Many of us have complex financial lives, yet lack the time, expertise, discipline and objectivity to put our finances in order. We have experience in dealing with personal finances and can help you identify unnecessary household expenses and provide tools to help effectively manage your expenses.
Noted below are our top 4 tips for managing your day-to-day expenses:
1. Have a budget.
The first step to saving money is to figure out how much you spend. This involves segregating your expenditure into different categories and setting a target amount to spend.
2. Be realistic.
It is human nature to underestimate our spending. Once you have done a budget, compare your budgeted expenditure to your actual expenditure over the last 6 months. If your budget says that you will have 20% of your income, but haven’t – there is a chance you’re missing some items from your budget.
3. Focus on your expenses, not your income.
Too often we focus on our income rather than what we spend. The reality is that for most people, our income is largely out of our control. However, we all have complete control over what we spend each week.
4. Segregate “discretionary” and “non-discretionary” expenditure.
It is your discretionary items of expenditure that generally determine if you maintain your budget. By segregating these items (e.g. dining out, work lunch, coffee, clothing etc.) within your budget into a weekly allowance, it is far easier to ascertain if you are sticking to your budget on a regular basis