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Today I want to share with you 8 basic personal finance tips. These simple tips have helped me to clear a lot of the outstanding debts that we once had.
These steps also helped me to have better financial disciplines too.
There are a few things that life has taught me in my short existence on the earth. Becoming financially savvy is one of those things.
At no point in my life have I ever felt that the money I was earning was enough to support my lifestyle. Can anyone else relate? Why is that?
I was earning good money as a single woman with minimal bills and I was earning good money when I got married to my husband.
At one point we even had two sets of income and no children.
So why did I still feel that the money that I had in my possession was not enough? Realistically we should have been rolling in it, so to speak.
Learn To Be Financially Savvy
When we talk about becoming financially savvy it means that you have a plan for your financial future.You budget and manage your finances accordingly.
When we had our first child, for medical reasons I had to stop working, so my income was literally slashed in half overnight.
Guess what?I felt our income was not enough but we managed to stretch ourselves and life went on.
Along came baby number 2 when I was just about to go back to work to earn some extra money.
Beingpregnantagain meant that I had to quit my job. No extra income for me!
We stretched ourselves financially even more. Baby number 3 then came along.
We were now managing with 3 children, a mum and dad all living on ONE salary.
What a huge difference in contrast to the beginning when we had two salaries and no children.
We were still coping financially but it was tough. We needed to somehow become more financially smart.
What Changed Financially?
Surprise! Baby number 4 comes along and guess what? I now understand.
I now understand that the issue all those years ago was not about not having enough money per-say, it was more about becoming better at financially managing what we DID have.
There were things that we were doing and spending money on that were not necessary.
We needed to better plan our meals during the week so that we were utilising our leftovers and not wasting them.
We needed to stop spending money on gym memberships that we were never using and we needed to stop sporadically eating out.
Overall we needed to become more financially sensible. If you can relate to this then you need to keep reading.
What if we were to stretch ourselves on a regular basis as a matter of discipline? It would make for a much better financial tomorrow.
It’s a bad move to only try to budget when things are tough. You need to always budget with purpose!
8 Basic Personal Finance Tips You Should Try Today
1. Sort Out Your Debts
Clear any debts that you already have, especially on credit cards. If you have savings and you also have credit card debt it is advisable to use your savings to clear off your credit cards.
The interest accumulated from having the debt will be much higher than that of any interest you gain from savings.
2. Watch Your Increased Spending
If you get a salary increase at work, instead of spending more money each month, try to live as though you didn’t get the increase and put the extra money away.
3. Become A Coin Collector
A great thing I did a few years back when we were living in the UK was to collect £2 coins. Every time I went shopping and got change I would keep the £2 coins and save them.
It was difficult at first because I really wanted to spend the money but over time it became a habit and eventually I had saved 100’s of pounds without any effort at all.
4. Don’t Indulge
Cut out that quick coffee that you usually stop to buy each morning. Make it at home and save the money instead. (You will be amazed at how much you can save doing this!)
5. Make Budgeting Your Best Friend
Budget, budget, budgetand stick to it! I am a budgetFREAK!!!If it’s not in the budget and we haven’t saved for it, we can’t have it. This has helped me immensely!
TIP: Don’t forget to have a miscellaneous column with saved money for any financial surprises that might pop up along the way!
6. Who Are The Jones?
A great piece of advice I got from a friend some years back was “don’t try to keep up with the Jones” What a great piece of advice!
If you can’t afford to do something your friends can say so, don’t just try to swallow the cost in the hope that it will work itself out. Take financial responsibility.
7. Don’t Eat Out Unless It’s In The Budget
Take lunch to work a few times a week instead of eating at the local cafeteria each day. Save the money up and take account of it each week.
8. Think About Your Transport
Use public transport as much as possible instead of taking taxis and uber. These costs can seem small at first but they quickly add up.
Final Thoughts On These Personal Finance Tips
If you can begin to implement these small disciplines into your life you will reap the rewards very quickly.
These basic personal finance tips and tricks are not here to make you somehow get rich overnight.
They are the foundational principles that you need in order to become financially successful.
For this exact reason, it is also important to teach your children from a very young age how to manage money.
Lastly: Remember just because you can afford to buy something doesn’t mean that you should. ALWAYSlook at the bigger picture.
If you have any other great saving tips, I would really love to hear them.
