Throughout March, First State Super held several workshops to give advice on how to be proactive with your savings, setting financial goals and the steps you can take to achieve financial success.
If you happened to miss out on either of these workshops, we’ve got you covered with the key points that were brought up:
Have a budget: Know where your money is going. With a budget, you can compare the money that you are earning to the amount you are spending. There are several apps you can use for budgeting such as Money Manager, Pocketbook, YNAB and many more. Click here to see some budget app reviews. Even a basic excel spreadsheet can help you get a bigger picture of how your funds are being used.
Understand your expenses: Separate essential spending from optional spending and split up your expenses around needs, goals, and extras. Needs include mortgage/rent, food, transport, health, and bills. Goals include reducing debt, saving up for a car or holiday, or education. Extras can include recreational activities, gifts and eating out. This helps with prioritising where your money is going and to identify any unnecessary expenses.
Set goals: Put away money for short, medium and long term goals. Some examples are a car, holiday, home, career break and retirement. To achieve these goals, start small in saving a consistent amount regularly. Be specific on what you want and why you want it. Be realistic in the amount of time taken to achieve the goal and share your goal with a friend or family member to help you stay on track.
Eliminate risks: Consider all the debt that may slow you down from achieving your goals and find ways to reduce them. An example is replacing a credit card with a debit card to reduce the possibility of incurring large interest and debt from not paying it off on time. What other safer alternatives can you think of to reduce your chances of accumulating debt?
Being able to understand your finances, how much you need to save and how many expenses you have are important to keep on track in your financial journey. Hopefully acting on these tips can help speed up getting to where you want with your finance. Best of luck with achieving financial success!
Throughout March, First State Super held several workshops to give advice on how to be proactive with your savings, setting financial goals and the steps you can take to achieve financial success.
If you happened to miss out on either of these workshops, we’ve got you covered with the key points that were brought up:
Have a budget: Know where your money is going. With a budget, you can compare the money that you are earning to the amount you are spending. There are several apps you can use for budgeting such as Money Manager, Pocketbook, YNAB and many more. Click here to see some budget app reviews. Even a basic excel spreadsheet can help you get a bigger picture of how your funds are being used.
Understand your expenses: Separate essential spending from optional spending and split up your expenses around needs, goals, and extras. Needs include mortgage/rent, food, transport, health, and bills. Goals include reducing debt, saving up for a car or holiday, or education. Extras can include recreational activities, gifts and eating out. This helps with prioritising where your money is going and to identify any unnecessary expenses.
Set goals: Put away money for short, medium and long term goals. Some examples are a car, holiday, home, career break and retirement. To achieve these goals, start small in saving a consistent amount regularly. Be specific on what you want and why you want it. Be realistic in the amount of time taken to achieve the goal and share your goal with a friend or family member to help you stay on track.
Eliminate risks: Consider all the debt that may slow you down from achieving your goals and find ways to reduce them. An example is replacing a credit card with a debit card to reduce the possibility of incurring large interest and debt from not paying it off on time. What other safer alternatives can you think of to reduce your chances of accumulating debt?
Being able to understand your finances, how much you need to save and how many expenses you have are important to keep on track in your financial journey. Hopefully acting on these tips can help speed up getting to where you want with your finance. Best of luck with achieving financial success!
