PROPERTY NEWS - Are you stressed and already biting your fingernails, struggling to see how you are going to survive up to the 16th or (worse even) 31st of January? Whatever your current financial situation, NOW is the time to envision how you are going to make sure you recover, restore and renew your finances this year.
Matthys Potgieter, spokesperson and debt expert at DebtSafe, says you need to have a "financial 2019 vision and plan" to make sure you fix your financial situation properly. Without some proper strategy and financial planning, you are going nowhere in clearing your debt clutter, previous financial missteps or even your down-in-the-dumps attitude towards your finances.
How exactly can you do this? Here are the three "financial Rs" that Potgieter recommends you should consider or envision for your new year's resolutions:
Recover
Last year was toughness personified. To name but a few financial burdens you encountered:
- the VAT increase,
- continuous fuel and grocery hikes,
- not to even mention the economic uncertainty that you and many other consumers experienced,
- and your own personal financial add-ons that also played a role.
So how are you going to make sure you recover from 2018 (or former years)? Potgieter recommends that you should pre-plan your new particular financial journey to not repeat what went wrong in the previous years. He says the best way to start your recovering process is to outline your new financial goals for 2019.
This includes those realistic short- (birthday party), medium- (vehicle finance) and long-term (retirement) financial goals. If there is a plan, there is a way - financially, that is.
Restore
Potgieter says it is always best to do your homework when it comes to what worked in your life financially and what did not. Say for example you used to have an outlined monthly budget, but somewhere along the line it was too much of an effort and you started to avoid it. Why not start again? BUT set it up in a much simpler manner - a personalised and user-friendly budget that will work better for you this time round. You can go old school with a printed sheet on the fridge door, online with a simplistic template or how about using a financial / budget app that can work for your specific lifestyle?
Renew
"A new year is supposed to reflect a fresh start," says Potgieter. So, why not try to create a debt-free beginning for yourself? Check your bank statements and know where your debt burdens are. Decide whether you want to "snowball" your debt by paying your lowest debt off first (like a store card) OR whether you want to let your highest interest rated debt burden (like credit card debt) slide down the so-called "avalanche" before you tackle those "smaller" debt hurdles.
If you are currently finding yourself in a severe over-indebted position and have a stable form of income, yet you are scared creditors are going to repossess your vehicle or home, why not choose DebtSafe as your new partner to fix your current debt situation? Get ready to turn a new financial leaf and recover, restore and renew your finances for the better.
Remember: it is never too late to fix your current circumstances to have a debt-free tomorrow.
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