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The start of a new year is always a time when people begin thinking about their goals for the year ahead and what they’d like to achieve – whether it’s fitness and health goals, giving up bad habits, or simply starting to save more money for those things on their goal list, such as one day buying a house.

If you feel like you’ve not been great with your finances in the past and really have a big goal this year of finally getting them in shape, then hopefully the tips we’re going to share with you in this post will help you to do that.

Before we start, though: it’s important that you realize that you’re probably not as bad with money as you think. Often we’re our own worst critics and will say things like about ourselves like “oh, I’m awful with money” – yet, you’re probably better than you think. These things are often stories that we carry from early childhood, and once we clear those stories and start building good habits around money, then it becomes clear that everything is always teachable for those who are willing to learn.

So, let’s get into some simple strategies you can start implementing to finally get your finances in shape this year so that you can start working towards that goal of being able to approach a company like https://altrua.ca/ and be able to get a mortgage for your first home.

Get honest with yourself:
The first step in getting good at managing your finances is to get really honest with yourself about your current financial situation. Yes, doing this can often be scary, but it’s also empowering once you take back that control, and the good thing is, often things are nowhere near as bad as they might seem. So, open up all those reminder letters you’ve been hiding in drawers and create a spreadsheet or paper list of everything you owe and really get a look at what you’re dealing with. This is the only way you’re going to be able to improve your situation if you actually know where you’re going to be starting from.

Set a savings goal:
If savings are going to be part of your new financial fitness plan, which most likely they will be, then you need to set a goal for how much you’d like to save and by when. The thing with setting goals is – especially financial ones is most people will choose a quite arbitrary number which they either just pluck out of the air or they pick one that sounds good. Like, “I’d like to have $10K in the bank by the end of next month.” That’s a great goal for sure, but it’s a little unrealistic for most people, and you want to be able to make a goal that’s easily achievable because this is what will keep you motivated to keep going. For this to happen, you need to set specific goals- preferably an amount you have a connection with and that pertains to something you want. So, for example, if you’re saving for a house deposit, and you want to buy a house in 3 years, how much would you need to save each month to have a 10% deposit in that time? Now you have a number that’s related to a very specific outcome you want to achieve.

Create a budget:
Budgeting is one of those things that people often shy away from because they feel like it’s limiting, but actually it’s quite the opposite – it’s all about taking control and giving each dollar a home and purpose. So, instead of just hitting the supermarket each week with no real plan and spending a few hundred on food, then it’s a better idea to have a specific weekly grocery budget and then, not only will you save money because each penny is allocated to something, but you’ll make better choices with your food which will impact your health overall. You should also then budget a certain amount for savings and other things that you want to buy – either long term or short term. If you’ve never created a budget before, it’s really simply. You can find many free and low cost budgeting softwares online to help you, or you can simply use a spreadsheet – how you do it is up to you, but starting and sticking to it is the most important thing.

Automate your savings:
Once you’ve set yourself a savings goal and have accounted for that amount in your weekly or monthly budget, then one of the best ways to get into the habit of sticking to topping up your savings is by automating the process of the money leaving your main account and going to your savings account. You could also give your savings account a specific name – for example, you could name the account “Dream House Savings” so that when you feel tempted to take some money out, you see that and remember that if you do, getting your house will take longer than you want it to.

Start slow:
One of the most important things here is to be kind on yourself – you may be tempted to go in at the beginning all excited and full of enthusiasm and start saving like crazy, and although your intentions are great, you need to remember that this is probably not sustainable and has a higher chance of failure than if you start off more slowly. You may feel bad about this or like you’re not saving enough, but just the fact that you’re saving anything in this day and age where the biggest majority of adults don’t have any savings is a great thing, so you need to start slow and be okay with the fact that some things will take a while, but that the wait will be worth it.

Reward yourself:
Another goal setting technique to keep you on track is once you’ve set your main goal, then break it down into certain milestones – this can be weekly, monthly, quarterly, or whichever time frame works for you. How this works is instead of focusing on the main goal, you break it down into smaller chunks and once you hit that milestone, you reward yourself with something nice because your efforts still deserve recognition. So, for example, say your goal is to save $30K in 3 years, then you can break that down and once you’ve saved a certain amount – let’s say $3K towards that goal, then you could treat yourself to a nice day out somewhere or you could even purchase something for the house that you’re now even closer to buying.

Keep things that will motivate you:
It’s important when setting goals that you’re able to be reminded of them each day. If you’re a visual person, you could keep a vision board above your desk, or you could keep a scrapbook of images of what your new house will look like. This is to keep your goal front of mind and keep you motivated to achieve it. If you’re not a visual person, you could use words instead. You could use post-it notes that you could keep on your fridge reminding you of your goal or what it will feel like when you’ve achieved your goal.

Look at where you can cut back:
Most of us nowadays are spending more money on things that we really don’t need, so when you’re setting your budget in the step above, make sure you take a look at the things you’re buying that you really don’t need. For example, the cup of coffee you buy on the way to work each day doesn’t seem like much, but when you add it up over the course of a month or year, it’s a good chunk of money that could be going in your savings, so why not try making your coffee at home instead – even just a few days per week and seeing if you notice the difference? You’ll be surprised just how quickly all these small things do add up.

FTC Disclaimer:
This is a collaborative post and may contain affiliate links.