How you Spend, invest and manage Money can have a serious impact on the quality of your life. Yet, hardly any school is going to teach you how to do it. Learning financial savvy may not be the easiest thing to do but a good thing is the basics are quite simple and they never change. Many skills such as creating a budget, preparing for future and using credit cards are startlingly rare skills. So if you’re in need of Money 101, make sure you keep reading.

Spend Less Than You Earn

Even though this sounds obvious, many people don’t tend to spend more money than they earn which eventually becomes a real problem. So, if you earn $30,000/year and you spend $35,000/year, in a couple of years you’re going to be in debt that can’t be paid off easily. Not only this, but if you spend more than you earn, you’ll never have any money for things such as family emergencies or some major life changes. Spending less money than you earn will help you save for the future and deal with some inevitable situations life throws at you.

Plan for the Future

Preparing for future doesn’t just mean saving money for retirement. For example, if a store offers you a chance to pay for something in the next 6 months with no interest, you have to know you’ll be able to do it. In case you’re not sure about it, it’s better to avoid that deal. If you want to be completely prepared for the future, you should also establish some emergency fund which you’ll use to pay for things such as car repairs or medical bills. Also, having a retirement plan for the future will ensure you there’s some income even once you stop working.

Set up Your Budget

Is money just kind of disappearing from your bank account and you have no idea how you’ve managed to spend so much? Well, that’s probably result of poor or no budgeting at all. Even though it’s never too late to start budgeting, it’s better to do it as soon as possible. When you start working, you don’t have a lot of money and only budgeting can make it easier for you. So make sure you get the habit of categorizing your bills and tracking all of your expenses. In order to do this, you’re not going to need anything but a pen, some paper and a calculator.

Use Credit Cards Wisely

Even though it’s quite easy to use a credit card, doing it properly is much more difficult. Just think how hard it can be to climb out of a huge debt that can be made if you use your credit cards in a wrong way. But credit cards can also be quite useful when used wisely. The basic rule is – don’t buy anything with your credit card if you can’t afford it. You should only use your credit card when there’s money on your account and pay off your card’s balance every month.

Prepare for the Worst

As mentioned above, preparing for future is one of the most important things to do when it comes to managing money. It’s much better to anticipate a worst case scenario than to lose a lot of money just because you haven’t prepared properly. Car accidents are something you can never predict. Not only will you have to spend much money on having your car prepared but there’ll also be medical bills you have to take care of. It’s also never a bad idea to protect your family by writing a will. Today, you can easily write your will online.

Managing your money sure isn’t easy but it’s something you’ll simply have to do if you want to avoid any major problems in your life. Just make sure you follow the above mentioned tips and you’ll always have some extra cash in your wallet.

Share and Enjoy

• Facebook • Twitter • Delicious • LinkedIn • StumbleUpon • Add to favorites • Email • RSS