We’re not the first people to write a guide on how to look after your finances and the chances are we won’t be the last – however, we thought we would share some practical advice for you. We know that lots of guides tell you about saving a portion of your money for buying a house and how you should skip buying a Greggs in order to save up for a deposit quicker, but we know real life doesn’t quite work like that – so here are some tips.
What Are You Spending?
Before you can really take a sensible approach to looking after your finances, you need to have an idea of where you are at. It is a good idea to sit down with your last couple of bank statements and work out what you have been spending and where you have been spending it – lots of online apps give you an easy way to break this down and search for certain transactions which helps to make life easy. Once you have done this, you have a better idea of where money is being wasted & what you can cut back on. You can then set yourself a sensible (and achievable) budget to give yourself a much better grip on your finances moving forward.
Do You REALLY Need to Borrow?
Many guides for money and finances will tell you to avoid borrowing money, but the truth is that the advice is not practical and isn’t always achievable. So, our advice is – if you do need to borrow money then make sure you choose who you are borrowing from sensibly and make sure you know what you are getting into. This could be borrowing through your bank or even looking to credit card alternatives. Make sure that you use a company you can trust, such as Polar Credit who offer open and honest borrowing options, only charging you for the money you have borrowed and giving you an easy way to see how much you can borrow and what it is likely to cost you should you go ahead.
Think About The Future
When you’re putting in this much hard work it is also worth considering the future; because these changes to the way you look after your finances can make all the difference. Looking up your credit score and considering what you can do to improve this is a good idea. For example, are you paying your bills via direct debit or setting up payment schemes when you’re likely to miss a payment? You might not give thought to your credit score day to day, but in the long term if you do want to do things like buy a house then putting in the hard work now can make all the difference.
If you have any tips on how to look after your finances we’d love you to share them below.
*Collaborative post