Your future financial health is largely reliant on the kind of financial decisions you are taking today. Remember a personal finance mistake could have its own repercussions and impact your future financial health. Here are a few common personal finance mistakes, you must avoid for a financially secure life.
Mistake No.1: Not Keeping Track of Your Credit Score on a Regular Basis
Not monitoring your credit score and not bothering to get your credit report on a regular basis is a major financial error that you could make. Most people do not appreciate the actual importance of examining their credit score from time to time at regular periodic intervals. You must realize that your credit report may show some wrong information as a result of some clerical mistakes by the bureau, or by your lender or because of certain fraudulent accounts or credit applications in your name.
Remember not to take this sort of misinformation lightly. Treat these errors seriously as any kind of wrong information may hamper your loan eligibility in the future. Keeping constant track of your credit score and appraising the credit report periodically could help you detect such mistakes. If you monitor your credit score on a regular basis, you could build it over a period of time effectively through responsible financial behaviour.
Mistake No.2: Waiting for the Best Opportunity to Invest
Many people with lower-rate of savings or low incomes tend to delay all their investments until they obtain a relatively higher salary or are able to build an impressive corpus. However, you must not postpone your investments and grasp all opportunities to invest and gain financially. Remember postponing investments could result in substantial opportunity cost because of the actual power of compounding. In this context, you must understand that with compounding the returns you get from your investments could start to generate returns culminating in a much greater corpus. So start investing at once and try to stay financially disciplined.
Mistake No.3: Maxing Credit Cards
Remember higher utilization of your credit card limit could prove to be detrimental to your overall financial health. This would be adversely impacting your precise credit score and that may, in turn, affect your loan eligibility in future. It is a good idea to restrict all your credit card spending to 30 percent of the credit limit available to you. When you notice that you are breaching this limit quite often, it is best to put in a request for extending your credit limit. You may alternatively apply for an additional one. If you have crossed the limits of your credit cards and are not able to make the repayments, it is best to get rid of your debts by seeking professional assistance.
Mistake No. 4: Excessive Spending
Avoid being frivolous. Remember even great fortunes could be lost little by little. You may not think twice while choosing a pack of cigarettes or a double-mocha cappuccino, or have dinner in an expensive restaurant, but all these insignificant expenses seem to add up. If you are going through a financial crisis, it is best to avoid this gross mistake. If you are heading towards a bankruptcy or foreclosure, it is best to spend every dollar more carefully.
One way to control excessive spending is by using a prepaid debit card. They only allow you to spend whatever funds you’ve pre-loaded on your card. Check out this list of the 5 best prepaid debit cards.
Mistake No. 5: Indulging in Endless Payments
You must be cautious while spending. You must deliberate and ask yourself if you are doing the right thing by spending on items that may not be your top priority and end up paying for these, month after month, and year after year. You must understand that certain things such as music services, cable television or expensive gym memberships could compel you to make endless payments. Remember when cash flow is restricted, you must lead a leaner lifestyle to boost your savings and safeguard yourself from financial hardship.
Mistake No. 6: Living Constantly on Borrowed Finances
Using your credit cards for purchasing essentials may seem pretty normal but you must avoid doing that for financial health. Many people are more than willing to high-interest rates on groceries, gasoline, and a number of other things that are all used up before the bill is actually paid in full. Do not forget that credit card rate of interest would be making the price of any charged item a lot more expensive. If you constantly depend on your credit card, you are more likely to spend more.
Mistake No. 7: Paycheck to Paycheck Existence
As per fresh statistics, it is believed that in March 2018, the household personal rate of savings was only 3.1 percent in the U.S.A. as per the Federal Reserve Data. Numerous households are today leading a paycheck to paycheck existence. They must be told that any unforeseen issue could surely become a major disaster if you do not buck up well in time. The cumulative effect of excessive spending would be placing individuals in a really precarious state, where they would be requiring every penny they are earning and if in case there is even one paycheck missing, it could prove to be disastrous for them.
Often experienced financial planners advise you to open a separate account where you keep an amount equivalent to three months’ expenses so that you could have access to that emergency fund if you lose your job or certain drastic changes that take place in the economy. If you do not think in advance and keep spending all your salary and lead a paycheck to paycheck existence, all your savings could be drained in no time and you would be experiencing the vicious cycle of debts and repayments.
Mistake No. 8: Not Following Any Plan
Remember your financial security and future relies on your current behaviour and lifestyle. You tend to spend a great deal of your time scrolling through your social media feeds or watching television, but you do not bother to spend just a couple of hours every week for some solid financial planning and evaluation of your financial situation. You must chalk out an effective financial plan that needs to be adhered to. You must constantly examine your financial situation. It pays to know about your current financial scene and exactly where you seem to be heading to.
Conclusion
If you wish to stay away from financial insecurity and the actual dangers of overspending, you must monitor all your insignificant expenses that seem to add up fast. Then consider keeping track of your big expenses as well. Be cautious before thinking of applying for a loan and adding fresh debts to the already extensive list of payments. Savings must be made a monthly priority. Devote enough time and effort in chalking out a sound financial strategy.
