Are You Struggling To Manage Your Money?
It isn’t easy to manage your money, to pay all the bills and still have money left to do the fun things in life! If you are struggling to manage your money these tips will help you make your money work harder!
Taking control of your money isn’t difficult in theory, in practice it is hard. It can take time and effort to understand the best use of your money. Learning how to use credit to make it work for you is possible too, but only if you are careful!
The First Steps To Managing your Money
There is a lot of advice as to the best practices for managing your money, the simplest and most effective way is to create a budget. Don’t do a rough budget in your head, you will forget something!
Writing down a budget or using an app to help you keep track of your money and what bills you need to pay, is key to seeing how far your money needs to stretch.
Creating a budget is easy, you write down all bills and all money coming in, hopefully, you have money left. If not you need some real help from a professional, often there are charities that can help with this!
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What is difficult is sticking to a budget, especially if you have never tried before. There are some great resources that will help with this, I recommend Dave Ramsey, his books are really easy to follow and full of useful information when creating a budget!
Don’t Forget These Expenses
When you create a budget it is easy to forget some of those less regular bills that you need to pay. A great example of this is the holiday season, putting money aside all year will help to reduce the strain at Christmas time when shopping and gift buying are a top priority!
If you want things during the year you need to put money aside for these expenses.
Examples Of Expenses
If you are wondering what expenses I am talking about this list will help you:
- Christmas presents and birthday presents
- Holiday in the summer
- School holidays and the expenses associated with kids off school
- Car insurance, if you pay this yearly
- Car service and any costs involved with maintaining your vehicle
- Home maintenance and any repairs needed during the year
These are just some examples of what expenses can occur during the year, if you have money set aside for these, you are less likely to borrow money!
Using Credit Poorly
Yes, it is easy to get access to credit and there are times that you can use credit to help you! Getting a cash-back credit card is a great example of using credit to give you money.
However, unless you are paying off this debt every month, the money that you make isn’t worth the expense that you pay in interest.
Debt isn’t a good idea, in my opinion, it allows us to spend more money than we have, then if you don’t pay it off you end up paying the credit company interest on top of the purchase price, and this, in my opinion, isn’t a good place.
Once you find yourself in debt, it is very difficult to get out off, it weighs heavily on your finances and what you have available to pay for things. It can lead to a vicious cycle of debt, you have to pay the bill but then can’t afford this month’s expenses and end up putting that on credit too!
There is a way out, but it will take time and a lot of commitment, you will have to stick to a budget and manage your money carefully!
When You Choose To Save
Making the choice to save money is different from putting money away at the end of the month, the money you didn’t spend! This seldom happens and it isn’t a great plan either!
You have to decide to save when you get paid, even a small amount is better than nothing and this takes commitment. It is hard in the beginning to put money aside but it helps to reduce the need for credit in the future!
Therefore, if you are struggling to manage your money the first step is to create a budget, know what you have coming in and what you need to pay your bills. Once you have that information it gives you more control and understanding of where you are financially. If you are struggling to create a budget or have more going out than coming in, this information will help when you seek the expert advice you need!
Don’t leave it too long, don’t use the excuse that you will start fresh next month, start now, and take back control of your money, you will be thankful that you did!
