Financial Steps I’m Taking For The New Year: Personal Finance Tips For 2024
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Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash
Like many people in the UK, I’ve been hit hard by inflation and the cost of living crisis. Despite earning a decent salary, I’ve found myself negatively affected by the rising costs. Also, my spending habits (while living my best life as a soft life bougie babe) have been a little bit out of control at times and that hasn’t helped matters.
Now, I should point out that I’m able to pay my rent, bills and other necessities, and I’m blessed to not be in a position where I’m struggling financially. But, I acknowledge that I still have a lot of work to do to get my financial house in order.
Here are some actionable steps I’ll take to improve my finances for next year, because it’s never too early to get started. New year, new financial me - bring it on!
Financial Steps I’m Taking For The New Year: Personal Finance Tips For 2024
Photo by Dan Dimmock on Unsplash
Work on my money mindset
Recently, I realised that throughout a lot of my life, I’ve held a scarcity mindset (operating from a place of lack) and mental money blocks in my mind, so slowly (but surely), I’ve been cultivating an abundance mindset. This isn’t woo-woo – our mindset around money affects how you behave and how you handle money.
How to cultivate an abundant money mindset:
Practice gratitude
Don’t be afraid to negotiate and ask for more
Focus on what you have
Be resourceful
Cultivate win-win situations
Surround yourself with people with positive and abundant mindsets
Train your mind to view possibilities and solutions
Challenge self-limiting beliefs
Refine your vision and visualise success
Create a vision board
Seek out lucrative opportunities.
Boost my financial literacy skills
Last year, I stumbled upon a world of financial literacy and gradually over time, I’ve been learning so much about financial literacy that I’d never been taught. I’m going to continue educating myself because I know I have a lot to learn and there’s always room for improvement.
Spend less
I have a confession. I have spent too much money over the years, and I need to rein it in. I like nice things, but I don’t need any more material items. Buying more stuff that I don’t need isn’t getting me towards my goals, so it’s time to save that money for a rainy day instead.
It’s time for me to make a budget. This budget planning calculator via Calculator.me is a useful tool to help look at your finances after receiving your net (take home) pay, so that you can see where your money is going and where you can make cutbacks.
Earn more
Let’s be honest: if you’re trying to achieve specific goals, you need to earn more money. That’s a fact. I see unhelpful advice out there, like “Cancel your Netflix subscription” or “Just save up and stop eating avocado on toast and drinking Starbucks coffee.” Those statements aren’t helpful at all. Sometimes, the key to getting to the next step financially is earning significantly more money, not saving money you don’t have or cutting back to the point of misery.
Save towards goals and invest in important skills and priorities
I have struggled to achieve specific goals over the years and now I realise why. I need money, so I have created savings pots for each of my goals so that I can invest in important aspects of my life.
Build my emergency fund
Circumstances can change at any given moment, so I’ve set up a savings pot for an emergency fund, just in case I experience major life changes in an instant.
Continue saving for retirement
I have a workplace pension that I pay into (and my employer pays into it as well), but I’d like to be much more proactive in saving, investing and planning for retirement because despite what the government says, I’m not waiting until I’m close to 70 before retiring. No way!
Work towards financial freedom
Financial independence is important and I’m so glad I’ve been able to achieve that, but the ultimate goal for me is financial freedom and peace. I’d like to work towards financial freedom by increasing my credit score, getting on the property ladder, investing, increasing my level of financial literacy, generating wealth, acquiring assets, establishing automatic savings, caring for my health and ensuring that my lifestyle design is in alignment.