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How can you spring clean my finances this spring?

by | Sep 1, 2022 | Personal Finance

Spring has sprung and to match the freshness in the air, it is also time to give our finances a fresh new clean. It’s in with the bloom and out with the doom, and whatever no longer serves your financial goals. With the promise of sunnier days, and possible travels, it’s time to stack up the holiday budget too. 

Anyone with as much as an ounce of financial erudition will tell you that the key to any fruitful financial management strategy lies with how one’s budget is aligned to their goals and lifestyle. So, a great place to start with your financial spring clean is to refresh your budget. Make sure you take a close look at how much you spend now, what you earn, and your financial goals. Consider whether there is a way to make more money by adapting your spending patterns. Are you spending your budget on wants or needs? You can keep track of your budget with a simple worksheet or online and review it monthly to ensure you are within your budget.

Next, its time to sweep up some old spending habits that no longer serve you. Take a hard look at your spending and suss out the pearls from the rot and seamlessly determine which patterns you would do better without. From here, you can start letting go of one or two habits that have been detrimental. It is advisable to take small and steady steps towards this eradication of unhealthy money habits rather than going cold turkey. For example, if you eat takeout four times a week, start by reducing this to two times a week, and then once a week, to twice a month etc.

As part of the cleaning up process, let’s not forget that ballooning debt can make things pretty messy pretty quickly. Don’t put this off any longer. Pull out your credit report and examine your debt with the intent of paying it off in the shortest possible time. The time has come for you to organize your debts based on how you want to pay them off. Depending on your anxiety level, choose the debt with the lowest balance, the highest interest rate, or the debt with the highest balance. You could start with the smaller debts and get a boost in your morale as you celebrate your small wins. Alternatively, you could start with the larger debt and ultimately pay less in interest as you reduce your debt amount. Start anywhere you want, there are no rules. Boost your financial confidence by starting with a desire to do so. Pay off whatever debt you can first, then make sure you have a plan to pay for the remaining debts.

Once your debt is under control, the next place to review is your insurance and investments. Check if you don’t have any unnecessary benefits and whether you’ve got the right cover for all your insurance needs. See if there aren’t any investment opportunities that you can cash into. Are you where you are supposed to be in terms of your retirement savings? It is never too late to start securing your future.

Finally, and most importantly, with brighter days and lesser clothing on our backs, we are all getting ready to kick and enjoy a much-deserved holiday, but this will need money. How far are you with your holiday budget? If things are still looking very dim, you better start throwing a little more every month into the kitty otherwise you will reach the end of the year and have no means to celebrate all the blood, sweat, and tears you have spilled over the months.

Financial freedom is possible for people from all walks of life, if you feel like your overwhelming debt in blocking this for you contact us today, we can help you get rid of it.

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