“Make sure you have financial intelligence… I don’t care if you have money or you don’t have money… you need to go and study finance no matter what.” – Daymond John
Some people believe that being good with money means knowing where to invest it. Sure, while having a savvy investment mind is a good thing when it comes to finances, it’s not just about that. It’s about making ends meet, and it’s about more than making ends meet. You don’t have to be a math whiz to have great math skills.
You just need to know how to add and subtract, and you need to know how to track your money. When you have good financial skills, life becomes much easier. The way in which you spend your money will impact everything from your credit score to the amount of debt that you end up carrying. If you are struggling with your cash and you are living paycheck to paycheck, then you need to know what you could be doing to be better with money and improve your financial habits.
You don’t necessarily need to know the ins and outs of multichain block explorer or crypto – unless you plan to invest, of course. But you do need to know how to balance your own bank account and feel confident in that balance! So, here are some tips to help you to be better with your money:
“Being a financially stable woman is being able to say what womanhood looks like to me. It’s allowing me to navigate the world and society differently.” -Tori Dunlap, Financial Feminist
- Have a set budget – and stick to it! Most people don’t budget because they don’t want to go through a potentially boring process of listing out those expenses. However, this can feel embarrassing for some. If you list out all of your expenses, you no longer have any room for excuses, and that’s something we all like to live in. Sometimes denial is a fun place to be. If you’re bad with money, you need to do more than just get your spending on track. You have to know where you’re spending your money and where it’s being wasted. That coffee that you buy every morning and every afternoon isn’t a lot of money and it’s just one of those little treats, but when you look at it, you’re spending up to $100 a week on coffee. That’s a lot of money when you don’t have any.
- Use your budget correctly. When you are budgeting, you don’t just think about food and bills. You have to consider where any investment money may go or savings. Your budget is going to be completely useless. If you create a budget and then let it collect dust in a folder, you should be referring to it as often as you would a list of ingredients for a dinner. Let it help you to guide your spending decisions and update it as you pay bills. At any given time in the month, you should have an idea of what you’re going to be paying and what you are spending.
- Make sure that you have some fun money. If you are cutting out every single potential expense, you’re going to end up splurging and frittering your cash away in the same way as cutting out crisps from your diet will make you binge on them. A critical part of budgeting is having a small amount of money left over after your expenses and after savings for you to have fun with. Having some fun money is going to help you to keep your spending on track because you know you always have a small amount just for you to do whatever you want.
