Manage Your Money Better.

We’ll be giving you some personal finance tips that will save you some headaches in the short run and in the long run should help you with your ultimate goal of increasing your overall wealth if you’re a living from paycheck to paycheck with nothing to show at the end of the month then chances are you need to manage your money better and even if your life isn’t filled with money problems it’s likely you could still make improvements here and there and the advice in this video should help you do just that having good financial skills improves your quality of life in all kinds of ways it’ll give you a better credit rating which means you’ll be more likely to be accepted for a mortgage or a loan for something really important you won’t have debts hanging over your head.

And you’ll get a warm satisfied feeling at the end of the month when you see you’ve still got a decent sum of your paycheck left that you put towards savings or investments welcome to a luxe calm the place where future billionaires come to get inspired if you’re not subscribed yet you’re missing out so Alexis it’s time to dive in and brush up on your personal finance skills and look at ten ways to manage your money better.

10 Ways To Compose Your Money Better.

1. make a budget every month of all the advice on this list this is the most essential and we’ll be referring back to it repeatedly in fact it’s such a no-brainer you probably already know you should be doing this but very few people actually do the reason isn’t just because most people find it too boring to go through loads of numbers it’s because looking at sums you’re going to have to part with can be kind of painful and a lot of people try to avoid it but even if it isn’t exactly fun get this building block in place and you’ll see your life improve and all kinds of financial worries will disappear so what should a monthly personal budget look like well you don’t have to be a math genius to do one a budget is a snapshot of the money you have going in and coming out take a piece of paper or better still keep a notebook and divide the pages into two on the Left you should have the money coming in from salary and any other sources of income that’s the easy part the hard part is the money you expect to go out which you should estimate at the start the MA this should include household bills and living costs what you expect you’ll spend on food and other essential items also travel expenses for your car or public transport leisure restaurants entertainment sports trips and holidays and the items it’s easy to forget about like money you expect to spend on presents for family or friends also add in any other regular payments you have to make this could be insurance subscriptions or debt repayments also on the expenses side set a target for savings as well as a small but regular contribution to an emergency fund we’ll touch on these later the left and right hand sides should add up to the same amount if your expenses are more than your income you’ll need to find places where you can cut them down if you’re lucky you’ll have more income than expenses then you could either add more to your savings target or you could justify a little extravagance and increase the bill for say leisure or luxury food shopping but once you’ve made the budget the most important thing is you don’t put it away in the drawer and let it gather dust use it throughout the month to guide your spending decisions and try really hard not to overspend anywhere even if you don’t quite manage it in your first month don’t worry as long as you’re not too far off after your first go you’ll become more realistic with your predicted expenses and overtime if you put your mind to it balancing your budget should start to come naturally.
2. Consult your budget for large spending decisions so here’s a common mistake you want to buy something nice a holiday new laptop or an extravagant gift and you’ve just been paid so you know you have the money in the bank to cover it well don’t assume you’ve got the disposable income for it a large chunk of the money in the bank is going to have to go toward basic living expenses which of course should be indicated in your budget check your budget and see if you can justify the expense in the relevant category if you’re thinking of booking an expensive holiday and your budget for leisure covers it then go ahead but if it doesn’t that means if you pay for it at the end of the month your budget will be in the red so what do you do the answer is to save up for it and include the amount you’re saving each month in your budget work out how much you can set aside for it each month and how long it’ll take you to save up and while you’re saving you might even decide you don’t really need it after all.
3. Keep track of smaller expenses to small purchases here and there creep up on us and if we don’t keep checks on them they can leave us in debt the next time the paycheck comes a few venti lattes here a meal out and a birthday present for relative there we often forget to factor these in but they really do add up and when you hear people saying they don’t know where all their money goes it’s usually on a load of small to medium purchases they forgot all about if this is a problem for you you should try writing all of your spending down in a journal if you’re keeping a budget any small purchase you make would be covered in some section of it if you’ve blown your whole monthly budget for leisure on just two meals out you know you need to make some changes here keep track of everything and pretty soon you’ll be able to see where it’s going and how you can cut down on things you don’t really need.
4. Get your debt under control or better still get rid of it but if you have debts the first step is to have them under control first of all don’t take on any new debts especially outstanding credit card bills as these have really high interest rates if you have trouble paying them off ditch the credit card altogether second schedule all of your debt payments and make sure you pay them on time at the very least make the minimum payments but if you can pay more than the minimum even better because the longer it takes you to pay them off the more interest you’ll end up paying if you have several deaths make a list of what the interest is on each one and first work to pay off the ones with the highest rates.
5. Keep track of monthly payments and limit them it could be subscriptions you don’t really need or aren’t going to use that much it could be an inactive gym membership or it could be in app purchases you made so you could use it once and then completely forget about it but it’s already been going for more than a year remember that more and more businesses you subscription-based business models these days that’s because they realize if it’s a small amount they’re charging every month a lot of people will go for it without even thinking about it but small amounts add up when you’ve got a lot of them and they’re eating away at your earnings every month if it’s really necessary or useful then keep it but do try to limit the number you have.
6. Have an emergency fund keep aside a stash of money for the unexpected you never know when you’ll need it unexpected repairs on your car or house a piece of equipment you need to buy because something broke unexpected medical expenses you aren’t insured for or if you don’t have an emergency fund you’ll be digging into other expenses for these but if you do have some money set aside you’ll be covered on your budget you could put a small amount of money into this each month and only dip into it if it’s a real emergency whenever possible when unexpected expenses come up try to justify them in another part of your spending.
7. Have a monthly savings goal and keep it in a separate savings account so the endgame is increasing your wealth right well keeping money in the bank isn’t going to help you with this interest rates on bank accounts are close to zero make your money work for you far better options are investing in bonds a portfolio of stocks or real estate and you won’t be able to buy these without disposable income which will come from your savings that’s why you should have a savings goal each month and indicate it on your budget you’ll find that having a savings goal really will motivate you to save that’s because the thought of having that money for investments at the end of the month and the long term wealth they’ll bring you will be even more tempting than unnecessary purchases and until you decide what kind of investment to put them into place them in a savings account which is separate from your regular bank account savings accounts do have slightly higher interest rates than bank accounts but they’re still small the benefit is by keeping your savings in a separate place you’re less likely to spend it and in the end this money will go toward what it’s intended for long-term investments.
8. Use price comparison apps and websites so we’ve already said you need to be cutting down on smaller expenses the ones that add up without you noticing it most of the time a great way you can do this is by shopping around for the best price and there are several price tracking websites and apps to help you with this for online shopping you could use in google shopping shopping calm or Amazon’s camel camel camel and even for grocery shopping there are several websites you can use just keep in mind they will differ a bit depending on which country you’re in.
9. Use personal finance apps so creating a budget from scratch seems like a bit of a headache or maybe you’re not that confident about your skills to organize it well or record every purchase you make well there’s no need to despair because there are tools out there that make it a lot easier personal finance apps like mint or money strands which are both free are perfect for the job they’ll display all your account balances and transactions and they’ll track your spending habits so you can see where you’ve been going over your budget they’ll also remind you of upcoming bills and even keep track of your investment portfolio.
10. Constantly improve your knowledge of money management maybe you feel like a beginner when it comes to managing your finances well remember that every guru on finance management was once a beginner too so why not invest in some courses on personal finance you’ll be able to find free or moderately priced online courses in personal finance which share in-depth advice on how to spend less and save more manage your money better and how to invest it ándale xers with that we’re at the end of our list we’d love to know which of these tips do you think you’ll find the most useful to manage your money better and do you have anything you’d like to add to the list let us know in the comments and of course for sticking with us until the end here’s your bonus build up financial discipline bit by bit and after a while it’ll come naturally if you’re so far away from achieving the kind of financial discipline we’ve been talking about here that you think you’ll never be able to achieve it to spare a lexer remember there are lots of people in your position start with step one and create a budget then you’ve got to force yourself to take all the steps in it at first you might find it difficult but stick with it and over time it’ll come naturally to you pretty soon you’ll see yourself getting less money related headaches and then you’ll realize you have more money left at the end of the month and before you know it you’ll feel motivated to follow the steps and you won’t even need to push yourself to do them by then you’ll have mastered discipline when it comes to personal finance and you’ll have become a natural at managing your money thank you for spending some time with us a Luxor’s make sure to LIKE and subscribe so you never miss another video we also hand-picked these videos which we recommend you watch next you can talk to us on all social medias or ask a question on our website Alex calm thank you for being an a laxer and we’ll see you back tomorrow.