Buying a house – working out what you can afford So, you want to buy a house but have no idea what you can afford? In this article I will take you step by step through the exact process I use with all my clients to help them work out work out what they can truly afford to spend when buying a house. The great thing about this process is that my goal is not to give advice, but rather to let the numbers speak for themselves. Meet Colin and Kate: Colin and Kate are a young couple in their late 20’s; they have been renting for 5 years and over that time have managed to save $135,000. The owner of the house they have been living in is unfortunately moving back to Australia in 3 months’ time and they will have to move out. They came to me to help them work out if they could afford to buy their own home, and if so what could they afford to pay. So here is the process I took them through: Step # 1 – What do you really want your life to look like? The first step …
How to Budget When You Are Broke
How to Budget When You Are Broke It is such a simple pleasure but every time I get the ice cream out of the freezer I am reminded of the period in our lives when money was so tight the ice cream rarely made it into our shopping trolley. There is nothing fun about being broke, constantly juggling the bills and expenses is a stressful way to live. It is made particularly hard by the guilt you experience when do spend on fun stuff because you know you can’t really afford it! What I want to share with you know is the simple 5 step process I personally use and have used with hundreds of clients to show them how to budget despite starting from a financial position best described as ‘Broke’.
Keeping Your Budget on Track with the End of Month Summary
Just about every client will ask me at some point – what do other people spend on (fill in the blank)? We are all curious about what other people spend on things. We like to be able to benchmark ourselves. Over the next few months I thought I would share with you some real life budgets, along with my thoughts as a financial coach.
You Want To Be Debt Free? Here’s What To Do About It
At Grandma’s Jars we are passionate about helping people take control of their personal finances and get out of debt. We have seen first hand the impact that debt has on people lives when it gets out of hand. Debt causes financial stress and is a burden that robs us off tomorrow’s cash flow making it harder to save and get ahead financially.
The Ideal Bank Account Structure for your Budget
Before I take on a new coaching client, I let them know that there are three rules to coaching that I need them to agree to before we get started. The first and most important of these rules is that they agree to do whatever I ask them to do, even if it doesn’t make sense at the time. Experience has taught us that you can’t half do a budget; you can’t just pick the bits that are comfortable and easy to follow and leave the bits that are time-consuming or difficult to implement.
How to Budget : Physically Have the Money to Cover Your Expenses
How to Budget Principle #5 In Grandma’s days, budgeting was always a very tangible task. Either the money was in her jars or wallet to spend or it wasn’t. It was always very clear if you had the money to cover an expense. In today’s world of virtual jars and online banking it is easy for there to be a disconnect between what our budget says we have to spend and what our bank account says we really have available.
How to Budget: Have a System for Tracking Your Spending
How to Budget Principle # 4 At the beginning of this “How to Budget like Grandma” series, I shared with you how my Grandma used a simple system of glass jars to manage her finances. Grandma knew how much she needed to put in each Jar every payday to ensure that she had sufficient money set aside to pay each bill as it turned up.
The Power of the Debt Snowball
In this age of easy credit most of us have at one point or another experienced what it is like to be in debt. Whether it is a mortgage, student loan or high interest consumer debt you will appreciate the fact that paying off your debt is always so much harder than acquiring it. At Grandma’s Jars we are passionate about helping people free themselves from the burden of debt. We know how hard it can be to overcome debt, but we also know that with the right structure even the toughest debts can be conquered. In this blog we will outline the three steps towards eliminating debt using the ‘Debt Snowball Strategy’, a strategy that we have been successfully using with our clients for over 15 years. Step 1: Identify Your Debts It might sound obvious but the first step to overcoming debt is to have a thorough understanding of what you actually owe. Start by writing down who you owe and the total balance owed. Once you have done this, add the details, such as: the interest rate the minimum repayment required your current actual payment amount how long the loan has left to run if it …
How to Budget – Understanding Your Budget Shortfall
How to Budget Principle # 3 In this series of blogs, I look at the 5 core principles that made my Grandma’s budgeting system so simple yet so powerful. While we no longer budget using a collection of glass jars tucked away in the kitchen cupboard, the principles behind Grandma’s system are just as relevant today as they were 25 years ago. In our first blog in this series, we discussed the importance of taking time to thoroughly identify all of our expenses. Not only do we need to know what our expenses are but we also need to know how much each expense is, how frequently it occurs, and, where appropriate, when it is next due. In our second blog, we outlined the process and importance of converting all our income and expenses to a monthly figure so we know exactly how much we need to set aside for each expense each and every month. The logic behind this principle is that if we set aside 1/12th of our future expenses each month we will have accumulated sufficient money ready to pay each expense when it turns up. However, there is one glaring problem with this system when first …
How to Budget – Calculating Your Expenses
How to Budget Principle # 2 In this series of blogs I am looking at the 5 core principles that made my Grandma’s budgeting system so simple yet so powerful. While we no longer budget using a collection of glass jars tucked away in the kitchen cupboard, the principles behind Grandma’s system are just as relevant today as they were 25 years ago.
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