Don’t beat yourself up with past mistakes, put the past behind you and start making some positive changes to your personal money management!
The world has been plunged into uncertainty and no-one is exactly sure what to expect with the economy, their income or how to plan or budget financially moving forward.
So how can you start making positive changes to help you cope through the uncertainty…
Step 1 is to get real and face the facts!
You can’t even begin to put a plan together to fix the problem until you know the full extent of your problem. How do you do this? Make a list! List every account that you owe money on (overdraft, credit card, store accounts, loans etc) along with the balance outstanding, interest rate and the minimum payment that you need to make.
Example:-
| Bank / Lender | Account number | Balance | Interest rate | Minimum payment due |
Once you have this information your next step is to set up a list of your monthly income and expenses. It is really important to ensure that we keep paying at the very least the minimum monthly repayment on all of your debt, as you know failure to do this will have a negative effect on your credit rating and will affect your future lending prospects should you ever look at further debt or credit.
Step 2 – List your income and expenses
You have to know what weapons you have to plan your attack! If you don’t have an accurate budget then you need to start one by looking at your bank statements and putting together a list of your monthly income and expenses.
Start by listing all of your income such as your salary (if you get one!), interest you earn, rentals you may earn etc.
The next step is to list your monthly expenses. Please don’t forget that your monthly expenses need to include the minimum repayments for all the money you owe that you listed in Step 1. Other monthly expenses are bank charges, rent, electricity, water, telephone, food, fuel, insurance, entertainment and eating out etc.
Most of us are in a situation where there is not going to be enough money coming in to cover our monthly expenses and debt repayments. However, we need to make to make your budget balance! And this is where you need to be realistic and honest with yourself with your monthly expenses. Sacrifices are going to have to be made to make your budget balance – but they need to be realistic. There is no point in cancelling insurance for example, because it is needed and necessary – however it might be worthwhile looking for a comparative quote for example to see if you can save any money monthly. It is not feasible to halve your food account monthly – but you can start cutting out luxury items, eating out and take-aways. There are smart ways to reduce how much you spend on food by planning a weekly menu and putting together a shopping list.
In the same way you need to establish a good working relationship with your business finances and the same steps can be used to build a good working framework to manage your business finances.
The smartest and biggest key to perfecting personal and business financial management is to have a clear picture in front of you. This will allow you to plan how you spend your money and once you have cleared your debts, allow you to start saving and investing. This in turn will help you to grow your income! Make February your month to fall in love with your and your businesses money!
