Money management gets very hard sometimes, and often enough we struggle to see a way out. You can feel like you’re drowning in debt, or that you’ve got little to nothing in the savings account and never, ever will. As a result, you get stressed, you spend money you don’t have, and accidentally get caught in a cycle that puts you back to square one every time. But in those moments when you can’t get your head around money management, refer yourself to some tips like these.
Make Your Budget Easy to Understand
If your budget spreadsheet is super long and old at this point, delete it and make a new one. You need to be able to read your sheet in seconds and go from there with knowledge about your current financial health. If you’re scrolling forever to find the one number about your disposable income this week, you’re probably not going to look at all! So make some time to redesign your spreadsheet, put in your numbers accurately, and keep it short and simple.
Combat Impulse Spending in Real Time
Impulse spending is easy to do but hard to recover from. You see something you want, you put it in your basket, you take it to the checkout, and you don’t think about the consequences until you see your bank statement later. It’s a simple and easy process that many people fall into. This is why you’ve got to make the stages harder to get through! Never go out without a shopping list, put a limit on spending in your banking app, and always ask yourself if you actually need something.
Find a Bank You Actually Trust
Some banks are run better than others. Even if you’ve been with your current bank for years and you’re considered a loyal customer, you can walk away if things aren’t going well. Say there are better benefits elsewhere, or more suitable accounts for your money and financial goals. Go after them. Take a look around institutions like Evolve Bank & Trust to see what’s on offer; no matter where you decide to go, you may even get a money bonus for switching within a certain time period!
Keep it All on Your Phone
Finally, why not just make your money management easy to get to? To do that, download all of the relevant apps to your phone, such as a budgeting app, internet banking, your credit card portal, and any investing/saving accounts you have. Keep them all in one place where you can get to them all at once! You’ll want to diversify the login information to keep your stuff safe, but you can download a password manager to help with all that; that means you don’t even need to remember the details, which is super simple.
Money management doesn’t take a degree to get to grips with. If you’re keen to get better control of your finances this year, use tips like these for efficiency.
