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Improving your finances is a marathon, not a sprint, right?
Well, not entirely, that’s where you’d be wrong. In fact, it can take as little as just 15 minutes to make improvements to your finances, if done in the correct way.
It’s said that a staggering 1 in 5 adults in the UK admit that they’re concerned about their finances and that their mental health has suffered as a result.
Although you can’t repair your credit score or repay all your debts overnight, and neither will a County Court Judgement disappear without a trace, there are a few simple ways that you can get a grip on your finances in just a few minutes of your spare time.
In this post, we’ll talk you through the 15 best ways for you to improve your money matters, fast.
How to Improve Your Finances in 15 Minutes
1. Check your credit file
Firstly, a great place to start is by checking your credit report, which in most cases you can do for free by visiting one of the three leading credit reference agencies in the UK (Equifax, Experian or CallCredit).
Although this will help you to identify the areas of your finances for which you need to improve on in the long term, it also helps you to check for missing or incorrect information which could be harming your credit.
If you do notice that there are falsified applications, unpaid bills at old addresses or charges against your name that you do not recognise; get in touch with the credit reference agency or the appropriate lender who of which the application, charge or credit was taken out with.
By rectifying these mistakes, you’ll ensure that your efforts are positively impacting on your credit.
2. Create a budget and stick to it
If you find that you’re living from month to month paycheque to paycheque or living forever in your overdraft then you may want to create a better budget for your monthly expenses and stick to it (easier said than done, we know!).
There are a variety of different ways in which for you to do this, including:
- Creating an excel spreadsheet with all your necessary incomings and outgoings, look at how much money you’ve got left and work out your budget, ideally, you want to have something left over at the end of each month for savings, paying off debts or rainy days.
- Use a spending tracking app such as Yolt and analyse your outgoings, what you’re spending too much on and what you can cut back on.
- Create yourself a spending budget, transfer your budget to a debit card such as a Monzo card, leave your other cards at home and stay within the budget you’ve created.
Creating a budget isn’t time-consuming; however, it can help you straighten out your finances.
3. Cancel any unwanted subscriptions
Is your Netflix app just taking up phone space? Or perhaps that Gym membership you promised you’d use is now just draining your bank account.
Cut your ties and move on, if you haven’t used any memberships or subscriptions in months that are costing you a small fortune don’t lie to yourself any longer and cancel them.
However, if you are worried that you’ll need to use them in the future, then check to see whether you have the option to pause or skip months that you aren’t using the subscription for, this will save you money in the meantime.
4. Same with any unused credit cards
Is your wallet not filled up with cash so much as it is filled up with credit cards that you simply aren’t using? Then cancel them.
Although you may be saving these cards should you happen to stumble upon hard times, these open credit accounts could adversely be affecting your credit, and not how you’d think.
Surely by having a lot of open credit accounts that you aren’t using would look good to anyone who’s offering you credit, right? Wrong. Lenders will look at your credit accounts for evidence of how responsibly you use credit, and if you aren’t using it at all, it can look just as bad as a poor credit record.
So what do you do?
Well, don’t cancel all of your open credit accounts, instead, cancel the few you don’t use and leave the ones that you do.
5. Repay your debts
It’s a difficult thing to do, especially when we’d much rather spend our money on other things, but it is essential, so pay off your debts!
If you do have some spare money lying around and you’ve only got a few repayments left before you’re out of the clear, bite the bullet and pay your dues. You’ll thank yourself later in the long run!
6. Set up direct debits for your repayments
If you’ve got children, a hectic home or work life, then you may struggle to remember all of your repayment dates and when your bills are due, occurring in charges and late repayment fees, which let’s face it, we can all do without.
However, avoid these charges and forget about remembering repayment dates by merely setting up a direct debit to come straight out of your bank account automatically.
It only takes just a few minutes to set up a direct debit with your bank over the phone, online or even on your mobile banking app. So why not set up a direct debit today and never miss a repayment again.
7. Set up a savings account
If you’ve just got money lying around in your current account just doing nothing, then why not consider opening up a savings account and depositing some of the money in there if you haven’t already.
Although rates of interest aren’t what they used to be, by having money in a savings account instead of a current account, you’ll be able to earn a bit of interest, dependent on how much is in your account.
The Bank of England base rate hasn’t moved at all since last year, currently standing at 0.75%, however dependent on which savings account you open if you have no plans to withdraw your money anytime soon, then you could earn a higher rate of interest.
8. Analyse your spending habits
What’s your spending habits like? Are they impulsive? Do you buy a new item of clothing or make a purchase without even thinking about it? Or are you careful with your pennies, ensuring that every available penny you can scrimp and save goes into your savings pot?
Whatever your spending habits are, it’s essential to know your strengths and weaknesses to work on them.
Great at saving but don’t know the right places to invest? Work on that! Great at spending money but not at saving? Work on that too! However good or bad, you believe your money managing skills to be, there is always room for improvement.
9. Write down some long term goals for yourself
Where do you want to be in 1 year? 3 years? Or in the next 10 years?
Wherever you want to be, we can almost guarantee that you don’t want to be in the same position that you are now, even if you are quite comfortable.
If you want to save enough money to go on holiday in a year, a new car in 3 years or want to have your own house in 10, set yourself some long term financial goals and work out how you’ll get there.
It doesn’t matter if things don’t go strictly to plan, it may take you a lot longer or less time to accomplish your goals than you’d thought, but it helps to have something to work towards.
10. Make sure your targets are realistic
Think about your goals; are they realistic?
I mean we all wish that we could save £10,000 in just a few months, however, unfortunately, there are very few people who are in a situation fortunate enough to do so.
Give yourself a few minutes to think about your targets and what you want to achieve from bettering your finances, is it realistic? Can you afford a new car? Would being debt-free be more beneficial than saving for that holiday? Give your targets a second thought.
11. Listen to a podcast
If you’ve got a free 15 minutes on your commute to work, to pick the kids up or while you’re just doing a few things around the house, why not slip on some headphones and listen to a finance podcast?
There are loads of different money-related podcasts out there for all manner of different interests and requirements. From the Which? Money Podcast that covers a proper all-rounder of various financial topics to the Financial Wellbeing podcast that discusses better financial planning and how this can better our lives in general, there’s podcasts to suit everyone’s best interests.
12. Shop around to make sure you’re getting the best deal
Are you finding that you’re spending too much money everyday items as the cost of your weekly shopping bill appears never to cease to grow? Then it may be time to shop around and make sure that you’re getting the best deal, and you can do this with all manner of different things.
Are you spending too much on toiletries? Try visiting discount stores and seeing if they stock your favourites there. Is the renewal quote on your car insurance not as competitive as you’d like it to be? Try visiting online comparison sites to see if they can find you a better deal.
You might be very pleasantly surprised.
13. Purchase a money management book
From ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ to ‘Think and Grow Rich’ there is no end to the list of great money books out there for you to read and change your outlook on money.
Dedicate just 15 minutes of your day to reading a chapter of a money management book and getting some helpful and interesting insights.
14. Make sure you’re on the electoral register
If there’s no record of you ever living at an address, then this could be affecting your chances of getting credit. So whether you intend on voting or not, you need to ensure that you’re registered to vote at every address you move to.
In addition to this, it is also essential for you to make sure that if you’re repaying any utility bills, your name is on the account you pay the bill for, as this will also help you to benefit your credit record further.
15. Improve your credit
Whether you’ve taken out a loan in the past or whether you’re entirely new to borrowing, there are many benefits to borrowing money other than getting money when your finances require it.
Borrowing a small loan can take just 15 minutes and, ensuring that you repay your loan in full regular instalments, will not only ensure that you steer clear of any additional fees or missing any payments but will also show prospective lenders that you are capable of borrowing credit responsibly.
Improving your finances needn’t be as hard, time-consuming or as stressful as you think it is. Instead, with the right tools and know-how, you’ll be able to get your finances back on track in no time!
