keeping your financial ducks in a row is a life skill that many people never truly master. We earn a monthly wage, we spend roughly what we think we can afford, and we make it to our next payday without checking our bank balance if we can at all get away with it. Sound familiar? The only problem with this ‘freefall’ style of loose financial planning is that things can catch up with you, and you could find yourself spiraling into debt whereby you could need extra info on ways to get back on track – for example, feel free to check out the details on ‘what is a CCJ?’ via the link.
So, let’s assume that you are not yet at the stage of having to recover from serious debt issues, and let’s look at ways to keep your monthly personal finances in order.
Admit to yourself that this needs to be done
The first step in resolving most personal issues – especially relating to finance – is admitting to yourself that there is indeed an issue that needs to be resolved. Before you take this step, any further financial problem solving you attempt will only be half-hearted, and you will likely lose momentum at the first signs of any learning that you must do to come up with a solution.
Gather your financial paperwork and open your online banking
Online banking will show you everything that is paid to you per month, as well as everything that you are paying out per month. But this isn’t the full story. Your online banking won’t show you how many more monthly payments you need to make towards your car or your home or your monthly bills of all kinds (including credit card bills). Your online banking won’t show you the interest rates of these payments, or highlight how you could save money in the long run by focusing on paying off the higher bills first. See? You may have enough to cover your bills with not much left over for fun, but you could eventually have more money left over each month if you were to pay attention to making smart higher interest rate payments.
Sign up for a credit report
Multiple online sites offer credit reports. If you have never completed a credit report before, you are missing out. Often, people do not like to complete their credit reports because they don’t want to know how poor their credit score is in the cold light of day. But it’s time to bite the bullet. This is just a starting point, not where you will end up – depending on the service you use, your score may also come with pointers that will show how to improve your credit score. This is something worth looking at, because if you require financial services in the future, such as a credit card or a loan, your credit score is something that will need to be in tip-top shape to help ensure your application gets accepted.
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