If you find yourself struggling each month to make ends meet then you are not alone and like you, there are many families out there that are having exactly the same difficulty. My friend Keith Springer and I regularly attend finical conferences and the like and we are often met by people who are in a very similar situation to you, struggling each month and searching high and low for ways to find new income or cut down on spending. Whilst this plan of attack is a good one to adopt, it is important that you are smart as well as hard working when it comes to fixing the finances of your family.
If you want to fix your finances for good, here is what you need to do.
Review, Switch and Change
More often than not, the biggest monthly outlay that a family has is their monthly bills such as gas, electricity, water etc. The first step is to make a list of all of your providers and start making some phonecalls. You need to ask your providers if you are on the best rate and if they can offer you a better deal. If the providers refuse to budge, search an online comparison site to see if switching providers can save you money. Even addressing your mortgage to get a better deal makes sense and many people have success with this. In just a few phone calls, you can easily save yourself hundreds of dollars each month.
Savings Plan
Once you have spoken with all of your providers and saved yourself some money, it is important to resist the temptation to up your spending each month wither new found wealth. Instead, you should be looking to save at least 50% of the money which you have saved on your monthly bills. Financial management is as much about looking to the future as it is dealing in the present and if you do not put some money aside whilst you can, you will only find yourself in this situation again in the future.
Tracking Spending
Many people who say that they do not have two pennies to rub together actually waste a great deal of money each month, albeit without noticing. the thing is that a coffee or a sandwich per day, a new item of clothing or even paying for the car wash are spends that soon add up over the course of the month. In order to understand how you spend you cash, you should download a phone app that allows you to track your spending and review it each month. The way in which these apps present data make for interesting reading and after just one or two months, you will be able to see just how much money you are wasting and where.
The key to fixing your finances is to take charge of them, see if you can save money on your bills, plan for the future and most importantly, stop wasting money with unnecessary spending.