How to prepare financially for the New Year

We are only counting the days before we close 2018. It was indeed one fast year and before we knew it, the New Year is just lurking in the corner. I am most certain that we are all excited to welcome 2019 with open arms and a healthy wallet too.  And with the holiday season behind us, this is one great time to put together a financial plan. As I am a firm believer of planning ahead, might as well put planning into action particularly our finances. And I am sharing with you one tip as to how you can prepare financially for 2019.

The process of planning is a good way to do before we draft our New Year’s resolutions. This will aid us in identifying our current financial state so we can be able to identify possible remedies and more so find solutions to do by 2019. Hence, the first tip that I suggest in order for you to prepare financially for the New Year would be to review your finances.

Review Your Finances

In order to determine our current financial health, it is best that we get to review our finances. Reviewing alone takes a lot of time and effort however I can guarantee that it is worth it. When reviewing your finances, here are the main areas to cover.

Bills

You need to take a look at your bills be it monthly or not. Take a look at each of those services and identify if such services are your needs or wants. Are there services you can live without? Perhaps are there also services that you can unsubscribe? Are there services that you can also tone down? Are there cheaper alternatives in the market too? For instance, if already have a postpaid plan and yet you still have a landline at your house, perhaps you can eliminate the telephone service. If you are running a 5Mbps Internet speed yet you are not usually at home to enjoy this, might as well lower your Internet bandwidth. You see reducing your bills can greatly help you in saving a few hundreds and even thousands by 2019.

Debt

The next thing to review would be your debt. Make sure that you put these things in order. You can consider listing down your debt be it credit card debts or loans. Sort it from the smallest to the largest. Then indicate when you will be able to pay it. For instance, if you incurred a credit card instalment that is payable in six months, note when will you be able to pay it and how much your monthly payments are.

Cash Flow

The next thing to review would be your cash flow. Identify your sources of income. List down your jobs or your businesses and your investments. Then list down your expenses on a monthly basis. This will help you identify if the money going in is greater than the money going out. If it is the other way around, perhaps you might consider new income streams by 2019 or lessen your expenses in the process in order to keep yourself and your finances afloat.

Budget

I know making a budget is relatively hard and much more sticking to it. However, it would be best that we get this habit started especially with the New Year. In line with that, work on a budget that would suit you best and your current financial state. Track down your expenses so you can be able to create a workable budget.

Since we still got a few days left before 2019, we still have a lot of time to review our finances. This will definitely serve as an eye-opener as to the current state of our money. This is more like a reality check.