Top Ten Ways to Take Control of Your Money
Use a zero-based, written monthly spending plan.- Reserve half an hour each week to review your transactions, compare them to the spending plan and adjust the plan as needed.
- Use cash envelopes for items where you’ll be making a buying decision in the moment and where you find it’s easy to overspend.
- Stop using credit cards Studies show that people spend significantly more money when they use credit compared to using cash.
- Avoid service contracts when possible because they will prevent you from lowering your spending when you want or need to.
- Include some personal spending money in the budget so you don’t feel super-deprived and blow the budget treating yourself to something.
- Actually open bank statements when they arrive and look at them. In addition to the weekly review, doing this chore will allow you to catch errors whether committed by you, a business or the bank.
- Get good at giving an appropriate, “No.” (We recommend Boundaries by Henry Cloud & John Townsend for people who have a hard time saying “no” to other peoples’ requests.)
- Don’t do your finances all by yourself. If you’re married, work as a team with your spouse on your finances. If you’re single, get an accountability partner to discuss your finances with.
- Have for yourself an idea of what you want to do to have a positive impact in the world—it can help you evaluate how you want to spend your money.
