Mon 9 Apr 2007
Do you have a Financial Plan?
Posted by Robin Bal under Financial Planning , Retirement , Savings , Social Goals[2] Comments
You will need to make a clear plan of how to get where you want to. The financial plan needs to be broken down into realistic achievable goals with a clear deadline. The plan needs to include how much you are currently using to pay off debts, how much you are currently using to cover all living expenses and how much you are currently saving.
When you have that clear you need to look at where you are going to cut costs.
What can you live without?
Do you subscribe to magazines or newspapers you do not need?
Do you have memberships you do not need?
Is your rent or mortgage very expensive?
Are you spending a lot of money on driving where you do not need to go?
Do you rather eat out then cook yourself?
Do you pay too much for electricity, telephone, Internet connection and TV?
Do you have the best credit card, insurance, rent or mortgage and bank account deals you can get?
The meaning of these questions is that you should not settle with what you have now. Then your situation will stay the same.
Always shop around for better deals and always look at how you can cut costs.
Maybe you find out you need to move to another place where it is less expensive.
Maybe you need to eat more canned beans.
Maybe you need to use your bike, or your feet instead of the car.
Maybe you need to read magazines only when you go to the dentist or to the hairdresser.
Whatever it takes to improve your financial situation; decide to do it.
Write down both the longer term goals, medium term goals and the short term goals and what you will do to achieve them.
You need to set time limits for when you want to achieve the goals you worked out in the previous step.
Write down exactly what you are going to do to achieve them.
April 10th, 2007 at 6:16 am
“Do you have the best credit card, insurance, rent or mortgage and bank account deals you can get?”
I don’t! so that’s why i opened a new bank acccount with better interests rates, and switched to another company for my credit card with better rates and more interesting transfer rates (1.9% instead of 18.99%) so i save a lot just there.
Great post Robin! I always find loads of useful infos and learn a lot reading your blog! Good job!
April 10th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Thanks Jon. Well that so true, if you look around there are always better deals available. Sometimes we get complacent about matters which are important. Its all about planning.
Cheers mate.