How Well Do You Manage Your Finances?

Financial management of your personal finances is one of the hardest things you may have to do in your life. It is very hard to know whether or not you manage your personal finances well, unless you ask yourself some questions. 

 

First and foremost, you need to ask yourself is, “how well can you manage without using your credit card?” If you are very dependent on the credit card that you cannot do without it for the month, then your personal finance management has not yet grown to maturity. Doing without your credit card is not something you will learn to do overnight; it needs a lot of patience and sacrifice to break from such a habit. You first need to gradually but steadily pay off all the pending debts in your credit cards. This will call for debt consolidation so that the interest rates you pay will lower.

 

Secondly, the best indicator of how will or badly you manage your finances is your savings account. How much savings do you have? Over what period of time have you made these savings? How much do you dig back into the savings to meet your needs and wants? It is very disastrous when you have absolutely no personal savings. You should ensure that you save at least ten percent of your monthly or daily income. If you use more than ninety percent of what you get, then you should improve your personal finance management skills. There is no way you will get your personal finances in order if you have no savings to fall back to.

 

Thirdly, look at the status of your job or business. How much do you get from it in a month or week? How stable is it? What is the future like for the job or business? Does it meet your expenses? If not, what is your next plan for making more money? Do not rely on your job alone if you want to be in a good position to manage your personal finances. Consider doing business, whether small or big. 

 

Lastly, you need to know the stats of your emergency funds. Do you have sufficient medical emergency funds? Are you in any retirement benefit plan? You should make use of such plans, especially the government ones. This will ensure that your future is secured financially and that you will be prepared in case of any emergencies.