In a fast-paced world, with new toys hitting the shelves left, right and centre, it’s easy to fall into the trap of instant gratification. We want what we want, and we can get it now. While delving deep into your pockets and flirting with this luxurious lifestyle sounds tempting, it can quickly leave you with little to no savings for the future.
While being sensible with your spending sounds less exciting now, it opens the door to many more possibilities in the future. To help you reach your financial goals this year, whether that be saving for your first home, a highly anticipated holiday, retirement, or a new car, we have put together five top tips to help you make and keep your financial goals in 2023.
1. Track your income and expenditure
It’s simply impossible to manage what you haven’t measured, which is why our first tip is to create a system to track your income and expenditure. Whether it’s a spreadsheet or good old-fashioned pen and paper, by tracking your expenses, you can identify and reduce unnecessary costs.
Whether it’s eating out, buying a new outfit or subscribing to multiple streaming services, these seemingly insignificant costs might be setting you back more than you realise. By tracking your expenditure, you can identify costs that are eating up most of your income and re-evaluate your spending.
2. Set specific goals
Once you know what your current costs are, the next step is to set achievable targets that allow you to spend what you need while saving in the long-term. Having a specific, realistic and measurable goal in mind can make it easier to understand how much money you need to put aside and how much to allocate to specific resources.
Your goals don’t have to be drastic either – even if you start by buying one less takeaway coffee each week, you could end up saving yourself hundreds by the end of the year.
3. Create a budget
When tracking your cash flow and setting goals, another helpful strategy is to categorise your expenses into necessities and niceties. This could be as simple as listing a budget for set expenses such as bills, groceries and healthcare versus luxuries like eating out, presents and holidays.
By creating these various categories, you are not only identifying spending habits you would like to change, but get a clearer idea of where your potential savings could come from.
4. Be mindful of your spending habits
Focus on buying things that are truly important to you and avoid impulse buying.
While the occasional impulse purchase is okay, regular and unnecessary purchases add up. To help you enjoy the luxuries while keeping on track with your savings, set aside a small portion of your income for unessential costs.
A helpful tip to avoid unneeded purchases is to wait two weeks, rather than sending it straight to the cart. If it’s still on your mind after two weeks you will better understand if it was a fad or savvy purchase.
5. Speak to a specialist
The art of saving is just that – a skill to be honed, learned and practised. If you are struggling to make a start or see results, there are plenty of online resources available to help you get started. For tailored and personalised support, the next step is to reach out to a financial advisor, who will crunch the numbers for you and set up a detailed strategy to help you achieve your financial goals.
While the art of saving isn’t as relevant as it once was, with these simple tips you will be well on your way to reaching your long-term financial goals. By tracking your cash flow, establishing a budget, being mindful of your spending habits and getting professional and sage advice, you can learn to save and take control of your financial future.
To get started, speak with our team today by emailing us today at info@locumsgroup.com.au
