The Ultimate Guide to Financial Planning: From Budgeting to Probate Fees

Financial planning is a part of life that you should be doing at all stages of it. The money you save, spend, and invest in, is all leading towards a more fulfilled and comfortable life. We don’t only make money for ourselves but for others in our lives too we want to ensure will live comfortably as well.

 

Consult with an investment advisor regarding financial planning and discuss legal issues with an attorney.

 

While money isn’t everything in life, it can surely help to have plenty of it where possible. Financial planning is a process that you want to do enough of so that your assets are protected and it’s utilized enough that you make your money work harder for you, instead of trying to work harder to earn more of it.

 

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This ultimate guide to financial planning will provide you with all the top tips you’ll need whether it’s understanding probate fees for your estate, to mastering the art of budgeting.

1.   Know what it means to plan your finances

It’s useful to understand what it means when planning your finances. Planning is not just for the short-term but for the long-term too. You can’t predict where your finances will be or what assets you’ll have some ten or twenty years down the line. However, you can prepare your current and existing assets and optimize them as best as you can to get more from it.

 

For example, you might want to look at putting your current savings, in a high-interest savings account or shifting some debt off your current house payments to reduce your payments going forward and paying the balance off sooner.

 

Financial planning involves a lot of preparation of assets but understanding where money can be saved or spent differently to provide a more financially fruitful outcome.

2.   Set goals that are both realistic and dream-worthy

The goals you set when it comes to your finances need to be both realistic and dream-worthy. They need to be realistic so that you can meet those goals and check them off as you go through life. However, there’s nothing to say that you can reach the goals that seem unattainable now but may not be so unattainable in five or ten years time.

 

Setting dream goals is an important motivator when it comes to financial planning and who knows where your finances will go in the future. If you hold space for those out-of-the-world goals, you’re more likely to find success with them.

3.   Create a budget

A budget is a must and if you’ve not got one currently in place, that might be where you’re going wrong. Budgets are good to have in place because they provide some degree of self-control. When you have an idea of what’s coming in and out of your account, you’ll know how to spend that remaining money, whatever that might look like.

 

Creating a budget is easy enough but if you’re not someone who has ever created one before, the prospect of doing so might seem quite daunting. Take a look at some templates online and be sure to separate what comes into your accounts every week or month and then what’s going out.

 

This is also a great opportunity to see what you’re actually spending money on. Take a good look at your outgoings so that you know how much you’re spending and hopefully you’ll be able to make some savings in part so that you are more savvy with the money you do have available.

4.   Track all of your expenses

Tracking your expenses is a good one, especially if you’re someone who is a bit more spend happy with their money.

 

It’s good to be mindful of the expenses and tracking these can be helpful to see what you spend your money on and when you’re self-employed, you can sometimes claim some of these expenses against your tax.

 

Everyone has expenses but the amount you have may vary from others. Be mindful of what you’re spending and once you start tracking those expenses, you might find like your budgeting, you can make savings here too.

5.   Invest your money in multiple pots

Investing your money is a good way of making it go further. If you’re looking to make your money go further, then with some risk, that can be possible.

 

 

In order to help mitigate the risk as best as possible, it’s worth investing your money through multiple pots. From stocks and shares to real estate, there’s no end of possibilities when it comes to investing your money.

 

Be aware that when you invest your money, it’s always money that you might lose, so knowing this is important.

6.   Set up a plan for a future you’re not in

It’s always good to take a look at your financial planning for when you’re not here. That sounds morbid when you think about it but there will come a time when you need to start thinking more seriously about your cares and wishes for your life during a time when you might not be capable of making your own decisions or when you’re not here in life anymore.

 

Setting up your finances for your loved ones is a good thing to do and there’s everything from probate fees to estate tax that is worth researching.

 

It’s better to have it all planned out ahead of time, rather than to hastily try to put together a will and final testament when you’re ill.

7.   Build up an emergency fund and manage your debt

Emergency funds are good to have and it’s great for helping manage money problems if and when they should crop up. A rainy day fund as it’s otherwise called, can be great to protect you and your household when disaster strikes.

 

Managing your debts is also something you want to be proactive in doing. Be aware of the debts you have and try to ensure all these are paid off in a timely manner.

 

Financial planning is important to do and so where possible, make sure all of the above is set in place for your finances in the new year.

 

Ken Boyd

Author: Cost Accounting for Dummies, Accounting All-In-One for Dummies, The CPA Exam for Dummies and 1,001 Accounting Questions for Dummies

(amazon author page) amazon.com/author/kenboyd

(personal finance book/ self-published) 34 Stories That Explain Personal Finance