Money guru Molly Benjamin shares her top tips on budgeting like a boss to achieve your financial goals.
A goal gives you control
Many of us love to ‘treat ourselves’ and with constant marketing emails and very clever ad targeting online it can be hard to say no to your favourite brands and instead, make impulse purchases that can prevent us from achieving our real financial goals. To counter this, get clear on your goals and break them down into
short term (1-3 years), medium term (4-6 years) and long term goals (7+ years plus).
Put a time frame and dollar amount next to each so you know then how much you have to put away each month. Keep your goals front of mind! Saying ‘no’ to a weekend away with your gal pals will be easier because you’re saying yes to your goal of ‘buying a house’. Write out your big goals and stick them in your wallet next to your credit card or on your mobile screen saver (just as a little reminder!)
Budget like a boss
We are fortunate to have so many free budgeting tools and technology apps at our finger tips, so get on board with technology that prompts us to consider what else our money needs to be used for in the short term. CommBank’s latest digital feature Bill Sense is available in the CommBank app and predicts upcoming bills to help customers plan and stay ahead of bill payments. #ChaChing
OMG that didn’t just happen?
If you’re just starting out, the first thing to do is set up an OMG Fund (some people call these emergency funds/rainy day funds). These are the savings that will be used in an emergency or as we call them OMG moments (because life happens). Start with saving $1000 and start to build it up to the equivalent of 3-6 month’s worth of expenses. Keep it in a high interest, fee free savings account. The reason this is so important is because it’s the first step towards financial wellbeing and by doing this
you’re already one step ahead of the game! Start building an OMG Fund for moments like ‘OMG the car needs repairs’ not ‘OMG I want those shoes’ or ‘OMG a round of shots on me at 1am’.
Home edit your bank accounts
When you have a messy wardrobe it’s hard to see what’s going on, which is similar to your finances! You want it looking like an episode of Home Edit – the after version!
Book a night in each fortnight or month to get your paper work under control, switch to paperless copies where possible, set up a finance folder in your inbox and BPay or direct debts any of your bills regularly. That way instead of getting scary, large electricity and council rates you can be paying smaller amounts off each month.
Pay yourself first… not last!
“If I have any money left at the end of the fortnight I’ll save it”. It’s no surprise that we never have any money left at the end of the fortnight.
Tell your money where to go instead of wondering where did it all go! First decide how much of your pay you want to save each pay cycle. Line up your automatic transfer from your pay account to your saving account on pay day.
Then you don’t even have to think about it! Boom- tick!
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