5 Tips to budget better
Everyone wants to get better at managing their money better, irrespective of the stage they are in, in their financial journey. As easy as it may seem at times, creating budgets and sticking to them is actually quite cumbersome.
I’ve managed to scan a few forums to see what kind of free advice people had to give to others and put together 5 that seemed to be brilliant. Credit to all those faceless names on these forums, who helped me get better at budgeting now.
Create your financial goals first
Creating your financial goals first will give you a better understanding of how much you can allocate to your budget. This helps you spend money after a lot of thought. Thinking about whether something is necessary or not in order to achieve your financial goals will help with setting budgets.
Make use of the ‘Wish list’ feature provided in applications or websites
It’s easy to get distracted and tempted by various offers provided by merchants and companies. An easy way to stick to the budgets you set is to think twice before adding something to your cart. If you’re not 100% sure of buying something because you’re not sure if you need it yet, the probability of it not being an urgent purchase is extremely high. Add the item to your Wish List so that you can buy it later when you actually need it. At least, you’ll feel better for not hoarding things you don’t use :P
Use different accounts for different purposes
Having 3 different bank accounts might help if you don’t trust yourself with your spending habits. One account for saving, one for spending, and one in case of investments. This might seem a little too random, but it truly works. Now, with neobanks coming into play, you can definitely get a neobank account and also see all your money in one place so you know how much you truly have.
Talk to your family about finances
It’s important that you teach your family and children to start managing money early on so that they won’t be in a fix in case a problem arises in the future. You never know, they might just retire early because you saw this advice and took the initiative to implement it in your life!
Don’t forget to make the right categories
Budgeting does not mean just declaring you’re going to spend X amount of money in a month. It also means creating categories and allocating money to each category. A few examples are:
Emergency funds, Rent, Insurance, Fuel, Travel, Groceries, Appliances, Shopping, Leisure, Stationary
I hope this helps with managing your money better. Of course, there are other methods to save money, these just happen to be the ones I’ve benefited from implementing. If you have more advice to add, go ahead and comment below. After all, everyone loves free advice.