Sorting Finances Among Your New Year Resolutions? Here Are 10 Tips To Help You

It’s the time for new year resolutions, again. From fitness to finance, while most of us are focused on cultivating new habits and setting new goals, this is also perhaps an ideal time to review the past decisions and fix what has not aligned well with our objectives so far.

Taking control of finances is not an easy task, and often, even after putting in our best efforts, we fail in achieving our goals. This is where reviewing our finances and the decisions taken around them becomes essential. In this article, we will discuss what one can do to get their finances on track in the coming year. Here are 10 tips:

People usually make the mistake of creating strict budgets which can eventually lead to overspending, compared to what they had initially thought they would be spending. This defeats the very purpose of budgeting. The idea of budgeting is trying and limiting the expenses and cutting those which are not so necessary.

It’s not uncommon to not track your bank accounts. But it is extremely important to monitor all your accounts to track what you are spending on and check any scope of cutting costs and to spot any unusual activity in the accounts that could potentially lead to losses.

Review your saving habits and see if you can increase the amount you have been saving every month. Work around the budget that you have created and see how much you can save now every month for your specific goals like new home, car, emergency funds, etc.

Instead of sticking to one shopping platform while buying items like groceries, essentials or other non-essential items, compare different websites, apps or stores to check where you can save more. Find out if there are any employee benefits available such as membership at a gym.

Make paying off your debt a priority. Follow it up by making consistent payments towards the amount owed to clear it up as soon as you can to be able to focus on saving.

There are many apps that can help you manage your finances better. There are apps to make budgets, split bills, make comparisons, etc. Use them to handle your finances efficiently.

Set an amount on auto-debit to transfer it each month to your savings account on your payday. This will ensure you don’t overspend on unnecessary things, as often people end up spending when they have money accessible in their hands.

The budget that you’ve created may not apply throughout the year as you may at times have emergencies to spend on or special occasions leading to extra expenses. Keep in mind the one-off spends and plan your finances accordingly.

If you lack financial knowledge, take help from your friends or family members who can help you make a budget, save, and invest. If you aren’t someone who is likely to be consistent, have a friend you trust, who can track your habits and hold you accountable. This will encourage you to continue with your financial habits. Healthy competition is another good way to encourage each other.

Last but not the least, review your investment portfolio and cut out the assets that are not aligning with your current goals and invest in those that you feel better suit your financial objectives. It is advisable to take help of finance experts for better understanding on what suits your goals the best.