How to get your savings back on track
With the cost of living going up by the day, managing your money can be tricky in the current environment.
If you’re trying to save for a deposit or just trying to manage your mortgage repayments, it’s even more important to try and get on track with your savings.
Here are a few ways to better manage your money.
One of the best ways to manage a host of debts is to consolidate them, which effectively means rolling them all into one new loan that has a lower interest rate.
This allows you to know exactly what your monthly repayments are going to be and hopefully, by having a lower rate, allow you to put those spare funds into paying down the debts faster.
Most people that struggle with money generally don’t know where their money goes every month. The best way to tackle this situation is to get a hold of your bank and card statements and start tracking where you spend every dollar each month.
It’s a good idea to track the different areas of your life where you spend money, such as on groceries, eating out, events, travel or clothes or other items.
If you can work potential monthly savings, then you can work towards sticking to a budget.
A clever way to save money is to make sure you don’t ever have easy access to it. If you know how much you’re trying to save, as soon as you get your pay cheque, immediately transfer the amount you want to save into your savings account.
Then use a debit card to pay for your ongoing expenses, so you’re not adding to your debts with more high-interest debt.
If you have a mortgage, there are tools you can use to stretch your money further.
If you have an offset account and a credit card, it’s possible to pay all of your expenses on a credit card and park your cash in the offset account. At the end of the month, clear the credit card balance with the funds from your offset account.
What you’re doing is making the most of the interest-free period on your credit cards, while earning interest on those funds in your offset account. This might seem like a small thing, but over time you can save a considerable amount of interest which can be used to pay down debt.
