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By now you are like most and back at work after the Christmas New Year break and thinking, ‘wow that went so fast, I wish I could wind the clock back to the 23rd of December and do it all over again’.
The reality is that most of us work all year and have the bulk of our holidays off over this period. It’s a great time to reflect on the past year and hopefully set some goals, amd make some changes for what you want to achieve in the New Year. So if your New Year resolution is to improve your finances, hopefully I can help with a few tips to set you on your path to achieving your goals. Firstly you need to be clear about what it is you really want to achieve, if your ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step you take gets you to the wrong place faster!
Write down what you want to achieve and then take a step back and ask yourself, ‘if I keep doing what I am doing, am I go to move towards my goal or further away?’.
Then write down the steps you need to take, small bites at a time, to get you towards the ultimate goal. Like most, if you have debt, be it the mortgage, credit cards, personal loans etc, it is unrealistic that you can pay these all off in a short period of time. So start by writing down what debts you have, what interest rate you are paying and put them in the order of highest to lowest interest rate.
Complete a budget to show what income and expenses you have on a weekly or monthly basis. If you have a surplus of income over expenses, then work out what extra you can pay off the principle of the debt with the highest interest rate first. Then you can work out over what period you can expect to pay it off in full. Review your expenses, do you really need to keep paying for something you don’t really use much? Are there things lying around the house that you can sell and get extra cash? Is there somewhere you can get a particular product or service cheaper than you are currently paying? Write down your goals, break them down into achievable steps, complete a budget vs expense sheet, review it regularly and stick to it. Before long you will notice that you can start ticking off a few of the steps and you are on your way to reaching your goals. As the old cliché says, ‘If nothing changes, nothing changes’.
So what changes are you prepaid to make.
If it helps, email me at grant@countrywise.co.nz and I will send you some goal sheets and budget sheets to assist you on your journey.
