Your Personal Financial Health: A Complete Guide
Financial health is a buzzword that many people simply decide to overlook and ignore. That's certainly understandable - many people feel that they're enjoying financial security if not plenty, and they're therefore unconcerned about the health of their finances overall.
This article, while acknowledging this state of affairs, offers you some really important and life-changing tips to help with your finances, in order for you to live a long and happy life, free from the financial scares that can befall those who've not taken full responsibility of their overall financial health.
Seeing Your Accounts
How often do you do your own accounts and check what you're spending money on each month? For many people, the answer is once a year, when their tax is due – and even on these occasions the accounting is far from thorough. This tip is really quite simple: sit down on your laptop, download a spreadsheet of your spending, and go through each and every transaction in order to discover:
- Any costly standing orders you didn't know you had
- Any scams or fraud that's taken place in your account
- Where you're spending too much cash – for instance, at your local bar
- What the majority of your cash goes towards – Rent? Bills? Savings?
- Whether you can make changes to your spending that'll save you a good deal of cash
Doing your accounts should become a monthly endeavour: something you do at the end of the month for an hour or two. It'll keep you totally abreast of goings-on in your account.
Understanding Your Wealth
Your wealth isn't entirely contained in your bank account or accounts, though. It's also in all of the assets that you own – from your home to your vehicle to your stocks, shares and bonds. It's here that your financial health blossoms and grows, giving you the security and peace of mind that you need to boost your finances at a moment's notice.
That's exactly what the professionals at Key can help you do – taking some of the equity from your mortgage on your home in order to fund your lifestyle at times when you may be out of work or otherwise running low on cash. These experts can offer impartial advice on how to go about equity releases from your assets at those moments that really matter.
Savings and Funds
Now that you're abreast of both your bank accounts and your entire wealth, you'll be able to conduct your spending in such a way as to save each month of the year – and put those savings into a savings account or an investment fund that you use later in life.
It's in building these funds that you can achieve the financial security that you need to live life free of financial worries – and with a fund in the back of your mind that can help out in times of stress, or in those moments when you're spending for the future, like buying a new home, or sending your kids off to college.
These three tips will help you build and understand your financial health as you pass through life, building that all-important security and peace of mind in your economic fortunes.