If
you're struggling to make ends meet and don't have the financial stability you
would like then often you simply need a new plan or budget in order to make the
difference. Sticking to this new budget though is a lot like sticking to a new
diet - it's a matter of psychology and of using the right mental attitude to
make the difference. Here we will look at a few ways you can change your
thinking and as a result start to keep more of your salary and enjoy a
wealthier lifestyle without the stress.
Learn
What You Don’t Need
What
many of us aren't aware of is just how much of our salary goes on things we
don't need due to emotional factors. While we will purchase things often
because we genuinely want them or need them, on other occasions we buy simply
due to impulse and the psyche nudges of advertising and marketing.
One of the best ways to prevent this is to stop impulse buys altogether by making the rule that you can't buy anything non-essential unless it's been written down for 24 hours. In other words then, if you find a game, ornament or DVD you want in a shop then you need to write it down and come back tomorrow in order to buy it. Often by this time you'll find you don't need it.
Other
strategies that can help to stop these impulse buys include thinking about all
the things you have that you haven't used yet - books you haven't read and
films you haven't watched. Finally, think about how much better it is to have a
few things you really like rather than lots of things you don't have space for.
Limiting your possessions will improve your 'average' quality while at the same
time meaning that each item you do have gets more focus and your room looks
less cluttered. Stop valuing your collections in terms of their quantity, but
instead think about them in terms of their quality.
Staying
On Top of It
One of
the bigger problems that many of us have is that we're simply not aware of
what's in our bank account at any given time - which of course makes it
difficult to budget and to spot areas that could be improved. To prevent this
problem consider keeping a cashbook, look into setting up a spreadsheet but
most of all - put aside the time you need to manage these and actually keep
them up to date. This is the financial equivalent of biofeedback in dieting.
Learn to
Value Money
Something
I find odd is that the more money I earn the more stringent I notice myself
becoming. The reason for this is that I'm proud of the work I did to raise the
money and I want my cash to reflect my recent success. While you should never
place too much emphasis on the importance of your cash, you should nevertheless
make sure that you don't waste it, and it can help to this end to think about
some of the things you want to save for and to set yourself some goals.
Author Byline :
This article
is authored by John Lowrie, a financial journalist at Payday Angels. If you find this article interesting, you can visit his website to
read more of his posts. You can also follow him on Twitter.