HOW TO BEGIN A BUDGET
The first step in starting a budget sounds simple, but it is to know your position!
This first step in my opinion is the hardest, especially if you have debt that you are looking to clear. But to truly get in charge of your finances, it has to be done!
Before I got in control of my money, I didn't even like looking at my bank balance. It filled me with anxiety and I would rather just bury my head in the sand and hope I had enough money to pay for things, and accept that was the way it had to be.
I am here to tell you that it doesn't have to be that way.
If you don't know what you're working with, you've no chance of setting a clear plan to becoming financially free. You can't work out any goals or milestones to either grow your savings or clear your debt (or both), so motivation will therefore be lower because you won't feel like you're winning. But you WILL win!
It's time to rip that plaster off and work out what you're dealing with!
If you have debt, go through all your debts and check your recent statements to see what your balances are.
While you're doing this, it is also worth listing out the interest rate for each debt at this point (I will make another post as to why this part is important!)
Know that if you're committed to clearing your debt and becoming debt free, this is as bad as it will ever be! It will only get better from here, and you CAN do it, no matter how hard it feels right now.
The next step is to go through your current accounts, saving accounts and investment accounts and work out what you currently have to play with. Again, if you have accounts bearing interest, make a note of the interest rates.
Thank you for reading this post, stay tuned for step 2!