Creating healthy financial habits that stick

With prices on the rise, nearly everyone is looking for ways to make their money go further. In fact, the latest Google Search data shows that individual searches for “monthly budget template” increased a whopping 350% in the last five years in the U.S. alone.

While there’s no silver bullet when it comes to managing your money, you can build healthier financial habits that help you move toward your goals.

Here are three tips for taking more control of your money:

Know where your money is going

The first step toward any goal is starting with a clear-eyed view of where you are. Your finances are no different, and to build a better relationship with your money, you first need to know where it’s going.

Digital personal finance apps like Google Pay and others make it easy to see exactly how much money you have, what you’ve spent and where you’ve spent it

- all from your mobile phone. You can quickly see how much you’ve spent by category (like groceries and gas) or by business (like your favorite neighborhood coffee shop or big-box retailer).

Try the 50/30/20 rule

Once you know where your money is going, you’ll need a rough plan for how to allocate it in the future. The 50/30/20 split can be a helpful rule of thumb for managing spending. The general idea is that about 50% of your money should go toward essentials (housing, transportation, medical costs, groceries, etc.), 30% toward wants (dining out, new clothes, entertainment, etc.) and about 20% toward paying off debt or saving for the future.

Take advantage of special deals and offers

Online offers and deals are the modern-day coupons without all the clipping and sorting. With personal finance apps like Google Pay, all of the deals available to you are accessible and searchable through your mobile app.