The day of celebrating love has come and gone. There are some who managed to plan and get the perfect gift for the their partners, while others may have left the office at 16:00 empty handed and without any plans or ideas to spoil their significant other. In that moment, panic ensued and you found yourself scrambling to make special, what's left of the day. You stop along the way, purchase extremely expensive flowers, phone a few places to make reservations that are completely booked and eventually find a place that will charge you an arm and a leg for starters alone. Does this sound like a past Valentine's Day?
The result of not planning could impact your finances significantly. If you had placed an order for flowers earlier, you could have paid much less than you did. If you had made a booking earlier, you may have gotten away with better food at a cheaper restaurant. The same goes with planning your lunches for the week ahead, you could save money by not paying at the office canteen. Planning reduces costs and helps to minimize the “what if” scenarios.
How do you plan your finances though to avoid overspending? Well, it starts with an understanding of your financial position. This could take some time and self-reflection, but the benefits will be noticeable in your bank account moving forward.
To plan your finances:
- Write down what your income is.
- Analyze your bank statements and determine what is your essential spending, luxury spending, debt spending and savings.
- Make it a rule of thumb to spend no more than thirty percent of your income on debts and to spend less than five percent of your income on luxury items.
- Identify future expenditures, such as a gift or Valentine's Day experience and save for them.
The above helps you prevent financial heartbreak but does not get you out if you are already experiencing one. To get out, you discipline to make the hard decisions of cutting out or down on expenditures so that you can move to your next. You don't have to do this alone, the journey can start by contacting our Debt Care Centre. Our experienced agents will assess your financial position and where possible, provide you with a rehabilitation plan to make you whole again.
You don't have to let events, birthdays and holidays put you in tough financial positions. By planning ahead, you will have peace of mind whilst continuing to grow your wealth.
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