The first thing with Personal finance planning is to build a budget. Budgeting seems to be a challenge for many people although budgeting tools like the budget calculator that will teach you how to budget do exist. With the budget calculator tool, you can plan an effective money management strategy for your personal finance. Money management here is just the process of budgeting, saving, spending, investing or otherwise in supervising the cash usage of an individual or group. That is, Money management is the process of knowing where an individual or group are spending their money today. Budget calculator can be used in money management since the first step in investing basics or of taking control of your finances is by doing a budget. Since life is unpredictable, when doing money management, try reviewing your budget and be flexible to change at any time that you realize a difference in the budget. You might be highly paid or might get a pay rise, but investing basics entail that you do a proper money management by trying to be an investor of a business. However, most investors of businesses first of all started by setting up a personal finance planning system before getting into their business investment in order not to fail. Also, in investing basics, you need to set a saving goal so that you can be motivated to save. Your personal finance planning should be done in a way that money is to be paid into your savings account every month. In investing basics, you have to make a personal finance planning based on your goals and timeframes. As your savings start to increase, one of the great way to achieve a proper money management is by putting more money into your pension in order to live a comfortable life after your retirement. It can be very overwhelming to understand your personal finances especially if you are just starting out. It is difficult to know the best way to handle your money, how to go about when it comes to debt paying and to know precisely where, what and when to invest in. Insuring that the assets you have worked hard to obtain is not lost but saved for emergencies and retirement is very important in life. Unfortunately, most people do not yet understand the personal finance basics. By following the simple steps below, you can learn how to do these, begin to have a better understanding of your personal finances and become more confident in your skill to make good decisions concerning them.
Learning how to Create a Budget
Put together your financial statements and information: To create a budget is one of the most significant aspects of personal finance. A good budget permits you to plan on how you will spend the money you bring in each month and clarifies your spending patterns. To be able to do this you have to put together all the financial information you can lay your hands on, including pay stubs, bank statements, credit card bills, investment account statements, utility bills, etc. If you are somebody who make monthly budgets, then your aim will be to determine how much you make in a month and how much you spend as monthly expenses. Your budget accuracy will depend on the amount of information you can provide.
Keep record of your monthly income: Once you are done gathering the financial data, distinct out your income sources. List the amount of income you make in a month and endeavor to add any side jobs you have. It might be useful to figure out your average monthly income for the last three months or so if your income varies from month to month.
Write down your fixed monthly expenses: The next thing to do is to go through your financial documents and record all the fixed expenses (mortgage payments or rent, car payments, credit card payments, and essential utilities such as electric, water, and sewage) you have or those that are important and do not change much as the month passes. You can use a budgeting tool such as the budget calculator to calculate your conventional spending amounts based on normal percentage ranges. The goal of the budget calculator tool is to get your expenses to be less than, or equal to your income that you bring in every month.
Write down your variable monthly expenses: You are also supposed to record your variable monthly expenses (clothing, gasoline, groceries, and eating out). That is, items whose monthly expenditure varies. These expenses are not necessarily important and are probable where you will make changes to your spending in your budget.
Do a total of your monthly income and expenses: Should in case you are using the budget calculator spreadsheet to record all your income and expenses, both variable and fixed, make a total of each category. Eventually, you will want your income to be more than your expenses. If this is so, then you can decide where it is best for you to spend your extra income but if after filling the budget calculator spreadsheet and your expenses are bigger than your income, then you will need to make changes to your budget to cut the spending. In as much as the budget calculator is doing the normal adding and subtracting of your income and expenses, you sometimes require the help of a non-profit credit counselling organization to get it to balance.
Regulate your variable expenses to hit your goal: If your budget demonstrates that you are spending more than your income earning, look at your variable expenses that you can cut down expenditure from, since these items are generally non-vital.
Review your budget monthly: Make time to review your spending at the end of each month and always ask yourself if you stick to your budget for that month. Locating where you are exceeding your budget will aid you figure out what kind of spending you need to pay attention to most. It can also be interesting to know that you are sticking to your budget after your review.
Put up Strategizes to Pay Down Debt
Transfer credit card balances with high yearly percentage rates:
Using a credit card in which you are paying a high yearly percentage rate is not the best, but you can look for means to transfer the balance to a credit card that offers a lower yearly percentage rate or no yearly percentage rate for a certain amount of time. By so doing, your whole payment will be applied to your balance and not interest.
Do a Calculation of the amount of debt on each of your credit cards: If you have many credit cards, do a comparison of the amount of debt you have on each one. The information gotten from this comparison can you make a choice on the depth to pay first. A group of people believe paying the smallest bill first motivates you and permits you to focus on the remaining debt while others believe you should focus on paying off the largest one because you will be paying the most in interest on this one. However, the better solution is to pay more than the minimum percentage on both simultaneously on each balance.
Keep excess funds toward paying off debt: After following your monthly budget, keep any extra funds you have at the end of the month toward paying down debts. Each time you are tempted to use this extra money to treat yourself to a fancy dinner or a new dress just remember your long-term goals before doing this. In the future, paying off debt will serve you better than treating yourself to something unnecessary at that point in time.
Combine your debt: If you have student or car loans, multiple credit card accounts, a mortgage, combining them into one payment may help you pay them more easily. Usually, when you combine debt, you might get a debt consolidation loan that is having a lower interest rate and require lower monthly payments.
Refinance your loans: Refinancing is usually a good decision if your financial situation has improved from the time when you took loan. Similar to combining your debt, refinancing your loans also combines your debts and may permit you to make lesser monthly payments on your loans. Refinancing might also permit you to shorten the term of your loan in order to pay off your debts more quickly.
Saving for Emergencies and Retirement
Set up deposits that are automatic: It can be difficult to commit to putting cash into your savings account every month, but it is essential to do so to ensure you have enough money for your future and for emergencies. If you have the possibility, then you can make automatic payments into your saving account each month. For example, fix your account in the bank so that it automatically transfers $20 from your checking account to savings account at least every month.
Build a retirement savings plan: In order to ensure that you have enough money to live comfortably when you are done working, you should start your retirement saving as soon as possible. Ask a financial advisor to come out with how much you should be putting away for retirement to reach your goals.
Establish an emergency fund: In addition to keeping money for retirement, you also need to have an emergency saving account. This account is to take on emergencies like losing your job, expensive car repairs, or unforeseen medical expenses. Those who are financial professionals recommend that you should have enough in your savings account to cover one month and a half of living expenses for each person you claim as a dependent. For example, if you have a wife with two children, you should have enough money to cover four and a half months of living expenses.
Investing basics
Try investing in a Target Date Fund: Thinking of where to invest your money is one of the toughest parts of personal finance planning. Most often you will want to be an investor of different types of stocks, bonds and treasuries but to figure out the best ones is the problem. With Target Date Funds, this problem becomes a little easier for you to solve. Target Date Funds is mainly a hands-off retirement account that you key in the age you wish to retire and the Target Date Funds will by design spread the money you put into the account across a wide variety of bonds, stocks, and treasuries.
Vary your investments: It is vital to vary your portfolio in order to reduce risk if you choose a more hands-on approach to investing basics. Varying means that you select a variety of bonds, stocks, and treasuries you wish to be an investor in them. Most investors who vary their investments ensure that their investments are spread over a different number of businesses and industries. In this way, if one business or industry suffers a financial slump, you will only lose a portion of what you invested and not the whole investment.
Know why investors have to insure their investments
Get property insurance: You should try investing in property insurance to protect your house, which can be one of your biggest assets. For those who have a mortgage, property insurance is really required. This type of insurance will protect you from paying out-of-pocket for any major unanticipated house repairs.
Get life insurance: Getting life insurance is especially vital if you are married or have a family. Life insurance makes sure at least part of your income is supplemented in the incident that you pass away. This is vital since your family might be facing a very tough financial situation if they are unable to make up for the percentage of income you brought to the table.
Get health insurance: Should in case you find yourself sick or seriously injured, health insurance premiums can be a small price to pay. Medical bills alone can put you in severe debt if you do not have some kind of insurance policy. Additionally, you might likely miss a significant amount of working time if your injury was a serious one, making you to be unable to pay your bills.
Work with a Financial Planner
Start now: One of the most significant things you could do for your personal finances is to start thinking about them and working early on them. You might think that there is still enough time to save for your retirement, but you will lose so much interest if you wait too long. Make personal financial planning a regular part of your life just like you perform the other tasks that you have.
Get your most important people involved: If you have someone that you are planning a future together, ensure to include him or her in your personal finance planning.
Talking to your partner and getting them involved in the process will ensure you are both on the same page with your savings and spending habits and this will allow you to develop a plan that meets both of your needs.
Be proactive: Other people assume that everything will be fine in the long-run and pay no attention to the negative cues about their finances but you should instead think about how negative financial situations, like serious drops in the stock market, may affect your financial security and plan different options.
With the above point, you can now say you have a clear understanding of investing basics and you can happily implement it in your life.