How can you develop a strong and practical personal finance plan?

Description: Know how you can formulate a strong and practical plan for your personal finance and move ahead in life.

Formulating a strong and sensible plan for your personal finance is always important to sustain financial stability and accomplish your objectives. Besides giving you a clear idea about your finances, it offers a way to financial development and relief.

The key to devise an efficient plan for your personal finance is assessing your present condition comprehensively. Though your plan wouldn’t be a motionless document, you can save time if you make a strong foundation that can be modified without difficulty as situations vary. Reassess your financial strategy when needed and once every year as a minimum.

Net worth and cash flow

The foundation for any personal financial strategy is working out your net worth and cash flow. To work out your cash flow, figure out your monthly income from all your sources and your monthly expenditures. You need to be cash flow positive where you make more than you spend. If you don’t have a positive cash flow, search for domains where you can cut down your expenditures like eating out and shopping. Try to raise your income. If you fortunately have a positive cash flow, you can begin to accumulate savings to achieve your financial objectives.

Net worth is an essential tool to determine your overall financial situation. To ascertain net worth, work out your assets and liabilities. Assets might include savings, cash, real estate, investments and personal belongings. Liabilities include all unpaid loan obligations like your car payments, balances on your mortgage as well as credit cards.

Your net worth is calculated by deducting the liabilities from your assets. The aim is to watch constant growth in your net worth year after year.

Insurance

Subsequently, you have to handle risk. This is where insurance plays a major role. Making sure that you have sufficient insurance cover is important to protect your finances from unforeseen events. Individuals must carry insurance for auto, health, life, home and disability.

Emergency fund                        

Your financial plan must also incorporate an emergency fund since this provides a buffer against unforeseen events like unemployment or a severe illness. Your emergency fund must be liquid so that you can access it instantly. It helps you take control of your finances for a particular period of time. Financial advisors recommend that you earmark at least three month’s expenditures to create your emergency fund.

Future objectives

Now that you’ve made a plan for your short-term requirements, include future objectives into your plan. Your future objectives might include but not limited to fixing a date by when you want your mortgage to be paid off, an age when you want to happily retire, holiday trips you would want to take or an amount that you want to save for the education of your kids.

If you think you need assistance to design a personal finance plan to attain your goals, talk to a financial advisor. He can suggest techniques to enhance your net worth and cash flow and give you useful money management tips.