Money! Money!
It is all about money in today's world.It is true that money can't buy happiness but still we can follow some simple steps so that we can achieve happiness through wealth.When you have more,you can always afford to give some/ share your wealth.Here are some tips rather than that we can call them guidelines to increase your wealth so that in the long run,you'll be able to provide some surplus to the ones in need of money and may be get content and feel happy about what you've done.
The truth is that even when money is a cause of small figment of happiness,it is also the reason why you may loose happiness.In simple word, we can say that the more control you have on you money matter, the less stressed you are and the less stressed you are, there is more chances of happiness.
Organise your money issues, get yourself set with some kind of money monitoring system so that you can easily manage the flow of money.For example, you can file in your expenditures, by collecting various bills,receipts,etc., and in another folder you can organise your income receipts or income statements, so that when you sometimes need to find the overall picture of your income and expenditure, you can do so easily since things are organised.Usually the categorisation for organising money matters are
- Income
- Expenditure
- Debt
- Savings
These four are the major, common categories.Keeping track of your money is very important since you may be at a point of time when suddenly you'll be spending so much you'll forget how much you're spending and your savings may go down and your debts will grow.Also keeping track of your money keeps you in control of the money rater than the money controlling you.
Be sure that you track down your bills effectively, monitoring the fluctuations in the bills, whether they are increasing by the month or decreasing, whatever be the case make sure that you have found the reason for such a trend in your bills.
Also clearing debts then and there is very important since debts grow exponentially and if unchecked,you'll be in a financial hole so deep, that it'll be impossible to come out of it.Clearing debts piece by piece will help you in the long run,rather than clearing all your debts at a time, resulting in spending of bulk amounts of money at the same time.
The money you spending, must be spent sensibly.By sensible spending, we mean that you spend on things only if essential.For example if you are able to do your laundry yourself, then why use the help of a laundry/dry-cleaning shop?.It may not sound much but it's always these small things that when saved, add up to a considerable saving over the period of a year( try adding your expenses on simple things like these,for a year-you'll be astonished).If it's too many birthday present, parties, restaurant bills,etc., you can always control how you spend.
"People always spend a lot on things they don't want, to impress people they don't like"
This is absolutely true.We can see people spending thousands for their hair care,for washing car,for things that can be done at a less cost.So the next time you spend on something, be sure you think through before investing your money.Ask yourself the questions is it worth? do I really need this? is there an alternative to this?.Spending no more than you can afford is absolutely essential for financial control.
Now we come to the more aggressive part of financial control-Debts.minimizing your debts are very essential.Though minimizing them doesn't necessarily make you feel better, in the long run you're sure to reap the benefits.Debts these days comes in many sizes and forms, it may be a new house, new car or just renovation of your old home.There is another gruesome form of debt ,it is your credit card debts.
If you've borrowed on credit cards so much that you are having trouble re-paying them, then stop borrowing and stop spending.It's as simple as that.Paying bills on time, avoiding penalties in payment, repaying loans in time,etc., can give you more control over your finances, because as told before,if you are in a deep financial hole, then you've got to find a way out soon.
The saviour of your finances- Savings.When you start saving a part of what you earn ,then you've started to get more and more control on your finances.The easiest way to save is to make sure that a part of what you earn(- it may be 5% or 10%) gets out of your hand before you can spend it.You see it's human nature to want more.So the sooner you put your savings away from you , the better you are protected from spending your savings.
Join a mutual fund scheme, or make arrangements so that a part of your monthly goes into your savings directly or invest on insurances schemes that makes money returns after a few years.But the reality for saving money is that you can save money only if you have surplus.And that is possible only when you are living within your money boundaries.
Making budgets, tracking your expenses, balancing your cheque books and paying bills at time, all translates into savings.And make sure that when you could comfortable save the percentage of your income, then raise your savings slowly.Never keep saving te same 5% when you can save an additional 5 or 6%.
Visualizing what you need is the first step to achieving your goals.You may want a big, fancy car, but spending for your children or spending for your own( studies, business etc.,) may be more important.Setting goals( financial goals) and working towards them is more effective.
For example you may say to your self I'll buy a house for myself soon.But it's too vague.Be specific in setting your financial goals.so it might be that you want a double bedroom house, with lots of surrounding space and you are going to do that within the next 4 years.Now that is a specific goal.
Your goals may be materialistic or simply about savings, reducing your expenditure below certain level.Whatever it is, make sure you think about is and start working on them.If your goals are too big, like increasing your savings to double the amount in a year, then break your goals into smaller actions( may be work on your savings for every week) that will lead to the ultimate need.make goals your needs to be achieved rather than a change that needs to happen in your life.
The final rule for better financial control is to stop wanting more.Always learn to love the life you've been able to achieve so far.Keep in mind that wanting more will only lead to more troubles than getting you relief.You may want to save more so you must not start to push yourself so hard that you end up using your savings on a business that doesn't yield you much and you end up loosing what you had.Only when the opportunity presents itself, you take the chance of giving yourself a financial hike. But until then wanting more than what you can already afford is not good.
The best way to achieve control and independence over your finances/ wealth is to adopt the good money management habits of planning, organising, saving, etc.,These may not change how much money you make but they'll affect how much money you have and how you can handle it effectively.
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