New year, new you. It’s January, and a great time to set some serious financial goals. Why? They motivate you to make lasting changes, so you can really take control of your finances and have the type of lifestyle you want to achieve.
We all have different goals. Yours might be to make your cash last until payday, get out of debt or get into investing. Or, it might be to change careers, move locations or buy next season’s Christian Louboutin’s. Whatever your goal, to achieve it you need to understand your current financial situation and spending habits, make informed decisions about where you need to change and set the right targets. And, of course, goals are a great way to measure progress and feel a sense of achievement — a great motivator for setting more ambitious ones next time.
Okay, so where do you start? There is a wealth of advice online but, luckily for you, we’ve trailed through it and deciphered just three steps that you need to take this January to pad your bank account and enable lifestyle goals you once thought were out of your reach.
Step1: Track your spending
The first step is to track your spending so you can make more informed decision about your spending habits and where you need to make change — behavioral change — if you are going to grow your money this year.
Let’s be real, there is simply no excuse not to track your spending in 2019. Generations before us had to ‘keep the receipts’ and draw out a table or, post about 2002, manually insert onto an Excel spreadsheet. But with the rise in the number of apps at your disposal, there are many ways to monitor what you spend your money on, just by glancing at your phone.
Just think, the £300 you save from eating in is a decent amount to invest each month. It’s quite enlightening.
These apps give you instant notifications and regular snapshots of your spending dashboard. They categorise your transactions automatically, for example tagging your food shopping, transport and personal care. These apps then group together similar transactions to highlight exactly how much you spend on each category.
For example, if you are spending £150 in Pret each month, you may want to cut back on your morning Vanilla Lattes — do this and in just three months, the Louboutin’s could be yours. Similarly, if your categorised ‘eating out’ spend is six times as much as your ‘grocery shop’ spend, you may want to start preparing your meals and buying your produce at Tesco ahead of time. Just think, the £300 you save from eating in is a decent amount to invest each month. It’s quite enlightening.
Then, once you’ve tracked your spending and decided what you need to change, it’s time to set a budget.
Step 2: Set your budget
Setting a budget is all about creating a plan on how to spend your money. It means you can decide, in advance, whether you have enough money to do the things you want, or would like, to do. You can use then use this process to prioritise your spending and focus your money on the things that are most important to you. And, this can be an empowering.
Budgets should be achievable. For example, it is unrealistic to put your eating out budget at £0 because let’s face it, you may work late and need to grab a pizza on your way home at 9:00pm. But if that Bengu’s has cost you £7 out of your £50 eating out budget, you may want to also consider preparing dinner as well as lunch if working late is a habit for you this month.
Once you’ve set your budget, you can use it to get a good feel for how it can keep your finances on track. Then, once you’ve realised that it’s not so unpleasant, you can start to use your budget to look forward and map out a forward-looking plan.
Step 3: Create a forward-looking plan
Whether it’s a once in a lifetime trip, university fees or a new addition to your family, most of us — at some point in our lives — have long-term projects or events that require some serious dosh. And, forecasting means you’ll know how much money you will need to save for the things that are most important to you. But this year, you may just make smaller steps to help you achieve these ambitious, life-changing projects.
So, now you’ve mastered your spending habits and set a budget, what are the first steps to creating a forward looking plan? First, note down all the things in your ‘line of sight’ this year. This might be saving a third of your wedding budget or raising enough money in four months to put down a deposit for a rented flat in New York. Whatever it is, jot it down and list the total amount it will cost to do.
Then, it’s all about working out how much you can realistically save each month to help you achieve this. For most of us, the bigger the goals, the longer it takes. For example, if after changing your spending habits and budgeting you need to save another £200 a month to go travelling by August, how about breaking this down into £50 less a week? Each £50 is more manageable than the £200 overall.
So, it’s a new year and new you. It’s time to really take control of your finances. This January track where your money goes, set a budget and create a forward-looking plan — and make lasting changes that will enable you to have the type of lifestyle you want.
