How To Manage Money

By Andrea Barrera |

Do you often find yourself struggling to save your money? Or keeping track of how much you spend because you just want to buy everything you come across, even though you might not necessarily need it? If so then it might interest you to read this.

One thing you can do to save money is track your monthly spending. Many people don’t know how much they spend each month on food, clothing. housing, or entertainment. Whether you’re paying with cash or a credit card or some other form of payment, total your expenditures at the end of the month to get a better idea of how you’re spending your income. Be sure to budget your savings. Your savings are a rainy day fund, which is important when unforeseen expenses or emergencies come along. Be sure to budget part of your monthly paycheck to deposit a part of it into a savings account, ideally at least 10 percent of each check. If you try to budget more than what you had originally planned then you will feel as if you don’t have much money to spend on the stuff you need or want, and you will end up going into your budget and spend more money rather than save it up. And if finding or earning extra money, put that away in a savings account too.

“One of the big things I recommend is write out a budget, and save and put aside a small part of your money every time you get some,” economics teacher Vince Clark said.

Another thing you might want to take into consideration is develop a budget you can follow. Using the information you got by tracking your monthly expenses, develop a realistic budget so that it’s easier to live with. Track how well you follow it each month. That means continuing to track your monthly expenses. Making sure that you know how to keep track of and save up your money, is very important.You wouldn’t want to go czarina buy everything that you desire just because you have the money. You need to have self control, for the future when you want to buy a house or a car, etc. It’s also important to start learning from a young age like let’s say fifteen or sixteen, since that’s around the age that teens start to get their own jobs and earn their own money. You have to learn about it at some point so you might as well start young, so that you won’t freak out or worry when it comes to doing something like that later on in life.

“I like to save up my money, the only thing I really spend it on is food,” said senior, Krystal Koury.

Once you turn 18, you can open up credit cards. Then it is important to pay your monthly bills on time to avoid late charges. Take inventory of your regular monthly bills and make reminders for yourself on when each bill is due. That way you can avoid costly late fees, which can also damage your credit score. Try and pay your bills as soon as they arrive. Speaking of your credit, you should also review your credit report. The details of your credit report can have an enormous impact on your financial future. Obtain a free credit report once a year at www.anualcreditreport.com , and check it for accuracy.

You should also take advantage of opportunities to get some free money. You’re probably thinking “free money? how?” well first of all just remember that nothing is ever 100 percent free and requires no effort. But there is some things you can do to get fairly easy money. Find out if your job has a retirement savings program. Sometimes workers under 21 can be excluded, but if they aren’t, you should take advantage. If your employer offers a contribution match for retirement savings or health savings accounts, make sure you’re contributing enough to obtain the maximum match amount. Otherwise you’re missing an opportunity for free money.

Also, take care of the money you have, especially with online sites.

“You also have to be careful with doing online shopping and credit cards,” Clark said. “People could easily hack into a page or make fake websites and steal all of your card information. When shopping online you could use PayPal to ensure your information won’t be stolen. This advise could apply to anyone. Whether you’re in high school, or someone as old as me.”