It’s time for some real talk. You need to take care of your finances. You need to start taking your money seriously.
I don’t need to tell you why you need to do this. It’s kind of self-explanatory. Like it or not, our world revolves around money. Having money, or rather, not having money, is quite literally the difference between life and death.
That doesn’t mean you need to be a millionaire, far from it. You just need to be able to manage the money you have properly and responsibly.
Here are 5 things you need to do right now:
1. Create a Budget
You need to make a budget. You need to know how much money you make and how much money you spend. You even need to make a budget if you can’t make ends meet. Is there a reason you should make a budget even if you can’t balance it?
Yes! You need to figure out the gap between your expenses and your income.
Once you know how big your gap is, then you have a goal. Once you have a specific goal, you can create a plan to work towards it. You may not be able to close the whole gap, but what you can do is work towards CLOSING THE GAP. You can work towards making the gap smaller and smaller. You can make absolutely sure that the gap never widens and never gets bigger.
Read More: How to Budget When Your Expenses Are More Than Your Income
2. Pay Yourself First
The first thing you do when you get paid is set aside money for your savings.
The best way to do this is to set up direct deposit from your paycheck into the account. Set up an automation to automatically deduct the amount needed to meet your goal from your paycheck.
Read More: How To Pay Yourself First
3. Build an Emergency Fund
An emergency fund is money that you put aside to help you cover emergencies. It is money that is set aside for life’s unexpected events. The best place to keep an emergency fund is in a regular checking or savings account. As long as you have an easy way to access the cash (checkbook or debit card), you should be okay.
Read More: Everything You Need To Know About Emergency Funds
4. Automate Savings
Automated savings is easily the best and simplest method for reinforcing discipline. If you’ve ever found saving tough with that tempting number going up at the same rate as your desire to shop, automation is an elegant solution that takes the effort out of the equation. It’s out of sight, out of mind, instead of out of pocket.
Read More: 5 Reasons To Invest in Yourself by Automating Savings
5. Invest Wisely
Investing money is the best way to make your money work for you. Even if you don’t have a lot, start saving money so you can invest.
Think about how much $25 a month is over a year. Or five years.
Better yet, let’s look at ten years: if you manage to put away even just $25 a month, every month, you’ll have $3,000, not including compound interest.
No, that’s not a ton of money by today’s standards.
But could it save you in a pinch? Absolutely.
And chances are, once you start putting away $25, you’ll be smarter about your spending and want to put away even more.
Read More: 6 Reasons Saving Even $25 a Month Is a Wise Investment
Read More:
- 30 Ways To Get Free Stuff (That Aren’t Scams)
- 12 Best Coupon Apps To Help You Save Money
- 13 Ways To Earn Money From Paid Surveys [At Home, Online & More]
