Are you aiming to improve your finances this year? Maybe you’re hoping to get a new car, buy a house, or go on a great vacation? If this sounds like you, this blog post will give you some helpful tips to get your finances back under control. Ready? Let’s get started:
Get out of debt
The first step is to find out the exact amount of money that you owe. This may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people have no idea how much they have outstanding. Next, you need to decide which debt should be paid off first. Not all of your debt is created equal. It’s common to have debt across several credit cards for example, and each of these will have their own interest rate and balance. It’s common to choose to either pay off the credit card with the highest interest rate first, or the one with the lowest balance.
When you’re aiming to get out of debt, you can’t continue adding to that debt. That’s why it’s crucial that you stop yourself from using those cards. Cut up your credit cards, give them to a family member, or put them in a safety deposit box. Whatever you have to do, get them out of sight.
Start saving
If you feel like you’re barely getting through the month, you may be wondering where you’ll find the money to begin saving. But there are plenty of ways you can cut down on your spending and save the difference. If you’re anything like me, you probably spend a good portion of your time shopping (I can’t help if I like shiny things). But over the last couple of years, I’ve learned that shopping strategically still allows me to look nice and feel like I’m treating myself without putting my financial future in jeopardy.
These are small changes like choosing not to buy both day and night jewellery and instead choosing day-to-night pieces like the ones from Valani. Valani uses plenty of colored gemstones, which means you can dress up a day outfit or dress down a night outfit (or vice versa).
It also means putting things in my shopping cart and then taking 24 hours to think about whether I need them before I hit the “buy” button (this has saved me hundreds or thousands of dollars. I’ve also worked hard to avoid going into debt, and instead I pay for everything in cash.
Set your goals
Saving for the sake of saving isn’t very exciting. And it’s probably going to be difficult to save money that you’d rather spend when you don’t know what you’re saving for. Now’s the time to think about what you’d like to be able to achieve with your money in the future. Maybe you’d like to be able to buy a house in the next five years. Or perhaps you’d really like to upgrade your car? Maybe you’ve been dying to go on a cruise with your best friend? Whatever it is, write down your goal and include some steps and milestones to help you get there.