Personal financial planning is not a difficult work if you make it into a disciplined habit. Instead of worrying yourself dead at the end of the month while paying bills, start on your salary day and keep a record of all your expenditures. Splurge only after taking care of all your outstanding bills as well as personal saving and investments. You should not save what you get left over from spending but you should only spend what is left over after saving and investing. If you just plan smartly instead of losing sleep over planning your personal finances, you can save, invest as well as indulge on comforts and luxuries of life, all at once. Here are a few tips on how to go about planning your personal finances well:
- The day you get your monthly salary, instead of going out and spending it all on shopping or partying with friends, postpone it to the day after and spend the day working out your monthly financial structures.
- Make separate envelopes for different expenditures, like bills and grocery and so on. Keep a little extra amount of money in each envelope and try to keep your spending restricted within that amount. Tell yourself that if you can save even a little on all the envelopes, you can spend that on partying or shopping and hence you would think twice before overspending on any one thing.
- Keep a record of all the expenditures including the kept aside ones as well as the sudden ones. At the end of the month you can see where you overspent and where you were successful in saving money. You can then work on your weak spot on the next month to save on that particular point too.
- Do not keep your savings and investment amounts separated in an envelope till the end of the month; you would surely end up spending them. Invest where ever you want to and save the amount you wish to as the first thing every month. And then you can divide the rest of your money into necessary expenditures and luxury expenditures.
You might feel bored with doing what is said above and might not want to do it at all but trust me when I say this; you would surely thank yourself when the end of the month looms near. Try this out for just one month and you can see for yourself how it helps you manage your finances well. If you just make your personal financial planning a monthly affair, you can save a lot at the end of the year to fulfill one financial goal like buying a car or even a property.
