How to plan your annual finances to live calmer?

The beginning of the year is a good time to pause, plan our goals and consider good habits for the rest of the year. The management of our personal finance This is a key issue worth dwelling on: good planning can help us meet our goals and live more peacefully.

For this reason, the Finanzas Al Toque platform, from the Association of Banks of Peru, brings you some recommendations in this regard:

LOOK: The fiscal deficit fell to 1.6% of GDP in 2022, reported the Central Reserve Bank

Prepare a family budget:

A family budget helps you make decisions on time to reach the end of the month more calmly, and it is an important help to save. Preparing it is simple, and you can do it month by month in three simple steps:

First, make a list of all the money you anticipate you will have.
Second, make a list of all the expenses you can have in the month. This includes fixed expenses that you will have to pay anyway (such as rent, school, debt), variable expenses (which can vary slightly, such as transportation, food, electricity) and extra expenses (to treat yourself, such as gifts or party outings). entertainment). Order them from most important to least important.
Third, do a simple calculation: the total amount of income, minus the total amount of expenses. The result will tell you how balanced your personal finances are.

Manage your budget:

When you already have your budget set up, you can anticipate whether or not your expected income will reach your expected expenses. If you see that they will not reach you, you can make adjustments: reduce or eliminate some expense. It is best to first eliminate those that are less important to you. Evaluate how you can reduce some non-essential expenses and how you can replace that activity. Once you can pay your main expenses, then it will be easier for you to allocate an amount for outings or family outings.

Set a savings goal:

Saving helps you meet goals and cope with emergencies, and the best way to do this is to save a little each month of the year, in a disciplined way. To do this, set yourself a monthly savings goal according to your possibilities. Consider this monthly amount of savings in your budget, on the list of important expenses, and be sure to set aside that amount of savings as soon as possible. Banks, savings banks and finance companies have savings alternatives that will help your savings grow over time. Check which options offer the highest interest rate, and ask carefully about the conditions.

Watch out for “ant expenses”:

There are treats that we treat ourselves on a daily basis that seem small, but that can add up to a considerable monthly amount if we don’t moderate. These ant expenses can be the purchase of soft drinks, sweets or a coffee on the way to work. It is best to set a maximum daily amount, according to the possibilities indicated by your budget, and never exceed that amount. As long as you have planned these treats and that they allow you to save month by month, you can afford it. Otherwise, it is best to find alternatives: preparing a drink at home is a good alternative.

Identify times of higher spending:

There are times of the year when we most likely have to spend more. Christmas parties are a clear example, but also ask yourself if you need to renew an appliance, if you want to travel with the family on vacation, or if for whatever reason there is a month of the year in which you will spend more. Once you have identified these moments, start saving month by month to solve them without problem. Saving today will make your life easier tomorrow.