Personal Finance Chats

The consumerist society that we live in today just wants us to spend, spend and spend, this leads us to live beyond our means and live a lifestyle that our income is unable to support and sustain. It is so easy to just buy the things we can’t afford because we have access to things like credit cards and other forms of lending.  Clothing retailers now offer the option of paying for our purchases at a later date, companies are just finding new ways for us to become even more immersed into the instant gratification and impulsive nature that so many of us have become prey to. This lack of control over our spending has caused so many financial problems as well as affecting other parts of our lives: relationships, friendships, our self worth and so much more. Living within your means makes you more disciplined as well as making you realise what is more important to you. We have to break away from this mindless spending that so many of us engage in- being more mindful ab...

Get Yourself Financially Set in Your 20s Your 20s is the time when you have the least amount of responsibilities and the most flexibility you will get, this is the time you explore with your career, where you want to live, what kind of people you want to hang out with and what you want your life to look like.  Use this time you have to set yourself up to be financially secure and potentially free by working towards 4 goals in your 20s so that you don’t have to worry about money whenever making a decision about you life for example to quit your job and stay at home with you kids and your partner, or to spend a year travelling. You can make choices in your life without being bound to anything due to monetary restrictions and fears. Eradicate those compulsions and fears by accomplishing these 4 financial goals. A decade is plenty of time to achieve these goals and be stress free in regards to money for (hopefully) the rest of your life. 1 Year Emergency Fund Work on ...

Budget Budgeting is the best way to organise your money- it shows you what’s coming in and what’s going out . It sets limits on what you’re spending for each category every month should be.  Budgets let you be more in control of your money as you know where every penny is going, at the end of the month you’re not left wondering where all your money went instead you have a record of what happened to each penny. It takes 10 minutes at the start of the month to write out a budget and at the end of the month to fill out the actual numbers. Many people find budgets a hassle but they only become one when you over complicate it: it’s simple to just write out what you expect your income to be, what your fixed expenses are, what you want to spend on food and other activities part of your monthly routine. Keep it simple by writing it in a notebook or using excel- whatever is easiest.  By giving each category a set amount of money you can put money towards other financial go...

What is a Side Hustle? Side hustles are an income generating activity you do in your spare time, you can build a side hustle on the side to whatever you do full time: student or job. Building a side hustle whilst you’re in school, university/college is the best thing you can do financially, this doesn’t have to become your full time gig- you can still pursue your career options and whatever else you like professionally.  Having a side hustle brings in income every month aside from an employment you partake part time or full time. This extra stream of income takes away the financial stress of fulfilling your monthly responsibilities in case of a loss of job.  Whilst you’re in school you have a lot of time on your hand and financial responsibilities are potentially the lowest you’ll ever have in your life- there might be some students who have more responsibilities and may not have the privileges that others have but building a side hustle is a good financial move f...