Would you like to know how you can spend less?

Having been a finance broker for 14 years I have had thousands of conversations with people about finance. Some good, some not so pleasant.

As a finance broker, our role is to educate consumers, borrowers and hopefully clients in how they can achieve their financial goals.

A common topic of conversation that comes up all too frequently is “where does all the money go” or “I have no idea why we don’t have any money left over at the end of the month”.

This is where the education aspect of my role kicks into gear because as the old saying goes, to get ahead you have to earn more and spend less.

For many the option of earning more is sometimes difficult to achieve, comprehend or put into action and if you don’t know where the money goes, how can you spend less.

I use the term budget a lot. The first step in developing a real budget is to be honest and candid with yourself and allow yourself some time to get it right.

You need to consider your day to day, weekly and monthly expenses as well as peripheral expenses such as holidays, birthday present and don’t forget the big red man in the chimney.

Thankfully there are some great online tools to help us budget, plan and track how we are spending our hard earned.

Here is a link to one of the tools I highly recommend – ASIC Money Smart

The Money Smart tool is online, it’s yours and therefore, there’s no judgments. Keep it simple and as many of my clients have found, once the budget is in place things seem to become so much clearer.

Happy planning.

Peter Ritchie is the Principal of intouch Finance Mornington