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As a parent, one of the best things you can do for yourself and your family, now and in the long-term is to get your financial house in order. When you aren’t struggling with debt, and you’re able to put a few dollars way for a rainy day on a regular basis, your whole family benefits from an increase in security and lower levels of stress and worry, but how exactly do you get your financial house in order? By practicing the following…
Take Stock of Your Debts
The first step to becoming more financially secure is always taking inventory of your current situation. So, sit down and start looking at all of your debts, mortgage payments utility bills, etc., to see exactly where you stand financially. Rank these debts in order of importance and in order of which have the highest interest rates and therefore need to be paid off more quickly. Once you’ve done this, you have a plan of action, showing you exactly which debts need to be tackled now and which you can pay off more slowly.
Take Stock of Your Cash Flow
Next, take a long look at the amount of money you’re bringing in every month and how much you’re spending. By doing this, you can determine any unnecessary expenditures and work out how much cash you can practically save each month.
Draw Up a Budget
The next step is, obviously, to draw up a family budget which takes into account your incomings and outgoings, as well as your high and low priority debts, to come up with a balanced monthly spending situation that cuts out superfluous expenses and ensures that you can put a decent chunk of your income into savings each month.
Repair Your Credit Score
Next, take the time to check your credit score at annualcreditreport.com/index, and if you find that it is less impressive than it should really be, take steps to improve it. You can get help to do this at creditrepair.co, and it’s important that you do because a good credit score will enable you to get better deals on everything from utility bills to home loans in the future. If you want to pay less interest overall in the years to come, Fixing your credit report, as well as paying down your current debts, is one of the best things you can do.
Check Regularly
Once you’ve started implementing the above practices, you can’t sit back and rest on your laurels if you want your financial house to stay in order long-term – you need to monitor your financial situation on a monthly basis, so that you can catch any issues and make any necessary changes before they throw you off course.
Increase Your Discipline
You also need to work hard to maintain your new financial stability by increasing your discipline levels. You need to practice saying no to that expensive morning coffee everyday or trips to the mall where you stop ‘til you drop, and you need to practice putting the money you’ve saved into a savings account where it will grow and increase the security of your family, because, at the end of the day, that’s what really matters.
