When it comes to money, I have a love-hate relationship with it. I love earning it but I find it really difficult to let loose sometimes and enjoy spending. I’m a saveaholic and it’s something that I’m grateful to have. Why? Well, it’s helped me pay off big tax bills without having to eat into my savings and I’ve got some great savings that mean I’m paying in advance for big things coming up in life, like my wedding for example.
Myself and my partner at the ages of 29 and 30, will likely find ourselves by March 2022 as landlords with our first property for rent and a residential property for ourselves. It’s a dream I’ve had from a young age and to achieve it so early on is influenced a lot by our savings. Here are some tips to take control of your finances this year.
*This is a collaborative post. Image Source
*This is a collaborative post. 1. Consolidate your debts
Debt is never something you want to get yourself too deep into. Everyone will likely have some form of debt, whether it’s a student loan, a mortgage, a payment plan for your car or a particular product in your home, etc. It’s important that where you do have debt, you consolidate it with a site like debtconsolidation.com. Consolidating your debt makes it easier to manage your money a lot easier, especially as there will be certain debts that will have a lot of interest or fees attached. It can be hard to keep up with everything at once, so it’s good to bring it all to one central place.
2. Have a budget
A budget is essential because it helps you keep track of your income and your outgoings. What many people fail to do when trying to save money is to create a budget. Unfortunately, we’re not taught how to budget and any sort of home economics at school, which is disappointing.
So if you haven’t already got something in place, create a budget. Use any existing spreadsheets that you can find on the internet or create something basic on Excel. It’s useful to see what your expenditures are because at that point, you can fully understand where your money is going and to take control of your finances.
3. Be aware of any bad habits
Last but not least, many of us will likely have some bad money habits. Whether we like using payment plans, even when you have money available in the bank, to being a bit of a spendaholic when it comes to going out and socialising or spending money on clothes. It’s good to be aware of your bad habits and to curb them where possible. There are always some areas to money that you can improve upon and bad habits are a good thing to nip in the bud as soon as you’re able to.
If you can identify your bad habits, you can then make an active effort of avoiding those situations where you lose control and end up spending more than you can afford.
What tips do you have to take control of your finances? Let me know in the comments below.
*Disclaimer – This is a collaborative post with DebtConsolidation.com. All words are my own.
