Step 1: Spend Less Than You Earn
Spending less than you earn is the first of our three steps, and is the foundation for everything else. If you get this step right, much of the rest will fall into place for you.
In this section of the book, I firstly cover why you should bother to budget, and the benefits youâll get from learning how to do so.
Then I give you my tried and tested system for spending less than you earn each and every month, including some simple hacks that I use to make the process as painless as possible.
For many of us, debt is an issue that we battle with daily. Wouldnât it be great not to owe anything to anybody? I want to show you a step-by-step method called the debt snowball, which will help you clear your debt as quickly and painlessly as possible.
When money is tight, it can seem like everyone else is getting a slice of your money before you get to enjoy any of it. The taxman, your landlord, your electricity provider, mobile phone company and your supermarket all get the benefit of your money â but what about you?
A fundamental principle of good financial management is to pay yourself first. Youâll learn what that means in practice, and how to apply it consistently so you get the benefit of your hard-earned money before anyone else.
And finally I help you learn how to deal with the inevitable setbacks that could derail your progress along the way.
This section is really about helping you build good habits. The great thing about habits is that pretty soon they become second nature.
Letâs begin.
Chapter 1: Why Bother to Budget?
If thereâs one word which is likely to strike, if not fear, then certainly boredom into people, itâs budget.
Like so many words in finance it can have several meanings. One is the Chancellor of the Exchequer holding up a red box outside 11 Downing Street on a certain Wednesday each November. Another makes us think of local authority budget cuts â our hospital might have fewer beds or close down altogether.
But the meaning I assign to the word in this book is the setting of a spending plan each month, so that you know where your money is going.
Itâs fair to say that most people donât bother to budget. They might have a sense of how much money they have left until they next get paid, and theyâll eke things out until then, but thatâs not budgeting.
Budgeting isnât tracking your spending either, though that can be a part of the process.
Budgeting is about telling each pound that comes through your hands where it should go, and how it should be used. In other words, budgeting is forward-looking. Itâs about deploying your resources in the best way possible, like an army general planning the deployment of troops.
Some pounds will be used to buy electricity, water or internet data. Others will go to paying down debt, some will be used for fun, like hobbies or eating out, and still others will be used to save for your future.
But why should you bother? Why not just wing it and try to save whateverâs left at the end of the month?
Simple answer: because unless you plan, there probably wonât be anything left at the end of the month.
Control your money or itâll control you
One of the immutable laws of personal finance is that expenditure rises to meet income. In other words, there will never be any money left at the end of the month unless you plan for that to be the case.
You might start the month with good intentions. Perhaps you had a bit more pay last month and there are no big bills on the horizon. Great news â this month youâll be able to save a bit, or pay a bit more off your credit card balance. But unless you do that straightaway, youâll find that the extra money will simply disappear over the course of the month.
Maybe youâll have an extra night out, buy a couple more things from Amazon than you planned, or enjoy a couple of extra skinny lattes. Whichever, the strong likelihood is that the extra money will be gone by the time payday rolls around again.
Money can, however, be forced to do your bidding. You can control it, and you must. If you donât, you will always be just a passive observer, feeling increasingly frustrated as your financial situation never gets any better.
If you grab your money by the scruff of the neck and force it to do what you want, it will serve you very well for the rest of your life.
Having a budget is the first step.
Youâll get to know yourself
Successful budgeting requires you to get to know yourself. If youâre intentional about being self-aware, it will help you massively in the area of financial control, and also in other areas of your life.
Iâve yo-yo dieted for years, but am only now beginning to become aware of the triggers which make me want to reach for a Star Bar. Itâs a very similar response to the desire to press the Buy It Now button on eBay for something I donât need.
Iâve learned that if Iâm feeling tired, upset or overwhelmed, then my defences are down. I try to avoid these states as much as I can, and also to be aware that when I am feeling those things, Iâm vulnerable.
When it comes to your budget, youâll learn to watch for similar unhelpful triggers which might end up with you spending money on stuff you donât need. Youâll become aware of the best time for you to sit down and create a budget, and whether or not itâs smart to have a glass of wine while you do it.
Knowing yourself is always the first step to improving yourself, and thatâs a goal we all share, right?
Financial control is a mark of adulthood. The problem is, many of us never get taught this stuff at school or at home. Weâre lucky if we get the birds and the bees talk, but I bet more kids have to endure the awkwardness of that particular conversation, than are taught about managing spending and saving.
So, itâs ...