Tips To Help With Your Finances In 2022

Tips To Keep Your Finances On Track In 2022

Many people across the UK started 2022 resolving to improve their finances. Now that we are a few months into the year, it is not uncommon for some people to be struggling. Here are some easily digested tips on how to improve your finances, covering the importance of setting positive goals alongside valuable objectives, how to set lasting resolutions, finishing on some general information.

The carrot and the stick: Rewarding progress

When we plan our goals, it’s easy to fall into the mindset of thinking only about results. We want to conserve money and improve our discipline with every passing day. The problem is that constantly remaining focused on a goal is impossible. We cannot be perfectly disciplined all the time. We need rewards to encourage us to keep going. If you really want to make your money-saving plans stick in 2022, you must think about how you will regularly reward yourself for the good work you do with your finances. How you do this is entirely up to you. A great example would be setting rewards regularly alongside any incremental savings objectives. This could be taking a day out with the family after you have added £100 to your savings. You can adjust the cost or size of the reward as suits you; the important thing is that you make a considered, decisive effort to recognise and congratulate hard work. Over time, this will help you to associate that work with rewards and positivity in your mind. This will make sticking to your goals much easier and more pleasant.

Goals and resolutions: A tip to make them stick

It’s important to set clear and achievable financial objectives when you are planning your financial future. The clearer you are with your financial objectives, the more likely you are to pursue them effectively. Being specific can also help you to reduce stress. If you know exactly what it is you need to do, and the steps you need to take to get there in time, you have less fear of the unknown getting in your way. It really helps. Beyond this, it’s important to appreciate how our minds work when we set objectives. If, for instance, you set a plan to save £1000 over the next three months, it’s all too easy to feel accomplished and successful just by telling those around you. This gives our brains a small release of pleasure without any work having been done! When the time to do the work comes around, it feels very different mentally, often causing us to fail in our tasks.

To avoid this pitfall, it can be very helpful to think about the sacrifice of time or other resources you’ll be making to accomplish a goal like saving that £1000. When you set a goal, think about the work that will be involved throughout a given week to make the dream a reality. Being mindful of this, and not simply focusing on how good it will feel to succeed can prepare you mentally for the discipline you’ll need to stay on track.

Tips to get the ball rolling

So, we’ve covered some important tips on planning and sticking to your goals and resolutions. Lets check out a set of tips to help spark some ideas of your own where financial planning is concerned. Set up direct debits: Sticking to a plan is easy if you don’t have to do anything. If you set up a direct debit to put money into savings each month, you will never forget to save again. Plus, if you set up the debit so it comes out just after you get paid, you will be less likely to notice the money leaving your account. That means you will not feel like you are losing money because you never saw it in the first place. You can also use debit cards or other cashless payment methods that round up to the nearest pound on all your purchases and tuck that extra money away into your savings. All of these little transactions add up and can really help you in the long run.

Keep it simple:

Planning can be something a person can get caught up in quite easily. It’s very common to make bold, ambitious plans that are complicated and weighty. These are great if they succeed, but it’s often better to make a simple set of goals to start with as you develop your financial muscles. This is particularly important if you’re new to the arena of saving and planning for the future. Starting modest, and keeping your plans as straightforward as possible, will make a real difference in your experience of saving and planning. Instead of being an intimidating goal that you might struggle to achieve, you’ll have a simple and lasting set of objectives to work towards.

List and review your subscriptions:

There are so many different TV and internet packages available nowadays, it’s easy to forget what you have. That Audible membership, for instance, might sit unnoticed and cost you each month! You are also paying for a mobile phone, gas and electricity and plenty of other things. It’s valuable to make a full list of your monthly subscriptions/payments and to review them regularly. Your online banking might have a tool to help visualise this on your mobile or desktop. The idea is to get used to auditing your finances. If you can regularly take a look at something like this, you will be able to catch unnecessary expenses. This helps you save money but it also means you stress less about your finances because you know everything is in good order.

Good luck!