Getting Comfortable With Money

There's no other way to say it, if you want to make plans and have goals with your life, you need to get comfortable with money.

That means keeping on top of your numbers. Yes, it is a numbers game and that petrifies many people who didn't enjoy mathematics at school but if you can do simple addition and subtraction, you're over halfway there already!

When you boil it all down, there are two very simple concepts you need to know, which will make things easier:

Income (How much money is flowing in?)
Expenses (How much money is flowing out?)

This is your foundation of understanding your own cash flow.

How far you dig into your income and expenditure is up to you but knowing these figures from the last 3 months of bank statements at the very least will put you in good stead.

Once you have gathered all the information about how much is coming in and going out, you shouldn't spend your life agonising over the spreadsheet.

The initial fact-finding can take a couple of hours but once it is done, it's done. Then it's a matter of maintenance.

Ideally, you would spend no more than 30 minutes at the end of the week, maybe after Antiques Roadshow on a Sunday evening, tot up how much came in and how much went out, then that's your spreadsheet updated.

It's more important to get in to a habit of knowing your numbers and where your money is flowing from and to.