There is nothing more satisfying than feeling in control of your finances. Taking charge of your financial situation is something every young adult should do. And, with a little practice of these tips below you may even come to enjoy it.
1. Know Your Numbers
Do you know how much your monthly expenses are? What about how much you make in a month? If you can’t answer those two questions then you need to find out ASAP. The first part to figuring out how much you can spend is to figure out what your expendable income is for the month.
What’s expendable income? It’s what you have left over after your bills are paid.
To do this, you can use an app to track your spending (most are even free!). Or, if you prefer to do it yourself simply add up your month’s pay cheques and deduct your monthly expenses. Voila! The number you have is your ‘expendable income’.
2. Educate Yourself
Knowledge is power, especially when getting control of your finances.
Grab your monthly card statements and head back 3 months. Sit down and categorize where your money is going (for example ‘food’ or ‘clothes’) If you don’t want to do it manually there are plenty of apps that can help do it for you.
3. Cut It Out
Now that you know where your money is going it’s time to answer the tough question: where can you cut back?
Maybe you're paying too much on rent or should get rid of your cable subscription. You'll want to look at every possible way to save.
4. Monitor It
At the beginning, middle and end of the month spend 5 minutes of your day to track your finances. See if you are on track with your budget and if not, play around with the numbers to see where you can cut back.
5. Try Something New
If you’ve tried the 4 techniques above and it’s still not working you should start thinking about more ways to bring in money. An easy way to bring in some quick cash is to sell unwanted items online, or pick up a part-time gig until your spending is back in line.