Breaking Free of the Spending Spiral when You're Over 50 Birmingham
For many over 50s finding ways of making more money isn’t simply a nice idea, it’s a necessity. However, as this article demonstrates, having more money is equally as much about spending less as making more with the added benefit that you can achieve immediate, rewarding results by reducing your spending and increasing your saving – starting today.
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Breaking Free of the Spending Spiral when You're Over 50
If you’re over 50 the rising cost of living, static pay rises, unforeseen unemployment, relationship breakdown, health problems and poor or non-existent pension provision may just be some of the factors contributing to your need to make your money go further.
Finding the means of earning more money may take time and be dependent upon the decisions of others, hard work, and even sheer luck.
On the other hand creating wealth by spending less can be easier because it’s something which is directly under your control and which you can embark upon immediately.
How to make some spending changes
The trouble is it’s difficult to change what we’re familiar with, so undoubtedly you’ve already looked at your spending and concluded that it’s difficult to see where you could spend less.
Almost certainly this isn’t true – unless you’re already living life at a monastic level, there are bound to be ways in which you can make further savings.
• First, take a long hard look at what you’re spending, where, on a daily basis. The best way to do this is to write down everything you spend, every day, for at least a month, analysed by categories that make sense to you, for example petrol, snacks, newspapers, fares, and so on.
• Next, record your larger items of expenditure – again over a month – on all other items such as clothes, accessories, leisure activities, CDs, DVDs and games, entrance fees, and household items.
• Add both these amounts to your monthly ‘standard’ expenditure. This should be your summary of monthly direct debits, bills etc – plus any annual charges (divide by 12 for a monthly allocation). This should include such items as council tax, house insurance, gas, electricity, water, telephone, car tax, insurance, servicing etc.
• Finally, add everything together from all these categories and see what you actually spend over a month.
Surprised? Most people are usually astonished by this exercise – not by their major expenditure (we’re usually all pretty good at estimating what this is, we can see it coming) but by the non-essentials, the small amounts we waste on nothing, the random unnecessary purchases, and the percentage of our total expenditure this represents.
Financial security for the future
Having done this, you now have the basis of an immediate cost-cutting exercise and then, for the future, a budgeting mechanism which will allow you to plan for your financial needs.
Knowing where your money goes doesn’t mean you’re a sad case living life in a financial straitjacket, quite the reverse. In fact it’s those who complain of always being ‘skint’ and not knowing where the money has gone who are always stressed.
People who know they can afford to spend their money on certain items get greater pleasure in doing so because they have no associated feelings of uncertainty or guilt. And they have the pleasure of knowing they are regularly putting something by.
Click here for further information about finance over 50 from in my prime.
Finding the means of earning more money may take time and be dependent upon the decisions of others, hard work, and even sheer luck.
On the other hand creating wealth by spending less can be easier because it’s something which is directly under your control and which you can embark upon immediately.
How to make some spending changes
The trouble is it’s difficult to change what we’re familiar with, so undoubtedly you’ve already looked at your spending and concluded that it’s difficult to see where you could spend less.
Almost certainly this isn’t true – unless you’re already living life at a monastic level, there are bound to be ways in which you can make further savings.
• First, take a long hard look at what you’re spending, where, on a daily basis. The best way to do this is to write down everything you spend, every day, for at least a month, analysed by categories that make sense to you, for example petrol, snacks, newspapers, fares, and so on.
• Next, record your larger items of expenditure – again over a month – on all other items such as clothes, accessories, leisure activities, CDs, DVDs and games, entrance fees, and household items.
• Add both these amounts to your monthly ‘standard’ expenditure. This should be your summary of monthly direct debits, bills etc – plus any annual charges (divide by 12 for a monthly allocation). This should include such items as council tax, house insurance, gas, electricity, water, telephone, car tax, insurance, servicing etc.
• Finally, add everything together from all these categories and see what you actually spend over a month.
Surprised? Most people are usually astonished by this exercise – not by their major expenditure (we’re usually all pretty good at estimating what this is, we can see it coming) but by the non-essentials, the small amounts we waste on nothing, the random unnecessary purchases, and the percentage of our total expenditure this represents.
Financial security for the future
Having done this, you now have the basis of an immediate cost-cutting exercise and then, for the future, a budgeting mechanism which will allow you to plan for your financial needs.
Knowing where your money goes doesn’t mean you’re a sad case living life in a financial straitjacket, quite the reverse. In fact it’s those who complain of always being ‘skint’ and not knowing where the money has gone who are always stressed.
People who know they can afford to spend their money on certain items get greater pleasure in doing so because they have no associated feelings of uncertainty or guilt. And they have the pleasure of knowing they are regularly putting something by.
Click here for further information about finance over 50 from in my prime.