Growing healthy finances is something that most people desire to do. However, it is often easier said than done. With the right guidance, you should find that you’re able to get closer to achieving your financial goals. Castle Finance Direct is giving tips on how you can budget as well as explaining the basics of loans. If you’ve been thinking about improving your budgeting or responsible borrowing, then carry on reading.
Firstly, you have to know what budgeting is in order to do so effectively. For anyone that isn’t aware, budgeting is about living within your means and also managing your money so you can reach a financial goal.
In order to get to a point that you can do this, you have to create a budget. If you haven’t done this before, you should follow a few of the below steps.
Step 1: The first step is to write down all of your income. Think about how much you bring in on a monthly basis and try to be as accurate as possible. Include every income source that you have, regardless of how irregular it is. Monthly budgets tend to work best, so if you earn weekly or 4-weekly, times your earnings by 52 and divide that number by twelve for a monthly figure.
Step 2: After writing your income down, you want to then list your expenses one by one. Include everything that you can think of, especially recurring bills that you pay every month or every couple of months.
Step 3: Finally, you want to minus your spending from your income to ensure that you’re on track. There are two types of budgets you’ll end up with which is a ‘budget surplus’ or a ‘budget deficit’. If you end up with a budget surplus, you have excess money after paying your bills. In the case that you have a budget deficit, you’re spending more than you earn, so may need to scale back.
Loans
Borrowing is something that most have to do at some point in their financial life. It certainly isn’t bad to borrow but doing so responsibly is key. Understanding any agreement you get into can save you from financial stress and debt.
In term of what a loan is, it’s a transaction between a borrower and a lender in which the terms are agreed beforehand. Each loan agreement has differing terms, so its left to you to discover what works best for your situation. The loan documents should outline whether the lender wants collateral, the maximum amount of interest and how long you have to repay the loan.
You should also be looking at whether you’re taking out a secured or unsecured loan. The former is when the lender has collateral such as the house on a mortgage loan or car in a car loan. A secure loan, on the other hand, doesn’t have collateral, but there are higher interest rates.
Knowing the difference between revolving and term loans could help a great deal too. For those that don’t know, revolving loans can be spent and repaid repeatedly. However, term loans have to be paid off in equal instalments over an agreed period.
For anyone looking for ways to manage their personal finance, reach out to Castle Finance on Linkedin for professional advice.
Leave a reply