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Tips on creating a budget plan

If you are having trouble putting some of your well earned income aside into a savings plan, then it may be the right time to start thinking about developing a BUDGET PLAN! There is never a right or wrong time to start a Budget Plan, but the sooner is always better. By following the steps below, you can achieve a successful budget plan and save your money.

7 steps to a successful budget plan:

1) UPDATE YOUR BUDGET

You may or may not have a budget plan, but I strong suggest that in today's world, every family certainly needs a Budget Plan and it needs to be written down, so that you can constantly refer to it and remain focussed, especially when you start drifting away for the set budget that you have created and written down!

Having a written budget plan does have 2 very good reasons

• It allows you to constantly see where you actual well earned money is going each and every week, monthly, quarterly and yearly.
• You also then have at your finger tips, useful information on where the unnecessary spending is going, and you can fix this unnecessary and unwise spending'¦and perhaps put it towards a savings account that would then earn you a compound interest on your savings

If you have a budget plan already set up, it would always be a wise idea to constantly revisit it, and see if there are better ways in improving it even better. Download our budget planning sheet today to assist you.

2) REDUCE DEBTS

Any excess or surplus cash that you may have left over, should be always wisely used to reduce any debt that you may have, as this does save you interest payments in the long run.

• You should also try to pay your credit card debt in full every month, as the interest rates are as high as 20% or more. If you cannot pay this off every month look at, try to reduce your monthly spend on them or perhaps cancelling your credit card all together, and even perhaps refinancing your existing home loan & consolidating all your other loans and debts (such as personals, car loans and credit cards), into a lower interest rate home loan, which will reduce your repayments to a lower monthly payment.

You may then even have excess or surplus funds left over which you may place into a bank account and earn you a compound interest rate as well!

If you still require a credit card, why not consider switching to a debit card instead, as this card only operates by using your own cash/savings.

3) EVALUATE YOUR GOALS

You should always constantly be reviewing your goals, and perhaps break them down into 3 types of financial goals

• (1) Short Term Goals
  What you may want to achieve in a shorter period for instance 12 months time, such as paying off your credit card, saving more, paying off more on your home loan.
• (2) Medium Term Goals
  Perhaps goals that you want to achieve in a period being 3-5 years time, such as renovating the kitchen, a holiday, new car etc etc
• (3) Long Term Goals
  Perhaps 15-20 years time, closer to retirement, such as paying of your home loan, buying an investment property, having enough in your superannuation to cover your lifestyle when you retire

4) SET SAVINGS TARGETS

Sometimes it is hard to put saving aside, but one suggestion I can make is that you perhaps need to treat savings as a Bill at you home that needs paying, meaning if you say I have a bill of 10% of my earned weekly income, needs to be put in a bank account for savings, is a great way to save, by being strict on yourself and treating savings as a bill, that needs to be paid constantly!

5) FIX YOUR BANK

A lot of us have numerous savings accounts that we may have opened up in the past, but we have never deposited any further savings into them. This is in effect costing us a lot in bank fee, you should close these accounts and put all your savings into one bank account, that earns us a compound interest rate and lower bank fee'¦and as a suggestion the ING savings maximiser is one such bank account, to look into!

6) SAVE MONEY ON EXPENSES

You have to be really strict on yourself and be proactive about really cutting down on all your expenses, if you can do this you will find it amazing on how much you can actually save'¦perhaps give up smoking.

• Use a Finance Broker to do a Financial Health Check on all your existing loans, such as Home Loans, Personal Loans, Credit Cards and any other debts that you may have, .He may be able to consolidate all your debts, or even get you a better overall financial package, which will without a doubt save you lots of money anyway!

Remember it's your money, why not try to get a better deal anyway?

7) LIVE WITHING YOUR MEANS

If your goals are to reduce your existing debts and create a genuine savings account in the future, then you may need to be also strict on where you spend your money, perhaps you need to think twice about buy items that you know you really do not need any way, or that expensive dinner. You really need to control and resist impulse buys and save up for big purchases instead of using the credit card

Please do remember that these are purely suggestions and everyone is different, but overall having a Budget Plan is a great idea, for your financial needs down the track and to achieve your financial goals!