Keen to give your finances some love? Here's a few simple ideas to get you started.
3 minute read
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Get to know your finances
Understand your spending
It’s good to get an idea of your expenses so you can work out whether you need to adjust your spending habits. You can do this manually or use a tool to help you out – like a budget planner.
If you’re doing it manually, start by looking at your transactions over an average month and add up everything you spent. Make sure you include any money you set aside for savings too.
Then you can categorise your spending to work out where most of your money goes each month. It’s going to be different for everyone, but here are a few ideas:
- Food
- Rent/mortgage repayments
- Regular bills
- Entertainment
- Transport
- Savings
- Childcare.
Once you work out how much you’re spending in each category, you can compare it to your income to see where you could cut back – even if it’s just occasionally.
Get alerts to keep you on track
Set up Bankwest Easy Alerts in our app to get a push notification when you make a PayPass transaction, if your account balance drops below a chosen amount, and more.
Be smart with your mortgage
If you have a home loan, there’s a few things you can do to save yourself some money – like making weekly or fortnightly repayments instead of monthly.
Work out what you own and owe
You might have a rough idea of how much you’ve saved and who you may owe money to, but it can pay to dig a little deeper.
This can also be helpful to know when you’re applying to borrow money from a lender – whether it’s a credit card, a personal loan or home loan.
Calculate your assets
Your assets are the things you own – this includes any savings you have. Add up the total value of things like property, vehicles, investments (like shares), superannuation and savings to see what you’re working with.
See what you owe
Add up the total amount you may owe towards things like your home loan, credit cards, personal loans or student loans.
If you find yourself with multiple credit cards and personal loans to pay off, you might want to think about consolidating your debt.
Streamline your accounts
It can be easy to end up with multiple accounts with a few financial institutions, which can make it hard to track what you're spending and saving – and could leave you paying unnecessary fees. It’s good to regularly check in on your accounts and make sure they still fit your needs and close any you don’t use anymore.
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The information contained in this article is of a general nature and is not intended to be nor should it be considered as professional advice. You should not act on the basis of anything contained in this article without first obtaining specific professional advice. Also to the extent permitted by law, Bankwest, a division of Commonwealth Bank of Australia ABN 48 123 123 124 AFSL / Australian credit licence 234945, its related bodies corporate, employees and contractors accept no liability or responsibility to any persons for any loss which may be incurred or suffered as a result of acting on or refraining from acting as a result of anything contained in this article.