5 fast financial fixes to start 2022
Welcome to 2022, a new year offering fresh opportunities and challenges—and you can start it by accepting some fiscal responsibilities that offer both. The pandemic has disrupted the personal finances of many people, and their financial situation this year may be quite different from 2021 or 2020. The beginning of the year is the perfect time to take a look at personal finances, how we use them and what can be done to be slightly more strategic with saving. To kick off this year, following are a few simple tasks you can quickly start to take more control of your money for the next 12 months.
- Know where your money is going. Keep track of and write down everything that you spend every day. Do you know how much you spend each month on food, both groceries and from restaurants? What about entertainment—movies, concerts, streaming video or music services, sporting events, video games, and books? If you have a pet, what are your costs for pet food, grooming, medicine, veterinarian visits, paid pet sitting and walking, or stays in a pet hotel? How much are you buying online for home delivery? What are you spending on in-store purchases? Are you buying coffee or tea every day, or your lunch? You may think you know, but do you really have a precise understanding of where your money goes? Keeping close track of your spending will help you identify areas where you may need to cut back or shift where your money goes. As the saying goes, it’s easier to know where you’re going if you know where you’ve been. Delta Community has a Money Management tool in both its Online and Mobile Banking that can help track spending by category; and our members may want to look at it. Delta Community also has a variety of calculators to help analyze different costs, including mortgages and other loans.
continue reading »