We are taught the importance of keeping on top of our finances from a young age. No matter how much money you earn, we feel confident that you will thoroughly be aware of your finances and how healthy they appear. At the same time, we feel right in saying that the last two years have been some of the most challenging for people in a financial sense. With record numbers of people made redundant due to the pandemic, there may very well be individuals reading this who have struggled financially at some point during this time.
Overcoming financial struggles in your life can feel like quite a task. Regardless of how your finances are looking, this is something that is unique to you, and the approach to resolving this should too be unique.
“Managing finances in times of financial difficulty is one of the most valuable skills one can possess”, says Rob Colville, CEO of The Lazy Trader. “It’s essential to know where every last cent or penny goes, and the only way to do this is by tracking your spending. When things are tight, track every purchase you make, and every subscription you have. You’ll then be able to identify and cut unnecessary spending, and have more to allocate towards essentials”.
As a result, we have compiled a helpful list of tips below, recommending what you can do moving forward as a means of tackling and overcoming the financial obstacles that you are currently facing. Get yourself comfortable and read on to discover more!
Budget As Best As Possible
While we feel confident you would have heard this phrase before, it is still worth mentioning in this piece all the same. Should you be struggling somewhat slightly with your finances, budgeting your money will contribute greatly to your efforts to overcome this obstacle. While it might not solve your financial issues, it will go a long way in getting you back on track and out of any difficulty.
Taking the time to sit down and work out your current financial situation is the best way of going about this process. Work out what funds you have coming into your bank account, as well as what money you have left it. Should you establish that you are overindulging in some places, it is time to tighten your belt! More on this later, though.
At the same time, while budgeting allows you to see where you are overspending, it could also provide you with information relating to how you could make more money. This takes us to the following section.
Acquire More Money
This is also something we feel confident most people would have thought of when facing financial difficulties and is certainly something that can be easier said than done. That being said, there are ample opportunities out there for doing something like this, which can be used to suit a multitude of financial situations. Whether you are looking to inject a vast sum of money into your account or opt for something smaller, there are ways you can go about doing this as we move forward.
Working a second job or finding a better paying job is one of the ways that you could do this but is not suited to the lifestyles of everyone reading this. At the same time, keeping track of market changes and economical environments is also one way of boosting how far your money goes. Should you notice that interest rates have fallen, use this to your advantage and explore a refinance home loan as a means of reducing your debts and boosting your income.
Consolidating your existing debts into one manageable repayment package will give you some peace of mind in the short and long term and give you one place to keep track of your payments. Certainly worth considering should you be in this position.
Determine Spending Habits
You might not think that you have indulgent spending habits, but these sorts of things can creep up on you. Different factors and stressors in our lives can trigger us, leading us to feel emotional in some way and turning to retail therapy as a means of easing how we feel. By determining what these stressors are, you can put measures in place to minimise or avoid them entirely so as to minimise how much you are spending as a result.
Making a note of your spending habits and thinking about what you might have done each day is the best place to start. Comparing what might have triggered you each time will give you the information you need to make an informed judgement on what is causing you to overspend. Even if you do not think you are impulsive in your spending habits, we have all bought something we probably shouldn’t have at some point or another!
Not only will doing something like this give you the information you need to make positive changes to your lifestyle and spending habits, but it would ensure that you are left with more money in your bank account at the end of the month than you have been used to recently.
While we understand that these tips are not going to help everyone who is enduring financial struggles at the present time, we feel confident they will be able to positively contribute to the lives of some people. Understand that reaching out for help is the first step; everything else will fall into place once you have done this.
