Get to grips with money matters

Why good financial planning is worth doing well

In life, we like to do things that we enjoy. We find them easy, they take little effort and we know we’re going to have a good time while we’re doing them.

Compare this to your finances. Most of us don’t review our money or what’s happening with it because we think it’s far too difficult.

It may be stressful to look at our financial situation – especially if we don’t know how to change it – so to protect ourselves, we shut it out of our mind and avoid it instead. Sound familiar?

When I’m faced with a job I don’t want to do, I try to set myself up for success.

I make the environment around me more engaging, like making it light, clean and tidy.

I play my favourite music, I’ll grab a cuppa and I write down a list of the things I am going to do.

I give myself a certain amount of time to work on each of them because when

I know there’s an end in sight, it suddenly doesn’t seem so difficult or like such a chore.

Try taking a similar approach with reviewing your finances.

You may find it works much better for you to allocate just an hour a week for a few weeks than to sit behind your desk all day trying to make progress. It’s also mentally less unappealing.

First, decide what you want to achieve and then schedule time in your diary.

I’d suggest sessions along these lines: The first session would be to set up the Bank Account System, which means setting up all your regular bill payments to go out of one account, with another dedicated to all your variable spending.

That may involve you opening up a new bank account.

For saving an emergency fund, you may also need to set up a National Savings and Investment account.

Once those two tasks are done, stop, go away and have fun. You can pick it up again on your next session. Now that doesn’t sound like too much of a chore, does it?

At your second session, you could review all your bills account payments and ask yourself: Do I need this? If so, can I get a similar experience for less?

You want to get these payments down to the essentials. Use the free worksheet at WarrenShute.com to help you. Then, at your next session, look at maximising your income.

Review entitledto.co.uk to see if you’re eligible for any benefits, review your tax code to make sure you’re not paying too much tax and then look at a side hustle or unwanted items you could sell to boost your income.

I appreciate finance is a big topic and for many, it’s not the most exciting thing in the world, but the results of good financial planning are so exciting that it’s worth doing it well.

As the saying goes: Eat an elephant one mouthful at a time.

Break a big project down into smaller 45-60 minute chunks and you’re more likely to succeed.

For more about The Money Plan, visit WarrenShute.com or search for The Money Planner podcast.

Break a big project down into smaller chunks and you’re likely to succeed