, far from being “out of place,” regain center stage in the financial arena, reaffirming its key function as an asset for preserving value.

The new driving force

If in the past retail investors were the ones who set gold’s bull cycles, 2025 has made a deeper change evident: demand has come from the system’s major players. And when central banks move, the market listens.

Over recent years, these institutions have been strengthening their gold reserves as part of a strategy of gradual de-dollarization and risk diversification. According to the World Gold Council, this trend will not only continue but will accelerate, and there is no indication that it should slow. Emerging countries —led by China, India, and Turkey— are at the center of the movement, but even some European central banks, have resumed purchases after decades of inactivity.

Added to this institutional demand is another engine: listed financial capital. In the United States, ETFs linked to physical gold have absorbed more than 37,000 million dollars in net inflows through September, a figure not seen since the last major bull cycle. The entry of these volumes shows a return of “smart money” toward tangible, resilient assets that are independent of monetary policy.

This context, combined with solid fundamentals, has led multiple international analysts to revise their forecasts upward. According to  Mining, the price of gold could stand between 4,400 and 5,300 dollars per ounce in the coming year, a scenario that would place the metal in territory it has never reached.

But one of the most discussed predictions is Goldman Sachs’s, which anticipates an additional 6% increase through mid-2026. The determining factor, according to the institution, will not be jewelry demand or speculative funds, but the structural accumulation by central banks, a slow, steady, and extraordinarily powerful market force.

The key factors that explain this rise are mainly:

• Weakening of the dollar: the loss of confidence in the dollar’s role as the hegemonic currency pushes entire economies to strengthen tangible alternatives such as gold. 
• Expectations of rate cuts in the U.S.: lower rates reduce bond yields and make gold —which does not generate cash flows but preserves value— more attractive.
• Geopolitical and trade tensions: global fragmentation creates an environment in which risk assets suffer and safe havens thrive. 
• Accumulation of reserves outside the West: emerging countries seek to shield themselves against sanctions, devaluations, and financial instability. 
  

Taken together, these elements do not describe a simple cyclical rebound. They point to a reconfiguration of the monetary order, where gold once again acts as a natural counterweight to fiat currencies and to an increasingly fragile financial system.

Where are markets looking in 2026?

If it is confirmed that gold can reach 4,400–5,300 dollars per ounce, we are facing a profound mutation of the market: gold would cease to be an “alternative asset” and become, de facto, an essential asset for preserving value. And this idea, which until recently seemed exaggerated, is today a serious hypothesis in many research offices.

The levers sustaining this possible new stage are clear. On the one hand, institutional and central-bank demand maintains a solid pace, driven by the need to diversify reserves and reduce monetary dependencies. In addition, the macro environment continues to play in the metal’s favor: if inflation persists or central banks choose to keep interest rates high, gold strengthens its role as a natural hedge against the loss of purchasing power.

Geopolitics adds even more pressure, because any shock between China and the U.S., a new episode in the Near East, or tensions in supply chains can immediately reactivate flows into safe-haven assets. And if, in parallel, bonds offer meager returns and stock markets enter phases of volatility, the metal shines again as a stable alternative amid the noise.

Even so, the path is not free of risks. An unexpected tightening of interest rates or a rebound in the dollar could slow the rise. There is also the phenomenon known as gold fatigue: when everyone takes for granted that it will keep rising, the market can lose momentum. And finally, it cannot be ruled out that other emerging assets, such as certain cryptocurrencies or industrial metals such as silver, capture part of investor attention.

Despite these nuances, the consensus is clear: if 2026 confirms the current trajectory, we will not be talking simply about a rebound, but about a change of era in gold’s role within the global financial system.

Impact for savers, investors, and the Fintech ecosystem

In an environment of persistent uncertainty, gold once again acts as a protective cushion for the saver: it does not replace a complete portfolio, but a moderate exposure can help soften monetary or stock-market shocks. At the same time, the Fintech revolution has democratized access to the metal: today it can be invested in through physical purchase, ETFs, digital platforms, fractional investment, or tokenization systems that were previously unthinkable.

For the end customer, the rule remains the same as always: balance and diversification. Neither concentrating everything in gold, nor ignoring an asset that has shown resilience when other markets weaken. And it should be kept in mind that, in many European countries, investment gold enjoys a specific tax treatment, an element that can influence the real return of any strategy.

If 2025 has been the year of the breakout, 2026 could be the year of consolidation. But nothing is automatic: gold’s trajectory will depend on inflation, the dollar, geopolitics, and central bank decisions. Gold is not a magic wand, but it is a key piece within a broader financial puzzle that the 11Onze community must observe with a critical and informed outlook.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, enter Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the safe-haven asset par excellence: physical gold.

Teleworking, popularised by the confinement, is often followed by timetables that are extended to ungodly hours and that do not always clearly delineate between work and personal life. The law sets out workers’ rights and businesses’ obligations, but can we really switch off?

The European Parliament claims that the right-to-disconnect should be a fundamental right of the European Union (EU), and so it specifies in a resolution passed on 21 January. At the national level, this right is included in article 88 of Organic Law 3/2018 on Data Protection and Guarantee of Digital Rights, in article 20 bis of the Workers’ Statute, and also in article 18 of Royal Decree-Law 28/2020 on remote work.

It is worth remembering that remote workers have the same rights as on-site workers, and that the businesses’ working hours and flexibility may depend on what is established in collective bargaining, although this regulation is designed so that we are not obliged to respond to work-related emails, calls or instant messaging during our rest time or holiday period.

On the other hand, businesses have the obligation to keep a record of worked hours, regardless of their size, and to guarantee the exercise of this right through an internal policy and protocols that establish the guidelines to be followed by the entire workforce. Find out how to protect your right-to-disconnect in the video below!

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!

Year-on-year inflation in Spain in 2022 was 8.4%. Preciosos 11Onze gold has appreciated by 9.5%. In February 2022 we launched Preciosos 11Onze, offering members of our community to buy gold to protect themselves against inflation. Almost a year later, the gold price confirms the forecast.

It is no secret that an analysis of the historical evolution of the value of gold shows that, despite some occasional downward fluctuations, it is a real safe-haven asset that protects our savings, especially in times of economic crisis. This was obvious during the three-year period of the sanitary crisis, when gold prices increased by 40%.

After the return to ‘normality’, 2022 was seen as the year to consolidate the economic recovery. Even so, geopolitical uncertainty and the energy crisis, together with high inflation and currency tension due to the loss of value of the euro against the dollar, caused many families to lose much of their purchasing power.

A safe haven in the face of uncertainty

In this context, buying gold was not an investment or an instrument of speculation, but one of the few options people had to safeguard their money. That is why we launched Preciosos 11Onze, as a tool for our community to protect their savings in an extremely turbulent context.

The strength of the dollar and uncertainty about the possible rise in interest rates contributed to the fluctuation in the price of gold during 2021, but by early 2022 a new upward trend was confirmed. So, since then, has it maintained its reputation as a safe-haven asset? Without a shadow of a doubt, yes. When we launched Preciosos 11Onze, an ounce of gold was trading at €1.599, and today it is priced at €1.749, a rise in value of almost 9.5%.

This means that in the face of the depreciation of the euro due to inflation and competition from the dollar, having your money in gold would not only have prevented the loss of its value, but would have increased it considerably. Of course, it should be borne in mind that historical returns are not indicative of future returns and that any purchase of precious metals carries some risk, but as we have seen, leaving your money in the bank can be much worse.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, enter Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the safe-haven asset par excellence: physical gold.

Quantum computing is no longer science fiction. Governments, banks, and large corporations are investing billions with the promise of revolutionizing industry, digital security, and also the financial system. But to what extent can it truly transform money? And what is actually true behind concepts such as the “quantum financial system”?

For decades, the financial system has advanced in parallel with the development of classical computing. Each leap in computing power has made it possible to process more information in less time, accelerating markets, making financial products more sophisticated, and exponentially multiplying the volume of available data. This progress, however, has a structural limit.

The problem is not only the amount of data, but the nature of the challenges facing modern finance. The management of systemic risk, the optimization of global portfolios with thousands of interdependent variables, real-time fraud detection, or the simulation of crisis scenarios do not grow linearly, but exponentially. Each new variable does not add complexity: it multiplies it.

In this scenario, traditional computers are forced to simplify models, accept approximations, or discard possible scenarios because calculating them all becomes computationally unfeasible. This is where the system begins to show signs of exhaustion: not because information is lacking, but because there is a lack of real capacity to understand it as a whole.

It is precisely at this point of saturation that quantum computing appears as a possible paradigm shift. Not so much to perform the same calculations faster, but to address problems that, until now, were practically unsolvable using classical computational logic.

What is quantum computing, really?

Quantum computing is not a faster version of today’s computers, but a radically different way of processing information. While classical computing is based on bits that can only take two possible states —0 or 1— quantum computing uses qubits, units of information that can exist simultaneously in multiple states thanks to the physical phenomenon of quantum superposition.

This property does not mean that a quantum computer “knows everything at once,” as is often simplistically presented, but rather that it is capable of exploring a much broader solution space in a single computational process. Instead of advancing step by step, as a conventional computer does, it can analyze multiple possible paths in parallel.

However, this advantage is not universal. Quantum computing does not replace classical computing; it complements it. It is especially powerful in problems where complexity grows explosively and where traditional methods are forced to simplify, discard variables, or assume approximations.

This is the case for:

• Complex optimizations, such as the efficient allocation of financial resources with thousands of interdependent constraints.
• Massive simulations, which make it possible to model economic or market scenarios with a number of variables that is impossible to exhaustively address with classical computers.
• Analysis of large volumes of data, especially when subtle patterns must be identified in highly noisy environments.
• Advanced cryptography, both in the potential ability to break current systems and in the development of new security mechanisms resistant to quantum attacks.
  

This potential explains why global financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, or BBVA are already collaborating with technology companies such as IBM or Google on experimental projects. Not to reinvent money, but to understand to what extent this new computing capability can improve risk management, operational efficiency, and the security of the financial system.

Can a “quantum financial system” exist?

Alongside the real progress of quantum computing, a much more diffuse concept has gained visibility in recent years: that of the quantum financial system, or QFS. It is often presented as a future global monetary network, fully secure, decentralized, immune to corruption, and in some versions even backed by gold.

As of today, there is no operational quantum financial system, nor one in the process of being implemented. No central bank, no multilateral organization, and no top-tier financial institution has announced the creation of a new monetary architecture based on quantum technology. Nor is there any official roadmap aimed at replacing key infrastructures of the international financial system, such as SWIFT, with quantum computers.

This institutional vacuum is crucial. Monetary systems do not change due to an isolated technological innovation, but through complex political, regulatory, and geopolitical processes. Monetary history shows that technology can facilitate change —as computing did with electronic payments— but it is never the main driver. The power to issue money, regulate it, and control its flows remains in the hands of states and central banks.

This does not mean that quantum computing is irrelevant to finance. On the contrary: it can profoundly transform how risks are calculated, how data is protected, or how processes are optimized. What it will not do, however, is redefine the rules of the monetary game on its own. Thinking that a new computing capability can replace institutions, sovereignties, or power balances is to confuse a tool with a system.

In this sense, the QFS narrative responds more to the need to find technological solutions to structural problems of the financial system —distrust, opacity, or instability— than to a realistic project. Technology can improve the system, but it cannot depoliticize it.

Where it can actually transform the financial system

The real potential of quantum technology applied to finance is far less spectacular than some narratives promise, but also far more solid and plausible. It does not point to a sudden rupture of the system, but to a gradual improvement in those areas where complexity has clearly exceeded the capacity of traditional models, such as:

• Risk management and systemic stability. Current risk models often fail in extreme scenarios, as was demonstrated in 2008. The quantum ability to simulate thousands of complex scenarios could improve the detection of vulnerabilities before they turn into crises. 
• Fraud prevention. With millions of transactions per second, identifying fraudulent patterns is increasingly difficult. Quantum algorithms could detect anomalies far more efficiently.
• Cryptography and security. The dark side of quantum computing is that it could break current encryption systems. This is why central banks and governments are already working on post-quantum cryptography, not to create new money, but to protect existing money. 
• Efficiency in global markets. Better calculations can reduce costs, errors, and intermediaries, especially in international payments.

What quantum computing will not do

It is important to say this without ambiguity. Quantum computing can improve tools, processes, and computational capabilities, but it cannot solve problems that are not technical, but structural and political. Confusing a technological innovation with a systemic solution is a recurring mistake in times of change. For this reason, it should be kept in mind that:

• Quantum technology will not eliminate inflation, because inflation is not a computational problem, but one of monetary policy, money supply, debt, and confidence. No computer, no matter how powerful, can prevent central banks from printing money or states from mismanaging their finances. 
• Nor will it guarantee political transparency. Transparency depends on rules, institutions, and democratic will, not on data-processing capacity. An opaque system can remain opaque even if it runs on the most advanced technology in the world.
• Quantum computing will not eliminate corruption, because corruption does not arise from programming errors, but from power relations, perverse incentives, and lack of oversight. History shows that technology is often neutral: it can be used both to monitor abuses and to perfect them. 
• And finally, it will not automatically democratize wealth creation. Access to technology, as with all major innovations, tends to concentrate first in the hands of those who already have capital, knowledge, and influence. Without institutional changes, the gap may even widen.
  

In essence, money will continue to be a tool of power, regulated by states, central banks, and geopolitical interests. Quantum computing can make the system faster, more efficient, or more sophisticated, but changing the processor does not change the system. The rules of the game are not written by technology, but by politics.

Before the quantum future, a monitored digital present

The real debate is already here and is deeply digital. Central bank digital currencies are advancing as an imminent reality and raise immediate questions about privacy, control, and economic freedom. In this context, the supposed quantum financial system is relegated to a distant horizon, while the total digitalization of money —with all its political and social implications— is being deployed with little public debate.

Faced with this scenario, the role of the citizen is not to adhere to technological promises, but to understand how the monetary system really works, diversify risks, and reduce dependence on salvational narratives. History shows that, in times of experimentation and financial uncertainty, the protection of wealth tends to seek refuge in what does not depend on algorithms or issuers: real, scarce, and auditable assets. Because, in the end, technology may change the tools, but the future of money will not be magical or automatic: it will continue to be, above all, a political decision.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, enter Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the safe-haven asset par excellence: physical gold.

Starting a new year is like starting a notebook. This 2022 has to be, by force, a year of plenty, because the previous two years have been pandemic and have been a real lesson for us, as well as helping us to prioritise our lives. As well as helping us to prioritise our lives, they have certainly helped us to learn how to save, and now it’s time to put all these lessons into practice!

To start the year off on the right foot, agent Silvia Granado gives us 11 tips for saving for 365 days. So that you have enough money left over to go on that weekend getaway you’ve been thinking about for a long time, or to shop during the sales, or to pay for that language course you know you need.

Let’s start with the basics: buy what you really need, organise a box with 12 envelopes for the 12 months of the year where you can hide some notes that will add up to a good amount at the end of the year, save the extra payments right away in the savings account, make a budget for holidays and divide the amount by 12 months to know how much you have to save each month, reduce lunches and dinners out and review subscriptions to content platforms. Want to know more tips? Check out the other half in the video below!

11Onze is becoming a phenomenon as the first Fintech community in Catalonia. Now, it releases the first version of El Canut, the super app of 11Onze, for Android and Apple. El Canut, the first universal account can be opened in Catalan territory.

Households reduce savings accumulated during the pandemic to sustain spending in the face of sharp price rises. The fall in the savings rate is reflected in the decline in household financial wealth.

While rising prices have been strangling families for months, the rise in central bank interest rates to try to curb inflation is pushing up mortgage prices, adding up to a perfect storm, forcing households to use the savings accumulated during the sanitary crisis to maintain the same level of consumption at much higher prices.

Data collected by the Bank of Spain and the National Statistics Institute (INE) suggest that households saved some 269 billion euros during the peak phases of the pandemic. Even so, the gradual reopening of the economy and the rising cost of living has caused a large part of these accumulated savings to evaporate.

The INE report shows that in the third quarter of 2022, the household savings rate stood at 5.7% of disposable income, the lowest figure in four years. It should be borne in mind that this rate is calculated by eliminating seasonal and calendar effects, due to the fact that savings tend to fall in the first and third quarters and rise in the other two. If we disregard these seasonal adjustments, the data show a negative savings rate of -3.2% compared with 6.4% in the same quarter of the previous year.

Less saving and less investment

Although the Bank of Spain has improved its GDP growth forecast by three-tenths of a percentage point to 1.6%, the forecast for private consumption falls by seven-tenths of a percentage point from 1.9% to 1.2%. On the one hand, the rise in the cost of living has ‘artificially’ increased consumption figures, but, on the other hand, the rise in interest rates and the reduction in the accumulated savings pool mean that the increase in household spending is expected to be weak. A slowdown in consumption could directly affect economic activity as it is a fundamental component of GDP.

Another consequence of the increase in spending and the reduction in savings capacity caused by inflation is reflected in a decrease in the household investment rate. The stock of household financial assets, whether in equity and investment fund (IF) holdings or a reduction in bank deposits, has been reduced by 53,431 million euros, or -2%, a fall not seen since the early 2020s.

In this context, the latest macroeconomic projections of the European Central Bank (ECB) indicate that although real household consumption is expected to recover gradually as the fall in real household income due to inflation and energy supply problems subside, the household saving rate will continue to fall this year to a level close to that recorded before the pandemic.

If you want to discover the best option to protect your savings, enter Preciosos 11Onze. We will help you buy at the best price the safe-haven asset par excellence: physical gold.

We close a year in which the general rise in prices has made it difficult for many families to make ends meet. How will the economy evolve in 2023? What can we do to adjust the family budget? We talk about it with Xavi Viñolas, Editor of 11Onze and Gemma Vallet, Director of 11Onze District, in a new episode of La Plaça, Territori 17’s radio show.

With a year-on-year inflation rate of 8.4%, 2022 has been disastrous for many families who have seen their purchasing power fall to unsustainable levels. Runaway price rises have pushed up the cost of living at a time when many households were just recovering from the shock of the pandemic. What lies ahead for 2023?

This year, we will see whether central banks can halt the rise in prices without neutering the recovery of economies. Financial analysts predict that inflation will fall to 5%, but as Viñolas points out, “in a context of uncertainty and high economic volatility, we have to take any economic forecast with a grain of salt, the same experts told us that current inflation would only last a few months”.

Proactivity in reducing expenses

Now, more than ever, it is necessary to have a piggy bank for possible unforeseen events. But, faced with an economic context that does not favour saving and where our money has lost a good part of its value, it is not easy to reduce our monthly expenses in order to save.

The editor of 11Onze suggests we be proactive and look at reducing some fixed expenses, which are not always difficult to cut. Services contracted on a permanent basis, such as home or car insurance, can be renegotiated, or we can simply switch to a provider that offers a policy without permanence and more suited to our needs, which can be much cheaper.

Likewise, suppliers of utilities, such as electricity, can give us some room for manoeuvre, changing the contracted power or switching from the free market to the regulated market. Modifying the contract or looking for more reasonable offers can mean considerable savings and help us to balance the budget at the end of the month.

If you want to discover fair insurance for your home and for society, check 11Onze Segurs.

The rise in electricity prices has triggered interest in photovoltaic self-consumption, which has been proven to be the best option to avoid high energy costs. In this episode of La Plaça, we discuss the increase in demand for solar panels with Raúl Rodríguez, Managing Director of the Federation of Installers’ Guilds of Catalonia (FEGICAT).

The growing trend of individuals and businesses generating their own electricity using solar panels has led to a doubling of installed capacity in the last 12 months. This increase in demand has been driven mainly by two factors: on the one hand, the falling costs of photovoltaic technologies and, on the other hand, inflation, which has particularly affected energy prices.

The high interest in installing solar panels, reducing reliance on the traditional electricity supply system, has meant that businesses in the sector are unable to cope with the increased demand. The lack of qualified personnel aggravates the situation, as Rodríguez explains, “the sector is in a position to incorporate, immediately, 18,000 workers”.

Matching supply with labour demand

The challenge of the energy transition and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, as requested by the European Union, means that in Catalonia “we will need 170,000 workers in the sector”, Rodríguez points out, and continues, “we are talking about minimum salaries of 1,500 euros per month in 14 payments and with an impressive future projection”.

“This is a competitive opportunity for the country, as long as we know how to take advantage of it”, the Managing Director of FEGICAT warns of the need to balance the market with qualified labour, promoting the training of new professionals. An opportunity for the country in which the public administration has to play a fundamental role, in avoiding red tape, promoting training and increasing tax incentives.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!

The limitation of the price of gas has lowered the price of electricity and gas compared to 2022. However, energy consumption is one of the most expensive fixed costs for Catalan households, so we propose ideas to reduce consumption.

We leave behind the holidays and winter begins to peek timidly to the head. This combination forces us to consider how to save on heating, because the pockets are shorter than ever at the beginning of the year. For this reason, from 11Onze the head of agents Mireia Cano raises 5 tricks to heat the house saving to the maximum.

1. Avoid sudden changes. When heating the house or a room, either with a stove or heating, do it gradually. Set a low temperature and raise it as the room warms up. If you set the temperature too high all of a sudden, the energy demand will be much higher.
2. Take advantage of the hours of sunshine. We do it little in winter, but it is important. During the hours of sunshine, remove the curtains. If it is not cold at midday, take the opportunity to open the windows. The sun’s rays will warm the floor and the interior walls of the house. It’s not much, but every little helps!
3. Insulate well. It is necessary to have good insulation, if not you can lose 30% of the heat of the house. Windows and doors are key. In the video, Mireia Cano suggests some homemade ideas that can help you. Something very simple and important is to lower the blinds every night so that the coldness does not radiate through the windows.
4. Heat efficiently. It is not necessary to heat the whole house if you do not use all the rooms. Do you need the dining room? The bedroom? The bathroom? Then heat these spaces. It is obvious that air circulation will tend to balance the temperature, so what you should do is close the doors of the rooms you do not need.
5. Invest in fabrics. If you don’t want it to get cold, keep the house warm. What does this mean? That the fabrics retain heat very well, therefore, carpets and curtains will help us to have a warmer home.

And finally, Mireia Cano adds an extra tip: heat the bed the way our grandparents did, with hot water bottles. Or, if you want, with bags of seeds that are heated in the microwave. Saving is key, for the pocket and for the planet. Applying these tricks won’t make you rich, but it sure will save a little. And as the saying goes, every stone makes a wall.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!