Take Action: Improve Your Financial Outlook

Finding financial balance requires personal money managers to harness several important spending areas, which can be hard to account for. Day to day monetary needs are one thing, but successful personal finance also encompasses saving for the future and investing for long-term financial security. With so many concerns to cover, money managers at all income levels welcome opportunities to gain an edge on their financial health.

Countless money-saving tips and strategies help families get ahead, including the following possibilities for those searching for a better financial outlook. If your position is shaky, use these proven practices to reinforce your finances and promote personal prosperity.

Prepare for Unexpected Expenses

Even the best budgets suffer from unanticipated costs of living. Car repairs, home improvements, temporary layoffs, and other unexpected financial challenges arise suddenly, interrupting household cash flow. As difficult as it can be to overcome these financial setbacks, maintaining an emergency fund can soften the blow of pop-up expenses.

Whenever possible, draw a monthly contribution from each paycheck, setting it aside to cover the cost of unanticipated expenses. Ideally held in a separate account, to limit your access, emergency resources can be used to cover medical bills, short-term income interruptions and to update broken appliances and other big ticket items. Without a “rainy day” fund, on the other hand, you may turn to credit cards, paying for costly surprise expenses. With finance charges, this cycle makes it more expensive to address unexpected spending. And each dollar added to your credit card debt makes you more vulnerable to subsequent cash flow emergencies. A small automatic deposit each pay period is enough to begin growing a reserve fund and boosting your financial security.

Erase a Debt

Your own perception and personal resolve play important roles in your personal financial success. And prevailing economic conditions sometimes weigh heavily on personal financial fortunes. Members of today’s struggling middle class, for example, fear financial uncertainty as personal debt grows, and disparity widens between wealthy and poor consumers.

When you need a financial victory, to boost morale and reinforce your commitment to responsible money management, set your sights on achieving a specific debt reduction goal. Isolate a single credit card bill, for example, and devote resources to paying-off the balance. Or target student loans, if you are close to the end of repayment, rewarding yourself with one less bill to pay each month. Once you’ve successfully eliminated a particular debt obligation, close the account or cut-up your card. That way, the debt and temptation simultaneously disappear, immediately improving your financial outlook.

Track Income and Expenses

Budgeting is an essential part of achieving long-term financial success, keeping personal money managers in-step with household finances. Even if you don’t abide by a full-time, formal budget, tracking spending is a valuable budgeting activity, shedding light on your cash-handling habits and cash flow cycles.

Maintaining a spending ledger gives you the tools you need to plan for the future and establish realistic financial goals. Starting with fixed costs, such as car payments, mortgages, insurance premiums, rent, memberships and other recurring obligations, note the amount and date of each payment. Over the course of three to six months, your records will begin to show spending patterns – highlighting money-saving opportunities you may not be aware of. More difficult to account for, discretionary purchases should also be tracked, including the cost of entertainment, dining-out, clothing, travel, gifts and other forms of flexible spending. Not surprisingly, the “mad money” category often lacks discipline, leading to ill-advised spending and ongoing financial problems. Tracking income and expenses, and then using the information to correct bad habits, is a major victory for your financial outlook.

Restore Your Credit Rating

Protecting your financial reputation is important, so if past indiscretions have left the wrong impression on your record report, restoring your score is a positive step toward better financial health. It doesn’t happen overnight, but each successful credit interaction bolsters your rating, eventually reflecting your recent habits, rather than missteps you made long ago.

Financial security grows from repeated success managing money. Budgeting, debt reduction, and planning for the unexpected represent a few of the many proven methods you can use to improve your financial health.