4 Great Tips For Managing Money You Need to Pick Up Today

4 Great Tips For Managing Money You Need to Pick Up Today

Posted on February 25, 2023

Considering how important managing money is, you would think it would be more prominent in the Canadian curriculum. But it isn’t. Instead, it’s up to parents and interested parties to help educate everyone about money.

That’s what we’re going to do today and tomorrow.

Our Lincoln car loan team has put together some practical, actionable tips on managing money. Whether it’s for the pandemic or for the rest of your life, some of these tips can genuinely help!

Know Where you Are

The first, and most important element of any money management plan is to know where you stand.

That means outlining all your income and outgoings, listing all your debt, credit cards, car loans and everything financial in your life.

Use a spreadsheet and outline all your income in one column and all your outgoings in the other. Go through your bank statements and identify every outgoing you can, no matter how small.

Then add everything up to see where you are at the end of each month.

Set a Budget

Armed with your new knowledge, set a personal or household budget that leaves you in credit each month. It doesn’t have to be by much. If things are tight, having even $20-30 left over at the end can still help.

By listing every one of your outgoings, you can see where money is being wasted or where you could be more efficient. You can use this to make easy savings in expenditure which can make the difference between ending the month in the black or in the red.

List all your Debts

We mentioned listing your debts in your spreadsheet and we’ll talk about that more now. When you list your debts, order them so the most expensive is at the top and the cheapest is at the bottom.

Here expensive means the debt with the highest interest rate and not the largest amount each month.

Part of money management is paying as little in interest as possible. This gives you more to pay off the principal, the actual amount you owe.

Prioritize paying off the most expensive debt first and work your way down the list. This will minimize interest payments and help you get them paid off much faster.

Create Need and Want Lists

The human mind is great are creating justification for our desires. These do not always work in our favour. You can mitigate some of that by creating a list of needs and wants.

You can create large list covering most aspects of life or create smaller ones for individual decisions. We often recommend them for when someone is car shopping. Create a list of everything the car must have to be able to fulfil its purpose and a list of things you would like it to have if you can afford it.

Do the same for any upcoming purchase. It can put things into perspective before you overspend.

Next time we’ll cover more around managing money including shopping around, monitoring your credit report and not being afraid to ask for help.

When you’re ready for a car loan, get in touch with the Lincoln car loan experts at Northway Ford for great deals on auto finance.

Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn to stay up to date on our latest great articles!