When it comes to personal finance tips, there are as many opinions as there are people. Nonetheless, there are common denominators that when implemented, result in better financial control – no matter where you’re starting from. The best part? You can do them in four easy steps.
4 Tips to Master Your Personal Finance
The fact that you are reading this article is proof that you want to improve your financial situation. That’s great. But for any of these personal finance tips to work, you gotta do more than just talk about it – you gotta do it.
That being said, the first thing to do to improve any condition is to know exactly where you currently stand.
These four tips will help you:
- Organize your financial data,
- Assess your current status,
- Begin work on improving it, and
- Ensure that you never get in trouble again.
And, the sooner you get started, the better – so, let’s jump right in.
At the end of the day, planning and organizing will only get you so far. Action is the key to making any personal finance plans or tips effective.
Save or Shred EVERYTHING
As I mentioned above, Step No. 1 is to get organized. This means getting all of your financial documents together, separating them into “save” and “shred” piles, putting those you need to keep together in a compressive way and then disposing of the rest.
Hey, I never said implementing my personal finance tips would be a glamorous process.
The purpose is to see everything going on with your money at a glance. After that, any errors you are making or bad spending habits you have will easily jump out at you.
However, you may have to dig deeper to find some issues.
Verify Your Credit Score
When you start the process of improving your financial situation, your credit score is not a top priority. Nonetheless, you want to ensure that nothing is on that report that shouldn’t be.
Being in control is all about having good information and awareness. This applies to your capital, above all else.
Further, don’t just look up “free credit score” online. Get it from a trusted source like AnnualCreditReport.com. (This is the official government website for obtaining your credit score.) That way, your private information is safe and the numbers are accurate.
Now that you have crossed all the T’s and dotted the I’s, it’s time to implement the more difficult personal finance tips.
Trash Toxic Spending Habits
As you went through and organized your paperwork, you probably noticed red flags popping up with regard to how you spend money. Don’t get discouraged, because this is the point where you do something about it.
Believe it or not, one of my best personal finance tips has nothing to do with controlling the amount of money you spend.
Rather, you should EARN more!
But don’t misunderstand that as permission to “treat yourself.” When it comes to finances as you’re working toward success, it’s about being disciplined about your money.
In short, live off your case cost of living until such a time that you can afford to change your lifestyle – never before.
To do that, you need to establish strict boundaries.
Set Up Policies for Your Future Financial Success
No matter what the game is, you have to know the rules in order to win. Creating personal financial stability is no different.
Make these regulations for yourself by determining how you can best avoid pitfalls and temptations. This video shows a few of my tips to help give you some ideas:
The tips include:
- Never spend it until you get it,
- You want cash flow, not cash, and
- Rent and lease – don’t own.
Of course, more important than writing these rules up neatly is following them – with no exceptions.
I phrase this as “paying the price now to pay any price later.”
After all, you don’t want to undo all the work you did implementing these personal finance tips by easing the reins.
These Personal Finance Tips Will Work if You Let Them
At the end of the day, planning and organizing will only get you so far. Action is the key to making any personal finance plans or tips effective.
So, I’m sorry to say that the advice in this article is not meant to be a shortcut. But, in my experience, it can get you to your financial goals in the long run.
I encourage you to stick with these tips on your road to being great.
