Ceri Austin 
Personal finance management entails overseeing income, spending, savings, investing and protection of finances in order to meet financial goals, avoid debt and have a secure retirement.
Learning to manage finances may seem intimidating, but everyone can become financially aware. The key is starting small and staying consistent over time.
Determine Your Long-Term Goal
Personal finance management allows you to set long-term goals that can get your finances on track, such as paying off a debt or saving for a vacation. Prioritize these financial goals so you can achieve them more quickly.
To achieve your goals, it’s essential that you create a budget in order to understand how much money is coming in and going out each month. By being aware of where money goes each month, leakage can be addressed as well as using leftover dollars towards addressing goals. Once a specific amount has been set aside for achieving goals, incorporate it into your monthly budget so it won’t get spent elsewhere easily.
Some goals have predetermined dates for achievement, such as retirement or mortgage payment. You can also devise plans to save for other goals with longer timelines, like earning certification to boost earnings.
Create a Budget
Financial management involves tracking income and expenses, setting financial priorities such as saving for retirement or vacations, managing debt and creating a budget to guide all of these efforts. A budget is the ideal starting point to begin managing personal finances effectively.
Start by listing all of your income sources, then add up all of your expenses – such as fixed bills like rent/mortgage/utilities/car payments as well as variable expenses like groceries, eating out/taking advantage of specials etc – that are paid every month as well as variable expenses like groceries/dining out/shopping etc compared with your income sources. Doing this exercise may reveal any areas in which your spending exceeds income limits.
Once you understand your spending habits, create a budget that includes room for fun purchases and savings goals to avoid feeling deprived while building an emergency savings fund that can reduce stress when unexpected expenses arise. Money management software or apps may make the task of budgeting simpler by streamlining data entry processes.
Track Your Expenses
Tracking expenses is a key component of managing your money, helping you identify areas in which spending has grown out of control and helping to meet financial goals.
Sort your expenses into categories, such as housing, transportation, food/grocery shopping, insurance, retirement benefits, medical costs and entertainment costs. This will enable you to identify where you may be overspending as well as areas in which cutting back may be necessary (for instance that can of soda sitting unopened on your desk at work).
Tracking expenses is easy: from spreadsheets and budgeting apps like Quicken or Mint to personal financial management (PFM) apps which offer single views that allow multiple banks’ accounts to be added at once and data visualization for expenses tracking, budgeting and net worth estimation.
Invest
Personal finance management encompasses many skills, from budgeting and tracking expenses to setting savings and investment goals. In addition, this discipline may also entail devising debt repayment strategies, arranging mortgages or purchasing insurance policies.
Personal finance managers provide more than just planning and execution services, they also advise their clients on which investments are the most prudent to make for maximum gains. Investment is one of the more complex components of personal financial management and requires expert knowledge for maximum return.
Money management can be a challenging endeavor, especially when trying to balance it with work or family obligations. Furthermore, taking into account physical or mental limitations such as impaired vision or hearing issues or arthritis may make managing finances even harder; but solutions do exist that can assist you with getting on track financially.
