Different Ways on How to Accurately Keep Track of Your Finances

Keeping track of your finances, especially your liquid assets can be quite a task. The average consumer tends to have several bank and credit card accounts.

A myriad of financial products and services have come up in recent years that promise to simplify the process. However, just getting this process started can prove to be the most complicated task. Listed below are six simple and effective ways to accurately keep track of all your finances.

1.) Personal Budget

If you happen to know the basic principles of financial management you are more than equipped to create and handle your own personal budget. Google is a great place to look for basic instructions on starting a personal budget. This method is perfect for you should you wish to have a better understanding and ultimately better control of your spending. Financial management can be enhanced with T24 Prepaid.

2.) Pen & Paper

This is a no brainer keeping track of your accounts by writing them down is another simple method with great effectiveness. All you have to do once a week or once a month is to sit down and calculate and your income on one row and spending on a second. I know this is very old-school, but very effective.

You should consider committing to this by spending more time and effort. At the end of the day, no matter which method you end up choosing, making a habit of keeping tabs of your finances is the road to financial independence.

3.) Spreadsheets

Another hack to financial management can be through the use of a spreadsheet, like Excel or Google Sheets. This would be a more convenient option than pen & paper. All you have to do is input the data, use formulas and update the figures regularly. You can keep track of all the changes and even churn out graphs and tables. There are loads of easy to use templates with embedded macros which can be found on the internet.

4.) Online Banking

Nowadays, many banks and financial services like credit cards offer mobile and online banking services. These are all great tools to help keep track of your bank’s balances and credit card transactions. The more sophisticated banks may even offer services like email or SMS alerts. You can use this tool in tandem with either spreadsheets or pen & paper to make tracking your finances easier.

5.) Prepaid Cards

There are two terms that banks refer to people who choose not to or cannot hold a stable bank account they are referred to as “unbanked” or “under-banked”. There are a particularly large amount of individuals that fall under this category. Now there is a great solution for those of you who are temporarily in this category, a prepaid card. Prepaid cards normally offer lower fees compared to a traditional bank or credit card account. They are very convenient to reload, and often offer money management tools in addition to a plastic, physical card that you can make purchases with online and in-store anywhere that traditional debit or credit cards are accepted.

The traditional credit card gives you the freedom to spend as much as you want and promotes the idea that you can never overspend. This is one of the most enticing benefits of prepaid cards and of the banking services attached to them. The prepaid cardholder can only spend what is preloaded into the card. You can visit www.t24blackcard.com for more information.

6.) Financial Management Tools

There are loads of financial management tools which can be found online that promise to simplify the process of tracking your finances. Many of these tools and services are highly effective in assisting you with managing your finances and are often free to use. However, you must be very cautious when providing personal data. Your personal data would more than likely be used to market products and services to sold to a third party so they can market their products and services.