Banks can help you in managing your money passively. However, you can do better than that: How about actually managing your money better with the help of your stationary, an accountant and the cloud. Interested in learning more?
If you won the lottery big time, what would you do with your new found riches? I mean after you buy your sexy new Aston Martin and charter a yacht around the Greek islands. Keep the money in your bank account and not only will you have to trust yourself not to touch it, you’ll entrust an investor, an outsider with your millions. What if the bank goes bust and you lose the vast majority?
There’s always Switzerland but that seems a little too sleazy for your liking. You could build a fortress and convert your winnings into gold coins like Scrooge McDuck.
This scenario is a non issue for most of us. For us normal folk, managing funds has more to do with holding on to money than keeping it in a safe house. Managing our daily expenses can be a daunting challenge and many of us don’t know where to begin as we face an empty account before the end of the month.
After bills, out of control rent hikes and other living costs, saving and managing our money can seem impossible. Many people don’t know exactly where the money goes. A weekend drinking spur doesn’t hurt until the financial hangover sets in a week later. But what should you do and what’s the point of alcohol if not to temporarily relieve those money woes which keep us up at night? Here are a couple of ways people have found to manage their pocket money.
A stationary solution to a monetary problem
What you’ll need: a folder. A notebook with pockets for receipts. A calculator. Make a list of your expenses. Highlight your biggest monthly totals. Categorise daily costs into larger general expenses.
Keep each month’s list in the folder for review in order to get an overview of your money habits. Hold on to every receipt – large or small – if it comes out of your pocket it gets saved and calculated. Many people find this solution overwhelming when they realise how many regular small costs they’ve accumulated. On the plus side the same shocking list encourages areas of unnecessary spending to be cut.
Hire an accountant
Hiring an accountant? Why An accountant will know how to manage your money much better than you will. The problem is you’ll be paying a portion of that money to the accountant.
An accountant will not only file your taxes but show you areas in which you can get back through returns – that’s where you really get a return on your investment. Unless you’re running a business, though, an accountant’s skills go wasted on most individual’s money-management needs.
Expense management software
This is a modern paperless solution to managing money. Business expenses software categorises common areas of spending for you. You can take pictures of your receipts and the software will calculate totals – no calculator needed to this party!
One of the major benefits of using software is having access to your expenses wherever you go. Don’t wait till you get home to see whether or not you should splurge on that chocolate cake for your girlfriend’s birthday, or whether or not you can afford a subscription to the gym that opened just down the road.
With expense management software you can make your life a lot easier at a fraction the cost of an accountant, or even all that stationary. And if managing your finances only saves you a pound a month, go out and play the lottery. Who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky and then the only thing you’ll be struggling with is where to put all that dough.
