Handle Your Finances in the New Year
Friday, January 29th, 2010Christmas can be an expensive time of year for anyone. The cost of presents, food and drinks can soon add up and burn a huge hole in our wallets – and can even land some of us in debt.
So, if you find yourself keeping track of several debts after Christmas, you may want to assess your situation and look at how you could handle your finances in the New Year.
For example, you could:
Create a budget
Creating a budget is an important factor in handling your finances – and should be one of the first things you do.
Budgeting will allow you to see a clear overview of your finances, showing you where all your money is coming from, and where all your money is going to.
To create a budget, you should write down your total monthly income (including salary, benefits, grants, etc.), and then write down your total monthly essential expenditure (including mortgage/rent payments, secured debt repayments, etc.).
Now you have these two totals, you should subtract your expenditure from your income, which will leave you with your ‘disposable income’. Your disposable income is the money you have available to pay towards your unsecured debts each month (and to spend on yourself if you have any left over after doing this).
Consolidate your debts
If, after getting your budget sorted out, you would still like to make your finances easier to manage, you could consider consolidating your debts.
Debt consolidation allows you to pay off all your existing unsecured debts in one go – leaving you with just one debt to repay to one lender.
Debt consolidation loans can often come with lower interest rates than your ‘old’ debts, which means you could actually save money in interest by consolidating your debts.
By consolidating your debts, you can simplify your financial situation and possibly reduce the amount of money you are spending each month.