What to do when your savings account is approaching overdraft…

A lot of us, including me, struggle with saving money because we don’t have enough motivating goals to match them to. When we’re 18, 19 and 20 and are having the time of our lives in university, the last thing on our mind is ‘how do I save better’ or ‘where do I put my money to grow?’. Unknown to us, that these conversations to be had sooner rather than later, will either lead us into financial turmoil post university or financial success.

It’s not very hard to see why a 21 year old coming out of university with student loan and maybe some overdraft will think ‘hm, where do I invest now that I’m working?’ Whilst our formative years are our toddler years, a lot of what is learnt in early adolescence, is a strong foundation and really shapes the rest of our future adolescent years.

How do we then tackle this? We don’t want to take away the joys of university students, neither do we want to come into the real world and realise that it’s going to take more than a decent paying job to become financially successful.

Setting SMART Goals

It’s time to make SMART goals. Where do you want to be in 5 years? How about in 2? This year maybe?

We all have goals and dreams. We have things we want to do, places we want to visit and things we’d like to accomplish. However sweet our plans seem, they are nothing without actions. We all want to wake up in 5 years in our dream homes with our dream cars etc. That’s all well and good. Except from the part where we’re not changing our actions to reflect that lifestyle. We are acutely aware that our choices today determine our tomorrow. Why then do we stay doing wishful thinking instead of actively working on those goals? Nothing ever came to those who slept and dreamt sweet dreams.

 ‘Start doing and stop ‘dreaming’.

2017 In Review & A Special Thank You

As my last post of the year 2017, I thought I’d use the opportunity to say a massive thank you to you.

For all your love and support, thank you

For the feedback and constructive criticisms, thank you

For the likes, comments, shares and subscriptions, thank you

For being patient and kind with your words, thank you

 

I appreciate every single email, comment, like and share and I do not take it for granted. So, to end the year, I thought I’d share some of the top 3 lessons I learnt during the year:

3 Money Tips for Christmas Shopping

Ah Christmas, everyone’s favourite time of the year. Lots of family around, watching Home Alone and singing all our favourite Bublé songs.

We all love Christmas and look forward to spending time with family, friends and loved ones. But whilst it’s one of the highlights of the year to look forward to, for some, it can really put a dent in our pockets.

We don’t really think about it, it just ‘happens’, and let’s not talk about how January then tends to drag on. We need to be mindful of the fact that ’tis the season to be jolly, also means ’tis the season for money to leave your wallets. Some people call it a financial hangover, yikes!

There are so many Christmas jumpers I have bought and received over the years, most of which are somewhere, somewhere, deep into my closet. Or a suitcase. Or in storage. This year, I’m making a conscious effort to say No to the things that only make me feel good in the moment. Instead I’m saying Yes to things that will leave me happy come this time next year.

Stop Collecting Money and Start Doing This Instead

Yup that’s right, stop collecting and stashing money. I’m talking to all my savers who have been saving money for the last 3 years under their bed. Hunny, that money is depreciating not appreciating. Money is not made to be collected. It’s meant to be put to use, from spending to investing, money is supposed to be used to build the life you want.