All things considered, debt is not simply the result of economic forces at play. Although macroeconomic forces may reduce your income earning power and force you to spend more than you would like to cover your cost of living, you also play a role in increasing your debt burden through an unconscious lack of self-control and by making poor decisions about how to spend your money and your time.
With that in mind, you can easily improve your personal finances by taking the following 6 strategies to manage and grow your money:
- Find an Affordable Way to Repay Your Debt
An affordable way to pay your high-interest credit card bills is to get a consolidated loan. Debt consolidation offers several benefits, such as saving money on interest rates, making a single monthly payment instead of several payments, and paying off your debt faster because you’ll pay more toward the principal balance. Debt consolidation also provides tremendous emotional relief from the stress of juggling a large amount of debt. Additionally, it will improve your credit rating because it will provide an affordable payment plan that will make it easier to keep up with your monthly payments.
There are other ways to pay off your debt. You can sell things you don’t need, get a second income source, or work out a new payment plan with your creditors. If you’re dealing with a smaller debt, you might even consider using a no credit check loan to cover the costs and repay the loan in installments.
- Remember Where Your Money Goes
It’s difficult to keep track of all your financial transactions because you probably make several each day. Rather than trying to figure out where your money went at the end of the month, it’s far better to predict where your money should go at the start of the month. Creating a budget will help you avoid overspending. Budgeting is not a complex skill and you will get increasingly better at it over time, learning from experience. Using a budgeting app is probably the easiest way to budget because software automates most of your calculations.
- Build Savings Into Your Budget
Although most people understand the value of savings, few people save enough simply because they never get around to it. You can circumvent this problem of procrastination by building savings into your monthly budget, allocating a certain amount of your income to savings. In other words, treating savings as if they were a fixed expense.
- Make Money Management Into a Game
Figuring out how to manage your money better is not enough to motivate you to budget, save, and pay your bills on time. When money management becomes a chore, then you are much more likely to procrastinate about staying on top of your finances week after week, month after month, and year after year.
Unfortunately, if you procrastinate for too long, you might fall so far behind in your record-keeping that you give up on the idea of taking care of your money responsibly. You can avoid this peril of losing interest in your personal finances by figuring out ways to score yourself on how well you are managing your money every month.
- Set Financial Goals
Create big and small personal financial goals for yourself. A big goal, for example, might be to have six months of emergency funding while a small goal might be to buy a new pair of running shoes. These goals will reduce any temptation to splurge on small things because you have a plan for your money. A $7 T-shirt with a witty statement is far less appealing when you’re planning to buy a $100 pair of running shoes.
- Set up Guardrails
With so many things going on in your life, it’s easy to get off track. Scheduling weekly and monthly reviews will help you get better at managing your money. These periodic reviews will help you make any adjustments to your budget before things get out of hand.
In conclusion, there are plenty of steps you can take to improve your finances. Paying off all your credit cards with a consolidated loan will reduce your stress levels, budgeting and savings will help you control your spending, and using goals and reviews will make money management fun and increase your level of engagement.
