Make friends with your budget
When it comes to money matters are you a saver or a spender? Do you keep elaborate spreadsheets accounting for every cent spent or are you more prone to burying your head in the sand and not giving much thought to where your money goes?
We often associate the word ‘budget’ with scrimping, denial and restriction. Readily-available credit and our desire for instant gratification can easily lead to overspending. We don’t want it now, we want it yesterday! This makes it’s easy to overestimate income and underestimate expenditure.
Instead of seeing a budget as a hindrance, try viewing it as knowledge. And knowledge empowers you. By putting income and expenditure under the microscope, you can find out where the leaks are. Once you know where they are, you can fix them.
A budget will help you:
- reduce and/or avoid debt;
- build a financial buffer to weather any unexpected expenses;
- meet your savings goals;
- buy a house and pay it off sooner;
- and it can set you up for a carefree future.
People the world over might grumble about pension ages increasing, but we’re living longer too (read our blog, Life Expectancy in New Zealand). If we want to maintain a certain lifestyle we need to plan for retirement (read our blog posts, When Should You Start Saving for Retirement? and Stopping with Work? What’s Next?). A great place to start your planning is to create a budget that you review every six months or annually.
As the saying goes, look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves. So, take the first step towards financial empowerment and make friends with your budget. Your future self will thank you.
Tools to help
Here’s a range of informative and fun online tools from $orted to help you keep your finger on your financial pulse:
This tool is the key to tracking your hard-earned dollars and making sure your money is going where you want it to go.
We can tell you that saving a little regularly really adds up over the long term. But don’t just take our word for it, drop some numbers in this calculator and see for yourself.
Do you like the sound of being debt-free? Or at least reducing the debt you have? Do some sums and find out how you could achieve that.
Do you know much you own and how much you owe? Find out how the choices you make now can elevate your net worth.
Have you thought about when you’d like to retire? And what you would like your lifestyle to look like when you do?
Whether it’s a way down the track or just around the corner, this nifty calculator will provide insight into how much you could receive each week in retirement.
A bit about $orted
$orted is a free service that’s all about helping Kiwis get their finances sorted. It’s an independent, impartial, trusted New Zealand brand with an ad-free website!
Find out your money personality
The test: What does your attitude to money say about you? (BBC)
Take the money personality quiz ($orted)
How we can help
Have you set a budget in the last 12 months? If you need some help to work out what is needed to meet your financial goals, then contact us to set up a time to discuss your situation. Call us (0800-230-235) or send an email admin@nzadvicegroup.co.nz to set up a mutually convenient time to talk.