In order to have healthy finances you need to take control of your money. You need to know how much you’re earning each month, how much you’re spending, the extent of your debts and where your money is going. The best way to start the process of taking control is to conduct a financial healthcheck and this can be done easily in two ways.

1. By making an appointment with your personal bank. Most high street banks offer a healthcheck service and the qualified advisors will be able to give you advice for the future.
2. By visiting the ‘Money made Clear’ website from the Financial Services Authority. Here you can use their specialist tools to make sense of your finances and once complete you get tips and advice about taking control for a better future.

Very few people today check their bank accounts on a daily basis to see what has gone in and what has gone out. This means that if asked, these people often can’t tell you how much money they actually have, how much they have spent and how much is still to be spent. Taking control of your personal finances requires you to know this kind of information so you can see exactly where you stand on any given day.

Knowing your Income

In order to plan for the month you need to know how much you’re going to get paid and when. If you get paid hourly then you need to keep a work diary at all times so that you can compare what you should be getting paid with what you actually get paid. Thousands of employees are short paid each month but they never pick up on the fact because they don’t keep a log of their hours. If you are salaried then it is slightly easier as you should know how much you’re getting paid in advance.

Knowing your Expenditure

Most people know what bills are paid from their bank account each month but they very rarely know how much additional money they spend. In order to get an exact monthly expenditure figure you need to keep a detailed ‘spending journal’ where you write down everything you spend, regardless of how small it is. This will not only show you how much you really spend in a month, it will also highlight any bad spending habits you have and where you can cut down to save money.

Knowing your Debts

Surprisingly, very few people can quote their credit card balances off the top of their head when asked and even fewer can tell you exactly how much they owe on personal loans. This is the kind of information you need to know before you can truly take control of your finances as it makes a big difference to the amount of money you have each month. You should check regularly that you are paying the lowest interest rates possible and if not then you should consider balance transfers etc.

It isn’t difficult to take control of your finances and by doing so you can start to plan for a financially secure future. A simple financial healthcheck is the first step and hopefully this will be able to point you in the right direction for healthier future finances.