As the beginning of a new year gets closer, it is natural to start the yearly resolution-building ritual and that should include a money management too. It's time to ensure that you are prepared for the upcoming financial year and balancing your money with your life so you can maximize your financial success.
I'm always talking about well-being here on the blog and take care of our finances is also a form of achieve the feeling of prosperity and purpose. Through thoughtful planning, we women can garner the financial freedom to pursue our dreams, bring stability to our life and the lives of loved ones, handle the inevitable obstacles life throws in our path and contribute to the causes close to her heart.
Review first
It's important that you lay out your short and long-term financial goals, so you know exactly what you are working towards with your money. Ask yourself some questions like: What steps did I take this past months that got me closer to my goals? What things happened that have put me further away from my goals? Are my financial goals still realistic?
As time progresses, you want to make sure you review and reassess your goals to make sure they are still things you want to accomplish and that you are on track to meet them. Review your savings and investments and your insurance policies and don't forget to check your bank account debits against any bill payments you previously scheduled or sent out. Make sure any pending bills/debt repayments have been paid or scheduled.
Set a goal
A solid budget is the first stepping stone to healthy finances. It is only when you can adhere to a budget, set aside a body of savings that you can channelize it towards investments to meet your goals. A defined budget enables you to save up money for your financial goals. You can follow the 50-30-20 rule of budgeting to begin with: every month, keep aside 50% of income for essentials, 30% for extra expenditure and save the remaining 20% for long-term goals. As an emergency fund, keep aside an amount equal to around six to eight months’ expenses.
You’ll want to consider the personal and professional milestones you hope to achieve in the short and long term so you might ask yourself what being financially comfortable means to you. Even if it seems far away, you should also begin to think about what an ideal retirement will look like, whether it’s traveling the world or moving close to your grandchildren.
Get an experts help
Creating a workable family budget can be difficult, and it's sometimes hard to know exactly where the money is going. Most people have a fairly good handle on the necessities, and are well aware of the monthly costs of their rent or house payment, their utilities, and even their food costs. But other financial concerns also shape the family budget. How much is spent each month on transportation? How much on clothing, health care, recreation, and charitable donations? And more importantly, how much money can be devoted to savings for that inevitable rainy day?
Each of these factors makes creating a monthly budget frustrating and often confusing, and when we extend that over the course of a year the tension really mounts. But creating a family budget can be made easier with the Budget Planning Calculator. On Calculator.me we can find a wide array of free financial calculators to help us with our savings and investments - from loan amortizations to mortgage - where your money is going, and how you can save for the future.
Write everything down
A Budget Planner book provides everything you need to organize your financial life, from planning your financial goals, to preparing a budget, to tracking your expenses. It can help you to set monthly goals, budget, review, and develop monthly habits, monetary strategies & action plans well. Write down monthly financial goals, put reminders of bills & payments on the calendar.
I found this one on Amazon, take a look: It's budget planner that contains financial goals, financial strategy, savings, debts, daily expense, monthly budget, monthly budget review, Christmas budget, summary of the year sections. It will help you to take control of your money effectively.
Keep learning
Studying and reading about finance is a great way to help us to deal with our money. The Ultimate Financial Plan: Balancing Your Money and Life is the latest volume in the bestselling Ultimate series, Jim Stovall and Tim Maurer's The Ultimate Financial Plan: Balancing Your Money and Life. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, personal financial planning book exploring the intersection of money and life. The Ultimate Financial Plan examines the connection between actions, thoughts, and feelings when it comes to all things financial.
The key to getting the most out of your wealth, the authors argue, is certainly found in the wise utilization of tools, like budgets, bank accounts, 401(k)s, IRAs, Roth IRAs, education savings plans, and real estate, as well as home, auto, business, health, disability, and long term care insurance, but even more so in the contentment found in balancing money's influence in our lives with personal values and goals.
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