One of the biggest stresses in most people’s lives is money. Whether you’re not making enough, not saving enough, or spending too much, everyone likely has some form of financial problem they’re facing. But unless you can understand your current habits and learn how to alter them, you’ll never be able to overcome your particular financial issues. So to help you gain more control over your finances, regardless of what your current money problems are, here are three things you can begin doing to better manage your own finances.
Keep Track In A Way That Fits You
For some people, keeping track of their finances is going to be a lot more difficult than simply knowing how much money is coming in and how much money is going out. Especially if you own your own business, finance principles like billing can get very tricky and difficult to get a handle on. For this reason, Andy Hough, a contributor to U.S. News and World Report, recommends finding a way to track your money that works for your particular situation. This may include keeping receipts, balancing a checkbook, visiting your online accounts, or creating a spreadsheet. Whatever you have to do to feel like you know and understand where your money is going will help you in managing that money better.
Create A Simple Budget
Once you’re able to see how your money is moving, it should be easier for you to recognize where your financial issues are coming from. If you’ve overspending in some areas, the best way to address this issue is to create a simple budget. Eric Ravenscraft, a contributor to LifeHacker.com, suggests separating your money into four categories: fixed costs, investments, savings, and spending. As long as the money going into each of these categories is the proper ratio compared to the money you’re bringing in, you should be able to budget well enough to ease some of your own financial burdens.
Build Your Reserves
A big reason why people often have trouble managing their money is because they have no safety net for when they reach hard financial times. To combat this problem, all you have to do is begin building your financial reserves. Jason Cabler, a contributor to CFinancialFreedom.com, reminds us that if you’re able to have money in savings, any unexpected costs won’t break your budget or put you into debt, which could spin your finances out of control. Knowing this, sit down with your budget and see how much money you can afford to contribute to savings each month to build up your emergency fund.
If you’ve been looking for simple ways to get more control over your money, consider using the tips mentioned above to begin better managing your own finances.