How To Manage Personal Finances For 2009?

When managing personal finances you must answer the following questions:

1. What is your goal? eg saving for a car, house deposit, holiday, retirement, paying off a house, reducing debt. You must have a goal otherwise when you have to make sacrifices you will not see the reasons for doing so.

2. Investigate where you money is going to at the momment. An easy way is to record what you are spending in a note book. it is interesting to see that when you do this how your spending may deline when you realise that you dont "need" that magazine or latte.

3. Look at where your money is comming from. How much money do you receive from employment/shares/rent etc

4. When you have those things worked out. Allocate how much money you must spend eg rent/morgage/food /fuel. Dont forget entertainment, it is unrealistic to assume that you will suddenly never go out when once you were a party queen or king

5. Hopefully at the end of that process you will have funds left over.

6. Finally decide what you will do with your surplus ie place in a high interest account.

7. A great site that may help you organise yourself is: http://www.mint.com