One of the best things you can do to improve your financial peace of mind is to be in solid shape financially. If you have a good savings account built up and are happy with the relationship you have with money, you will enjoy your life so much more.
The Key to Financial Peace of Mind
By far, one of the best things that you can do to achieve financial peace of mind is to come up with a budget and stick to that budget. Track your normal expenses for several months to get a good idea of how much money you are typically spending on things like food, living expenses, entertainment, etc. Once you know where your money is typically going, you can set about creating a budget for yourself. Keep your budget in a place where you will see it often, and track your progress each month. Some months you may exceed your budget, and other months you may spend less.
You can run into serious financial hassles if you pay your taxes late. So don’t make this mistake! If you do your taxes yourself, start preparing them early and turn them in before the deadline to give yourself some financial peace of mind. If you use an accountant, instruct him or her to do the same. The penalties for paying your taxes late can easily be avoided with a little planning on your part.
At the start of each month, sit down and chart out when important things are due. You can easily avoid late fees with just a little planning on your end. Some people find that a larger marker board, placed in a prominent place in their house, is the best way to stay organized, while others prefer to use a planner or a spreadsheet. The method that you use isn’t important, just as long as you stay organized and use some sort of method to keep track of your key deadlines.
Make sure you take care of necessary and essential expenditures before spending money on items that you want but do not need. Pay the bills and other necessities first. With the money you have left over, you can decide what items you want to buy that fall into the ‘luxury items’ category.
Most financial experts recommend that you have a specific amount of money set aside – often six month’s worth of expenses or so – in the event of an emergency or unplanned event. Each month, deposit money into your “in case of emergency only” account. Hopefully, you will never need to use this money and can instead funnel it into your retirement account, but it will give you financial peace of mind to know that it will be there if you need it.
You owe it to yourself to give yourself the gift of financial peace of mind! No one else can do this for you, and it will start with creating a budget and sticking with that budget. It may take some getting used to, but feeling comfortable with your finances will be worth it!
