Modern life has its fair share of stresses and pressures and the fast life we lead tends to put a strain on us. Life can have a lot of sources of stress, but one of the things that can really impact all aspects of your life is having financial problems. This is especially problematic for young people who have just started to earn their own paycheck and still don’t have control over their spending habits.
If you are having difficulty stretching your budget till the end of the month, you might find these tips helpful. We are going to give you basic advice so that you can apply and create some financial breathing space for yourself. It is amazing what you can accomplish when you remove stressing out about money from your daily routine.
1. Track your spending
First thing’s first, you need to know exactly how and what you spend your money on. Most of us develop a lot of, let’s say hedonistic and impulsive spending habits. In most cases these individual purchases are not a big deal, but they tend to rack up to a substantial amount. By analysing your spending, you will be able to identify unnecessary expenses and neutralize them.
You can use your smartphone or tablet to write down your purchases and make it easy to keep track of your spending. Once you go through one month of tracking your spending, categorize your expenses and pinpoint those that you consider to be excessive and damaging to your monthly budget.
2. Manage your bills right away
One of the biggest financial complications that you can create for yourself on a monthly basis is to miscalculate your spending capabilities, go on a shopping spree and then end up not having enough money to resolve your bills.
This is why it is a good practice to avoid spending money before your manage your bills and actually have an idea how much money you can spend without going over your monthly budget. Keep in mind that not managing your bills properly will transfer into the next month and can create long-term trouble.
3. Play mind games with yourself
One of the basic approaches you can take is to actually convince yourself that you are outright broke. Whenever that little voice inside your head goes: “You’ve had a hard day, you should treat yourself”; add a big voice that goes: “You are as poor as they come, start meditating for stress relief.”
This may seem as a bit harsh, but it is necessary and you need to work on your self-control. Once we start earning our own money, we tend to start spoiling ourselves and the mentality that it’s our money and that we can do whatever we want with it is all well and good until debts come knocking.
4. Getting things done with a bad credit score
Usually, being under financial strain means that you also have a bad credit score. This can create problems for you when you want to take care of something that you sorely need, but your options are limited due to your inability to get a bank loan. In some cases, there are banks that specialize in giving credit to people who others consider incapable of taking up credit.
Sometimes they specialize in a particular type of credit, but you’ll need to be very careful when you do this, since there are both good and bad sides to this, and since you are taking up more financial obligations in an already strain situation, you want to make sure that the good outweighs the bad. Furthermore, if you take the time to get your self-control, well, under control you’ll be able to improve your credit score, just be sure to avoid drastic measures that can hurt you in the long run,like payday loans and similar offers.
5. Change can be a lifesaver
Ok, so you went to work, took a stroll through town, got some coffee and finally got home. Now, pull out a jar, a bowl or something and drop all that change that you have left into it. Most cynics are probably going “Yeah right, some loose change is going to save my budget”, but you’d be amazed at how much money you can save like this. Furthermore, you are not strictly relying on change to save you, it is a cumulative effect and every little bit counts.
6. Tax deduction is an art
It is a bit difficult to address this money saving option because the benefits and laws vary from country to country, but there are always ways to pay less taxes and save money. This requires extensive research and complicates your paperwork a bit, but once you get past these initial difficulties the amount of money you save is well worth the effort. Charitable donations are a good example of doing something good and getting a tax deduction, but there are many more options out there.
7. Forgetting about extra cash to boost your savings
If you get a raise, pay off a loan or get some other influx into your budget, you might want to keep “paying” for it a bit longer. Think about it, the habit is already there and all you need to do is transfer that extra cash into your savings account. This is probably the easiest way to build up your credit score and boost your savings account without really having to change anything. You’ll still need that cash influx though.
Don’t let things spiral out of control, act fast and get things in order before things become too much for you to handle by yourself. It might sound stupid, but the bigger your debt, the faster it grows. It’s far better to tighten up your belt and take a couple of months to get things in order than to constantly stress about being in the red.
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The post The Art of Smart Spending: 7 Basic Steps to Financial Freedom appeared first on Lifehack.
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