Dealing with our personal finances can be a sore subject. We avoid them like the plague when we know we won’t like what we see. If we like where we are headed, we tend to forget all the work that got us there. Dealing with your finances should always be an ongoing project. We’ll cover some of the highlights that can help you make sense of your money.
Pay off your high interest credit cards first. Come up with a plan for how much money you can put towards your credit card debt each month. In addition to making the minimum payments on all your cards, throw the rest of your budgeted amount at the card with the highest balance. Then move on to the next highest balance and so on.
Manage your finances at a bank that offers a free checking account. Even if the fees seem small, having a checking account that charges fees every month can drain hundreds of dollars a year from your account. Many banks and credit unions still offer a totally free checking account option.
If you are struggling to get by, look in newspapers and on the internet for a second job. Even though this may not pay that much, it will help you get through the struggles that you are currently going through. A little goes a long way, as this extra income will help extensively.
One of the tips to maximizing your personal finances is to buy or make a coin jar in your house. Put this jar in your kitchen so that you can empty all of the loose change into the jar each day. Over time, this will add up as you should bank hundreds of dollars.
Rebalance any investments that you may have. Stocks and bonds have had an overall good year, though cash yields are near zero. Look at your portfolio and make sure that you don’t need to move anything around so that you are earning more money. You should be doing this every year to help your portfolio.
Before you sign any loan, always talk to someone that knows about loans and lending. You can check with a lawyer or someone else you trust so they can look over all of the paperwork. It is best to know what you are signing so you can avoid surprises.
Personal Finance
A penny saved is a penny earned is a good saying to keep in mind when thinking of personal finance. Any amount of money saved will add up after consistent saving over a few months or a year. A good way is to determine how much one can spare in their budget and save that amount.
Improve your personal finance skills with a very useful but often overlooked tip. Make sure that you are taking about 10-13% of your paychecks and putting them aside into a savings account. This will help you out greatly during the tough economic times. Then, when an unexpected bill comes, you will have the funds to cover it and not have to borrow and pay interest fees.
Search for cheaper utilities to get better personal finance. If you have had the same gas company, cell phone plan, or other utility for a while then shop around for a better deal. Many companies will gladly offer you better prices just to have you become their customer. This will definitely put more money in your pocket.
Feel free to take advantage of paperless billing and paperless bank statements, but be careful not to become senseless on personal finance matters. The pitfall lurking in paperless finance lies in how easy it becomes to ignore your month-to-month finances. Banks, billers, or even thieves, can take advantage of this willful ignorance, so force yourself to review your online finances regularly.
This is, perhaps, the simplest personal finance tip of all, but it so often gets overlooked. If you want to take charge of your finances and your bank account, you must spend less than you earn. Spending more than you bring in is a recipe for financial disaster.
Keeping track of your expenses and income is a key component of getting your personal finances in order. To make your budget, start by writing a list of all your expenses at the start of each month. Remember to include all expenses due, such as rent, lights, cars, phones and food. You should also include any projected expenditures. Also record on your budget the amount of income you expect to earn, and make certain that your expenses do not exceed your income.
Our finances need to be dealt with on a regular basis in order for them to stay on the track that you set for them. Keeping a close eye on how you are using your money will help things stay smooth and easy. Incorporate some of these tricks into your next financial review.
