Can you live off a Cash Budget for a Week?

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The next stage up from following a monthly budget is living off a cash budget for a week or a month. If you are not already following a monthly budget, please read this post,  How to Create a Budget That you can Stick to; that post will help you create your monthly budget. For those of you already following a monthly budget, the cash budget could be for you. Following a cash budget will enable you to make further financial gains.

What is a Cash Budget?

Each month you receive your salary or pay cheque, when you do you should pay all of your bills and account for your needs. There will be money left over that you allocate to discretionary spending; items such as groceries and entertainment will fall into this category. For each of these items of expenditure you are going to withdraw the money from your account and place the money in an envelope. For example, if you have allocated £200 for entertainment during the month, you must place £200 in the entertainment envelope. Once that entertainment envelope is empty, you have run out of money for entertainment until next month. The same applies for all the other sub categories.

The Benefits of a Cash Budget

The beauty of the cash budget system is that you will physically see how much you spend on different items of expenditure. Compare that to contactless payments with plastic cards and no receipts, a scenario that makes it so easy to lose track. When you are living with a cash budget, do not steal from one envelope to make up for a shortfall in another. Your envelopes will become emptier as the month progresses; you might find that you are spending a lot on entertainment, groceries or lunches at work.

If you are disciplined, the cash budget system will make you more intentional about everything you spend your money on. This will mean greater control of your finances, which in turn will mean that you improve your net worth and achieve your financial goals more quickly.

It may be that you need to make more money, if that is the case the ideas contained in this post will help you, 10 Ways to Make Money Now.

What if you Have Money Left Over?

If you have money left over in some sub categories and shortfalls in others, you may need to re-visit your monthly budget and make some changes. If you have money left over and no shortfalls it would be advisable to increase the amount that you are saving.

The ideal scenario is for your first experience with a cash budget to be a positive one and for a new habit to be created. Research has confirmed that paying with cash will make you more conscious of every expenditure. Many people have attributed their success in paying off debts and achieving savings targets to the fact that they have used a cash budget.

Your Challenge

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to live off a cash budget for one week. Split your money into budgets for the different sub categories and then live out of the envelopes on a day to day basis. I would love to hear about any progress that you make. Also, feel free to tell me about anything you found particularly difficult and how the overall process made you feel about your personal finances.

Let me know in the comments section below.

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Have you got the Right Money Mindset?

My aim with each blog post is to help you move to a better financial future. I believe that there is not enough financial education in the national curriculum and I intend to share anything helpful that I have learned along the way. I am by no means a financial expert. None of the information on this website constitutes financial advice and is provided as general information only.  This is my personal finance blog; my marketing blog is over here and I have been blogging there since 2010. I hope you have found this information useful. Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Mike

Follow me on Pinterest

Can you live off a Cash Budget for a Week_

Save Hundreds on Rent Per Month By Becoming a Property Guardian

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

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Please make sure you are sitting down as you start to read this post. It is possible to save hundreds of pounds per month on rent in central London and some other cities across the UK. You can live in prime locations for just a few hundred pounds a month as a Property Guardian. Across the UK and dare I say it, the world, accommodation is the largest monthly  expense for adults. This is an opportunity for those who are flexible to significantly reduce their monthly accommodation expenditure.

What is a Property Guardian?

There are property owners in London and other cities, who have to leave their properties empty for a period of time. Perhaps, they have to work abroad for work or have taken a sabbatical to travel the world. There are also commercial property owners. Whatever the reason this group of people would now need to employ a security firm to oversee the property in their absence and ensure that it is well maintained and free from vandalism and squatters. This is where Property Guardians fit in. Property Guardians are essentially live in caretakers who look after the property in return for a heavily reduced monthly rent.

How Does it Work?

People who are interested in becoming Property Guardian should contact one of the entrepreneurial companies that have been set up in this space. There are over 30 now, some are national whereas others are have a London focus, click here to visit the website of Global Guardians, or here to visit dotdotdotproperty.com .  The second company is a Social Enterprise and takes a different approach to the for profit companies.

It Seems Too Good to be True

Well, funny that you should think that, there is a potential downside too. What you are looking for is a clean, convenient space with basic amenities that enables you to look after a property in return for a heavily reduced rent. There  are two clear benefits for the property owner, first of all they get a live in caretaker. Secondly, when commercial properties are converted into residential dwellings they can save thousands in business rates reductions.

Unfortunately not all property Guardians have not had positive experiences, there have been instances where some Property Guardian companies have increased rents for Guardians and failed to maintain basic amenities including showers and kitchens. 

My recommendation is that you do your own research; if you are flexible and can find a reputable company and good location – go for it!  It could be a great way to live more frugally and help you to save money for travelling or some other major expense. I would not recommend Property Guardianship for families.

Have you ever been a Property Guardian? What was it like? Let me know in the comments section below.

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If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

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What to do with a Financial Windfall

Why you Should Track Your Net Worth

Have you saved Enough into Your Pension? 

Are you and Your Partner Financially Compatible? 

Why Choose a Gold IRA?

What are the Best Savings Accounts for Children? 

How to Teach Your Children About Money

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Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal 

How Much Should You Save?

10 Ways to Make Money Now

What’s the Best Strategy for Clearing Debts? 

What are the Different Types of Savings Accounts?

My aim with each blog post is to help you move to a better financial future. I believe that there is not enough financial education in the national curriculum and I intend to share anything helpful that I have learned along the way. I am by no means a financial expert. None of the information on this website constitutes financial advice and is provided as general information only.  This is my personal finance blog; my marketing blog is over here and I have been blogging there since 2010. I hope you have found this information useful. Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Mike

Follow me on Pinterest

Save Hundreds on Rent By Becoming a Property Guardian

 

4 Obstacles You will Face on Your Financial Journey

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

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The path to financial freedom is a route that is potentially open to many and yet few actually take it and liberate themselves. Achieving your financial goals and becoming financially free requires discipline and commitment, you will face many obstacles but with the right mindset and financial habits success will come. I have listed four of of the obstacles that you will face below. Consistency of action and your ability to adapt to changing circumstances will be key if you are to make it.

Obstacles on Your Financial Journey

Level of Income Changes

The days when employees could expect to work continuously for one employer for a period of forty years and then retire are long gone. In many cases, you are now more likely to be made redundant and suffer a period of unemployment during your career. The chances of this happening are higher if you are an ethnic minority or a woman. Self employed workers and freelancers are also more likely to experience fluctuations in their income levels. If this happens, you will experience a change in the level of your income which could jeopardise your financial objectives.

What to do:

You should immediately re-visit your monthly budget and assess the impact to your net worth. It is important that you adapt to your changing circumstances; should you look for a part time job while also looking for a new main job? Can you make cuts to your levels of expenditure? Surely, the entertainment budget can be reduced? These are questions that you will need to ask yourself.  Hopefully you have an emergency fund that you can use until you secure another job.

Pressure from Creditors

If you are following the steps I outlined in this post, What’s the Best Strategy For Clearing Debts?, you will have a prioritised list of debts to clear. It should come as no surprise to you that your creditors will have no regard for your list. You may receive phone calls, text messages or letters from creditors who are a low priority on your list. They will want you to make payments to them and will not care what your overall plan is for reducing your debts. These communications from debtors are an obstacle to overcome and can put you under pressure. If you need to talk to someone consider contacting The National Debtline.

What to do:

Stay strong mentally and do not change your priorities in terms of debt reduction because you received a specific phone call. Stick to your plan that will result in you getting out of debt more quickly.

Pressure from Friends

True friends and family members will understand the financial journey that you are on and the steps that you are taking to put yourself in a better place financially. However, there will be many who do not understand or perhaps are not in your inner circle, they may continue to expect you to attend expensive social get togethers or go on holidays with them. This will put you under some social pressure.

What to do:

Do not give in to pressure to keep up  with the Joneses at all. If an event or purchase does not fit with your financial plan avoid it. If you must attend a wedding or special occasion, plan and budget specifically for the occasion. Recycle an outfit for the occasion rather than buying a brand new one. If necessary, explain your decisions to your friends.

Changes in the Value of Investments

On your financial journey, you will experience many changes in the value of your investments. Depending on the nature of your investment portfolio, these changes could be quite significant. For example, those who have invested in cryptocurrencies during the last few years will have experienced a level of price volatility that can make even the most confident investor think twice.

What to do:

Keep tabs on your investments and prepare to takes steps to rebalance your portfolio if it is no longer consistent with the level of risk you are comfortable with. Avoid knee jerk reactions to market changes and consider the long term at all times.

Having a financial plan and goals is a wonderful position to be in, having the strength of character and determination to stick to it and adapt when necessary is even better. You will face obstacles but it is possible to overcome them. I write from experience, I have faced each of the obstacles I have described and more.  I want you to come out the other side and be able to recognise your achievement and smile.

Have you faced any of the obstacles I have mentioned here? How have you handled them?  Let me know in the comments section below.

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If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

Have you got the Right Money Mindset?

What to do with a Financial Windfall

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Are you and Your Partner Financially Compatible? 

Why Choose a Gold IRA?

What are the Best Savings Accounts for Children? 

How to Teach Your Children About Money

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency 

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal 

How Much Should You Save?

10 Ways to Make Money Now

What’s the Best Strategy for Clearing Debts? 

What are the Different Types of Savings Accounts?

My aim with each blog post is to help you move to a better financial future. I believe that there is not enough financial education in the national curriculum and I intend to share anything helpful that I have learned along the way. I am by no means a financial expert. None of the information on this website constitutes financial advice and is provided as general information only.  This is my personal finance blog; my marketing blog is over here and I have been blogging there since 2010. I hope you have found this information useful. Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Mike

Follow me on Pinterest

4 OBSTACLES YOU WILL FACE ON YOUR FINANCIAL JOURNEY

 

 

Do you Have the Right Money Mindset?

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If you are going to be successful achieving your financial goals it is essential that you have the right money mindset. You may be thinking, what does that even mean? In broad terms, A money mindset is your attitude to money, how do you feel about money? What are your emotional reactions to the subject of money? We are all a product of our environments, if you grew up in a mansion with servants waiting on your every whim, you are likely to have a different money mindset to someone who grew up without wealth or many material items.

Your money mindset is given its ‘default setting’ by your parents. If they struggled with money and always mentioned it in the context of having bills to pay or needing more of it, you are likely to have developed a scarcity mindset around money. You may feel that you never seem to have enough money or that saving for the future is not possible with your current circumstances.

Money Mindset

It’s important that you take time to assess your own beliefs around money. Make a list of any beliefs that you have around money and assess them. The opposite to a scarcity mindset is an abundance mindset. It was Stephen Covey who created the term ‘abundance mindset’ in his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People People . People with an abundance mindset believe that there are enough resources (including money) for them and others to share.

Fortunately, money mindsets can be changed, you can transform from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset if you work on changing your beliefs around money. This is important because a person with an abundance mindset will be more likely to stick to their financial plans and achieve their goals. Also, they will be less likely to self sabotage.

My objective with this post, is to move you closer to an abundance mindset if you don’t have one already. Following the steps below will help you get there.

Gratitude

Create the habit of expressing gratitude for all that you have, do this on a regular basis. You have a roof over your head and the ability to buy all the food that you need. No doubt you have the love of family and friends and the opportunity to live in a relatively peaceful environment. In many parts of the world, people would love this to be true for them too.

Positive Affirmations

Make a list of positive affirmations that you can recite on a regular basis. The impact of these will be to focus your mind on positivity. You will be able to overcome the obstacles that the day or week may throw at you. For most problems that you face, a positive mental attitude is part of the solution. You must believe in yourself and then act in a way that is consistent with your belief.

Evaluate Wants and Needs

It should be relatively straightforward to evaluate your financial needs and wants. This post will help you, How to Create a Budget That You can Stick ToAn abundance mindset does not mean that money will magically appear but that there will be enough for your needs and the needs of others too.

Think Practically About Money Making Opportunities

An abundance mindset should be rooted in the practical, don’t make the mistake of thinking that it is all touchy-feely. Think about practical ways in which you can make more money; perhaps you could sell unwanted items, this post will help you think of ideas, 10 Ways to Make Money Now.  If you own a business, you could make more money by finding new ways to attract customers. Hopefully you are now becoming aware of the many opportunities that are open to you.

Personally, I am using this blog to keep me executing best practice with regards to personal finance. We should all become more intentional about our financial decisions and creating an abundance mindset will definitely help us on our journey towards financial freedom.  I hope that you will take the journey with me.

One belief that I have had to unlearn was the belief that money has to be earned as a trade off for time. I now know that it if you create massive value for a large number of people you can be rewarded far in excess of anything you could earn as an hourly rate or salary. Good examples of that are authors, musicians or online course instructors. They create abundance for themselves but only complete the work once and then continue to be paid for it. Before they created anything, they had to believe it was possible and to adopt an abundance mindset.

Have you had to consciously change your money mindset because of limiting beliefs? How do you feel about money now? What changes have you experienced? Let me know in the comments section below.

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If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

What to do with a Financial Windfall

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How to Teach Your Children About Money

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What’s the Best Strategy for Clearing Debts? 

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My aim with each blog post is to help you move to a better financial future. I believe that there is not enough financial education in the national curriculum and I intend to share anything helpful that I have learned along the way. I am by no means a financial expert. None of the information on this website constitutes financial advice and is provided as general information only.  This is my personal finance blog; my marketing blog is over here and I have been blogging there since 2010. I hope you have found this information useful. Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Mike

Follow me on Pinterest

Do you have the right money mindset

 

What to do With a Financial Windfall

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If we are lucky, many of us will be handed a financial windfall during our lifetime; a financial windfall is a relatively large influx of surprise cash. It could be the result of achieving an unexpected bonus at work, particularly if you work in the financial services sector. Alternatively, it could be because you have received an inheritance after the death of a loved one. In addition, you could have won a competition, the lottery or sold a business. Windfalls are potentially life changing for recipients, if you take the right steps you can set up your family and yourself for life. What should you do if you receive a financial windfall?

What to do With a Financial Windfall

Take Your Time

The money should not be burning a hole in your pocket, take some time to review your current financial situation, net worth and future plans before you do anything. You should probably consult with an independent financial adviser and listen to their recommendations. Also, consider the tax implications of your windfall, if there are any.  Be discreet about your good fortune, not everyone will have your best interests at heart, some will want to exploit the situation for their own financial gain.

Pay Down Debt

A great first step after reviewing your overall financial situation and net worth is to pay down debt, start with the most expensive debts first. This is likely to be credit card debt. For details of a very effective debt reduction strategy read this post, What’s the Best Strategy for Clearing Debts?  

Make Additional Mortgage Payments

As the great Jim Rohn* remarked, it’s not possible to actually buy time; one of the occasions in life when it feels like you can almost buy time is when you pay off your mortgage early. If possible, arrange to make additional payments against your mortgage,  in doing so you will save yourself tens of thousands in interest that you will not have to pay. Depending on the size of your windfall, you may be able to pay off your mortgage completely and take a big step towards becoming financially free.

Emergency Fund

If you have not had the opportunity or funds to create an emergency fund, now would be a great time to do so. Put away 3-6 months of monthly expenses that can cover you in the event that unforeseen circumstances prevent you from earning your regular salary.

Add to Savings

Take the opportunity provided by the financial windfall to add to your savings, ensure that you take advantage of the best savings accounts interest rates available to you. This article will help you decide what to do, What are the Different Types of Savings Accounts?

Philanthropy

If your financial windfall allows you to help others financially or support your favourite charities or organisations, please do so; your good fortune can have a much wider impact and make a significant difference to the lives of others.

Have you received a financial windfall? What are you planning to do with it? Let me know in the comments section below. Note, I would suggest that use an email address that does not make your identity obvious.

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If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

Why you Should Track Your Net Worth

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Why Choose a Gold IRA?

What are the Best Savings Accounts for Children? 

How to Teach Your Children About Money

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency 

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal 

How Much Should You Save?

10 Ways to Make Money Now

What’s the Best Strategy for Clearing Debts? 

What are the Different Types of Savings Accounts?

My aim with each blog post is to help you move to a better financial future. I believe that there is not enough financial education in the national curriculum and I intend to share anything helpful that I have learned along the way. I am by no means a financial expert. None of the information on this website constitutes financial advice and is provided as general information only.  This is my personal finance blog; my marketing blog is over here and I have been blogging there since 2010. I hope you have found this information useful. Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Mike

Follow me on Pinterest

*  ‘Time is more value than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.’ – Jim Rohn

What to do with a Financial Windfall

Have you Saved Enough into Your Pension?

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Have you saved enough into your pension? For a large proportion of the United Kingdom population the answer is no. Most people are not saving enough for their retirement.  Does your vision of retirement include freedom to travel and time to enjoy a comfortable standard of living? If we all to have the retirement that we aspire to one day, we will need to make sure that we are on track to achieve it.  It is time to get serious and work out how much that will cost.

Pensions: Why Many People Are Failing

There are a lot of assumptions built into pension calculations, assumptions that are not true for many people. For example, the assumption that you will work 40 years of continuous employment with your salary continually increasing by X% and you maintaining your pension contributions at 12% of your salary for 40 years. Some of the realities of life such as redundancies, women taking time out to raise a family, individuals starting businesses, part time work, time out for studying and credit credit or student loan debts don’t exist in this Continuous Pension Saving Utopia.

I think when people realise that they are not on track to hit their pension goal, they give up and hope someone other than themselves will solve the problem. Let me be more specific, if you would like to live on a retired income of £25,000 you will need to have a pension pot of £500,000. That is assuming that you use your pension pot to purchase an annuity giving you the annual income of £25,000.  Try this pension calculator to work out how  much you would need at other income levels. As you can appreciate, £500,000 is a large amount especially when it’s considered that the average pension pot in the UK is around £50,000. 

What Should you do Now?

Pension Pot 

Work out the total pension pot you currently have, if you have had several jobs during your career  you may need to do a little detective work to track down all of your workplace pensions.  This article will help you find your pensions. 

Up Your Contributions

Re-evaluate your household budget, can you afford to increase your contributions? If you are in a workplace pension then you should maximise the contributions that you make because these will be matched by your employer. If you are self employed, you should also increase your contributions.

Develop a Plan B

It may be that increasing your pension contributions alone will not be enough for you create a big enough pension pot for retirement. If that is the case, you should develop a Plan B.

Property is a great way to supplement your pension savings, you could downsize your main residence and use the profit for your retirement. Alternatively, you could rent out a spare room and earn extra income that way. There are other ways too, they include equity release and property investing. You can read more about these ways via this link. 

If you own a business, this could become your Plan B. Depending on the nature of your business, you may be able to sell it and contribute money to your pension savings after the sale.

Don’t Lose Heart

The fact that you are reading an article like this is a positive in itself. You still have time to improve your level of preparedness for retirement and there are a number of ways you can do so.

Are you on track with your pension savings? If not, what are you going to do about it? Let me know in the comments section below.

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If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

Are you and Your Partner Financially Compatible? 

Why Choose a Gold IRA?

What are the Best Savings Accounts for Children? 

How to Teach Your Children About Money

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency 

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal 

How Much Should You Save?

10 Ways to Make Money Now

What’s the Best Strategy for Clearing Debts? 

What are the Different Types of Savings Accounts?

My aim with each blog post is to help you move to a better financial future. I believe that there is not enough financial education in the national curriculum and I intend to share anything helpful that I have learned along the way. I am by no means a financial expert. None of the information on this website constitutes financial advice and is provided as general information only.  This is my personal finance blog; my marketing blog is over here and I have been blogging there since 2010. I hope you have found this information useful. Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Mike

Follow me on Pinterest

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Are you and Your Partner Financially Compatible?

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

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If you are going to be successful and achieve your financial goals you will need to face up to obstacles head on rather than wait and hope that they disappear of their own accord; usually, they do not disappear of their own accord. Are you financially compatible with your partner?

First of all, a quick definition, when I use the use the term financially compatible,  I mean to share the same financial goals, vision and habits. Are you both saving regularly and maximising investment returns? Is your discretionary expenditure linked to value for money? I do not mean that you need to be earning the same salary. It is great if you are but it is not essential for financial compatibility. The key word in this context is together, ideally you need to be able to plan your financial future together and work towards it. This could mean saving to buy a home, a goal of becoming debt free or financial freedom (retirement) at an early age.

Financial literacy is not a skill-set everyone has, some are willing to learn whereas others are more interested in living for the moment instead of having a financial plan. Not everyone approaches personal finance and their financial responsibilities in the same way.

Are You Financially Compatible?

Disagreements over money remains one of most common causes of divorce. If one person is a disciplined, lifelong saver and the other is frivolous with money, there will be friction between the two. In my opinion, if these differences are entrenched there is no chance of achieving your financial goals together. It does not seem very romantic to consider a partner’s financial compatibility when you are just getting to know them but if you don’t, you could be storing up problems for yourself later on. Hopefully, if you are in a relationship you have already taken an opportunity to discuss money with your partner.

Depending on your starting point, following a budget for a prolonged period can be hard work. To achieve financial freedom for example, you and your partner will need to work as a team and to be consistent. You need to be in alignment.

Create a Financial Plan Together

If there are only slight differences between you then thankfully, with a calm approach, compromises can be agreed upon.

If that is the case, the following steps will help:

  • Arrange to have regular money meetings with your partner; during these meetings discuss financial goals and budgeting and agree a way forward.
  • If one of you is the natural saver, take the lead in these meetings but be careful to avoid being judgemental.
  • Build in quick wins on your financial journey together, this could be paying off a credit card with a low balance or saving for a planned weekend away.
  • Allow yourself small celebrations when you hit your financial milestones, be creative with these and do not spend a lot of money on them.

By working together you will dramatically improve your financial health and you will strengthen your relationship. Well done! Your future is looking bright.

Have you sat down with your partner and discussed finances? How did the conversation go?  Let me know in the comments section below.

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If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

Why Choose a Gold IRA?

What are the Best Savings Accounts for Children? 

How to Teach Your Children About Money

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency 

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal 

How Much Should You Save?

10 Ways to Make Money Now

What’s the Best Strategy for Clearing Debts? 

What are the Different Types of Savings Accounts?

My aim with each blog post is to help you move to a better financial future. I believe that there is not enough financial education in the national curriculum and I intend to share anything helpful that I have learned along the way. I am by no means a financial expert. None of the information on this website constitutes financial advice and is provided as general information only.  This is my personal finance blog; my marketing blog is over here and I have been blogging there since 2010. I hope you have found this information useful. Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Mike

Follow me on Pinterest

ARE YOU AND YOUR PARTNER FINANCIALLY COMPATIBLE_
 

How to Create a Budget That You Can Stick To

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

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Creating a budget is like eating healthily, everyone knows that they should do but that does not mean that they will. I recommend that everyone who has regular earnings, or pocket money if they are children, creates a budget. Why do I recommend that? It’s about one word – control. Spending money without any sense of how much you have left or what other outgoings need to be paid for is a fast track to stress and ill health. Think of all those celebrities and ex professional sports people who ended up broke; they clearly were not in control of their budget. I do not want you to find yourself in the same position.

A Budget that You Can Stick To

Mindset Shift

I want you to start with a mindset shift,  budgeting is something that will stay with you for the rest of your life. The right budget will give you peace of mind and a sense of well being. If we return to the food analogy, I want you to think of budgeting as eating healthier forever rather than going on a ‘financial diet’ for the short term. We all know what happens when people come off diets, they usually regress and lose the gains that they’ve made.

Start of with a Simple Spreadsheet

I know you do not want to start from the very beginning so click on this link to download a free household budget template.  Print off your last two monthly bank statements and examine all your expenditure. If you do not know your monthly income, print off your last two payslips. Now record all the details required to complete your spreadsheet.

How to Create a Budget You can Stick To

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You can download this budget template to use here. To change the currency on the template follows these instructions. 

I always find it helpful to list mandatory expenditure above discretionary expenditure and savings. Mandatory expenditure includes your mortgage / rent and bills. Your mortgage or rent is likely to be the largest single expense in your budget. Discretionary expenditure includes entertainment and non- essential shopping items, saving is self -explanatory.

Budget For A Better Future

There are far more complicated spreadsheets available, but this is a good place to start.  Having a plan for the month financially will make a big difference to how you feel. Sticking within your allocated amounts for each category will make you feel good. In time, you can add in additional considerations as you grow more confident working with your budget.

Apply the 50/30/20 Rule

It was US Senator and academic Elizabeth Warren who popularised the 50/20/30 budget rule in her book “All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan.” She co authored her book with her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi. Once taxes have been allocated, the rule is to spend 50% of your net income on needs, 30% on wants and to transfer 20% to savings. Above, I have referred to these categories as mandatory, discretionary and savings.

I have great news! Once you filled out your budget, you have done most of the actual work. In the future, you will need to refer to it, tweak it, add extra details about new income or items or expenditure, but on the whole it won’t change very much. In most cases, it is possible to live within your budget and to plan effectively for future additional expenditure around Summer or Christmas time.

Do you have a budget already? Are you managing to stick to it? Let me know in the comments section below.

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If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

What are the Best Savings Accounts for Children? 

How to Teach Your Children About Money

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency 

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal 

How Much Should You Save?

10 Ways to Make Money Now

What’s the Best Strategy for Clearing Debts? 

What are the Different Types of Savings Accounts?

My aim with each blog post is to help you move to a better financial future. I believe that there is not enough financial education in the national curriculum and I intend to share anything helpful that I have learned along the way. I am by no means a financial expert. None of the information on this website constitutes financial advice and is provided as general information only.  This is my personal finance blog; my marketing blog is over here and I have been blogging there since 2010. I hope you have found this information useful. Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Mike

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How to Create a Budget You Can Stick To

Top 5 Automatic Savings Apps – Save Your Spare Change

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

Image credit: getchip.uk

Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to think and plan every saving that you made each month? It would make saving easier and achievable for those of you who want to save, but struggle to actually do it. Help is at hand on your smartphone. There are now a multitude of general finance and savings apps on both IOS and Android platforms. Below I have given an overview of my top 5, and listed their key features.

Automatic Savings Apps

Money Box

Money Box is a savings app that allows you to invest your spare change  from everyday purchases. Over time you can build up your investments with money that you will not miss. Your money can be invested into a Stocks and Shares ISA, Lifetime ISA or general investment account. You can start with £1.  More details here. 

Chip

The Chip App is similar to Money Box in that it enables you to save spare change against goals that you determine. Please be aware that you need to give the app read only access to your bank account; this fact alone will put some people off. As with every app or account that I mention on this website, always do your own research and only move forward if you are comfortable to do so. More details here.

Money Farm

Money Farm is a wealth management app designed to make investing accessible. Created with families in mind, Money Farm gives its users access to investment advice and well structured investment products. Money Farm operates in the UK and Italy. More details here. 

Money Dashboard

As the name suggests, Money Dashboard is a way to keep track of  your financial accounts by viewing one dashboard rather than many different websites. It is an account aggregator that makes it very easy to budget and also track spending,  The app currently has over 150K users. More details here. 

Plum

Plum is not actually not an app, it is a Facebook chatbot and has the same purpose as Moneybox and Chip, allow its users to save without really trying to. The chatbot analyses your transactions, identifies regular income, bills and daily expenditure to calculate an affordable amount that you can save. Your savings are moved to a protected account and then can be invested with RateSetter, who are a peer-to-peer lender. More details here. 

For each of these apps, do you own research and make sure that you read the Google reviews too. If you are using an app or website to invest in the stock market remember that Stocks can go down as well as up. Plan to invest for the long term.

Are you currently using any of the apps mentioned in this post? How are you getting on? Let me know in the comments section below.

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If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

What are the Best Savings Accounts for Children? 

How to Teach Your Children About Money

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency 

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal 

How Much Should You Save?

10 Ways to Make Money Now

What’s the Best Strategy for Clearing Debts? 

What are the Different Types of Savings Accounts?

My aim with each blog post is to help you move to a better financial future. I believe that there is not enough financial education in the national curriculum and I intend to share anything helpful that I have learned along the way. I am by no means a financial expert. None of the information on this website constitutes financial advice and is provided as general information only.  This is my personal finance blog; my marketing blog is over here and I have been blogging there since 2010. I hope you have found this information useful. Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Mike

Follow me on Pinterest

Top 5 Automatic Savings Apps

 

What are the Best Savings Accounts for Children?

 

This post may contain affiliate links please read our disclosure for more info.

Image credit: http://www.newportcreditunion.co.uk/

If you’ve read my most recent post, How to Teach Your Children About Money you could easily have guessed that this would be my next subject. In this post, I give an overview and provide links for a selection of the best savings accounts for children. This is the next logical step, to give your children practical recommendations for where they should save their money. Do not let them lose momentum, they are forming great financial habits; now show them where to save their money.

Do not fall into the trap of advising your children to open an account at your current bank because it is convenient. A low interest rate for savers is not convenient, please give your children the best recommendations for their money.

Below I have listed my top picks for regular saving, easy access and fixed rate savings accounts for children. Please remember none of this constitutes financial advice and you should do your own research. I have provided links to all of the accounts mentioned for that purpose.

Best Savings Accounts for Children

In each example the interest rate quoted is the Annual Equivalent Rate (AER).

Regular Savings

Halifax

The Halifax Kids Regular Saver account pays 4.5 % interest. You are allowed to save between £10 and £100 per month but not allowed to make any withdrawals. More details here.  

Saffron Building Society

The Saffron Building Society Children’s Regular Saver account pays 4.0 % You are allowed to save between £5 and £100 per month and can make unlimited withdrawals. More details here.

Nationwide

The Nationwide Flex One Regular Saver account pays 3.5% interest. You can save between £1 and £100 monthly and make unlimited withdrawals. More details here. 

Easy Access

Santander

Santander 123 Mini Current Account 123 Mini Current Account pays 3% interest providing you have £300 to £2,000 in it. Account holders can make unlimited withdrawals and those over 11 will receive a debit card. More details here. 

HSBC

The HSBC My Savings account pays  2.75% interest for account holders aged between 7 and 17. Account holders receive a cashbook that they can use to make deposits and unlimited withdrawals. More details here.   

Nationwide

The Nationwide Smart Limited Access account pays 2.5% on amounts up to £50,000. Account holders must be between 7 and 17 years old. It’s important to note that you are only allowed to make one withdrawal per year. More details here.  

Fixed Rates

The Cambridge Building Society 3 Year Children’s Fixed Rate Bond pays 2% interest. You are permitted to deposit between £1000 and £20,000  More details here

The Kent Reliance two year fixed bond  pays 1.85% interest  and has no minimum age.  Withdrawals and closures are permitted subject to 180 days’ loss of interest on the amount withdrawn. More details here.  

Have your children got any of the accounts mentioned above? Let me know how in the comments section below.

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If you have enjoyed this post you will also like the following posts:

How to get Value for Money When Buying Foreign Currency 

Save up to £500 Per Year With a Sim Only Mobile Phone Deal 

How Much Should You Save? 

10 Ways to Make Money Now

What’s the Best Strategy for Clearing Debts? 

What are the Different Types of Savings Accounts?

My aim with each blog post is to help you move to a better financial future. I believe that there is not enough financial education in the national curriculum and I intend to share anything helpful that I have learned along the way. I am by no means a financial expert. None of the information on this website constitutes financial advice and is provided as general information only.  This is my personal finance blog; my marketing blog is over here and I have been blogging there since 2010.

I hope you have found this information useful. Thank you for reading.

Best regards,

Mike

Follow me on Pinterest

What are the Best Savings Accounts for Children