#1: Knowledge is power. You can't take control of your finances if you don't know where your money is going each month. Take a few minutes a week to write down what you spent somewhere - it could be on the back of an envelope, in your notes app, or in a spreadsheet spending log. Don't let fear or anxiety stop you from taking this vital step toward achieving your long term financial goals.
#2 Make informed decisions. Once you start tracking your spending, you'll see where you can make changes and be intentional about how to get the most out of your income. You can prioritize setting up an emergency savings fund, paying off debts, travelling, entertainment, education, or fun activities with your family. Not every person or family has a goal to cut their spending to the bare minimum, but everyone should have a goal that includes deciding what's important to them, and altering their spending habits accordingly.
#3 Identify your spending habits. It's possible to determine your habits, both good and bad, now that you're tracking your spending each month. Over-doing it with the delivery services on the weekends? Be prepared next time by planning a trip to the grocery store before the weekend starts instead of going on Sunday afternoons. Paying for multiple streaming services and subscriptions that you don't use regularly? You can set up a rotation of these services instead of paying for all of them all the time.
#4 Develop a budget. Once you have logged your spending for a month or two and you get a grasp on where your money is going, you can start looking forward and budgeting for the future. You can prepare for upcoming expenses and make changes to your spending before you get stuck needing to take on extra surprise debt. Increasing your awareness of the money you spend will reduce the anxiety and worry related to not knowing where your money is going.
#5 Save time as well as your hard-earned money. Tracking your spending may sound like it will take too long and be too difficult to do regularly, but in reality, not tracking your spending is costing you too much time and money. Taking 10-15 minutes a week to log your spending is the number one thing you can do to take control of your finances and reach your goals.
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