Category: Advice

How do I Stop my Financial Worries Stopping Me Sleeping at Night?

There are some people that worry about lots of things and finance could be one of them. There are others that specifically worry about their finances as they are not happy about their situation. There are things though, which can be done which will help with this and it is good to have an understanding of what your options are, so that you will be able to find one that will suit you. It is good to try to work on your finances so that you have less or no reason to worry about them as well as using methods to help you to sleep better generally.

Improving your finances

Obviously, what you need to do to improve your finances will very much depend on what is causing you concern. It might be that you are worried about having enough money for retirement, repaying a loan, covering your bills, affording your children’s university costs, or other things. There are all sorts of things that could potentially be a problem. Identifying exactly what the concern is will be the best place to start. Hopefully you will be able to do this, but sometimes it is not that easy. However, a more general approach to improving your finances could work in this case.

It is always wise to make sure that you are in good control of your finances. This means that you want to ensure that you can easily manage to afford everything that you need and that you do not have too many loans, particularly expensive one or ones that you are struggling to manage, that you have some savings behind you and are feeling confident about your retirement. If you are on top of all of these things then you should not have anything to concern you. However, if you are not, then it is very possible that you will have concerns.

It is worth carefully going through your finances to get some information together. Work out exactly what you owe, to who and what interest you are paying on your payday loans for bad credit. Work out what savings you have and investments and what interest or return you are getting on those. Find out the income you get each month and how much you spend on both necessary things and luxuries. Also look into what retirement provision you have both from the government and through any other pension schemes or things like that.

Getting all this information can possibly be terrifying as you may find that things are even worse than you imagined but you are just as likely to find that it is better than you thought. You will not be able to try to make your situation better though, unless you know exactly where you are starting. At this point you will now be able to see what you might be able to do.

It could be possible that savings and investments that are not doing well could be used to repay expensive loans. You may also decide to use a portion of your income to repay loans as well. This might mean just using a small amount each month to slowly whittle away the debt. If you have no loans you might want to start paying some into a savings account, investing some or starting up a pension. It can be quite a hard decision, but even if you are only doing a little bit, it is much better than doing nothing.

Of course, you will need extra money to be able to do this and so you will need to make changes. It is wise to not only be careful with what you are spending and prioritise carefully, but also to see whether you can earn more. This will make a big impact on your financial situation and as long as you make sure that you are using that extra money wisely, it should have a positive impact on how you feel about your financial situation.

Sleeping better

Hopefully getting your finances in better order and having a plan for the future should help you to stop worrying so much and to sleep better. However, it could be that you will need to do a bit more to help your sleep. Make sure that you have a good sleep routine, that you wind down before bed without electronics, that you have a comfortable place to sleep and that you exercise in the day so that you are tired at night. If you still struggle then trying meditation or other relaxation methods could be useful. You may also find there are books or online resources that will give you lots of information about things that you could try to help. Often many things, such as getting into a routine or doing meditation are free as well, which can be great as if you are trying to improve your financial situation you do not want to have to pay out more money. It is best to see a GP if you are really struggling as they may be able to direct towards professional help.

Category: Retirement

How Can I Ensure I have Enough Money for Retirement?

Retirement is something that many people start to worry about as they reach the end of their career. Although it is really sensible to start planning really early, any planning is sensible. There are a series of steps that you might like to take, in order to make sure that you have a comfortable retirement.

  • Calculate what you need
    It sounds quite simple to just calculate how much money you will need in retirement, but it is actually pretty tricky. Your needs will change, but that does not mean you will spend less money, you may actually spend more. For example, if you continue living in the same house, then costs of staying there will remain the same but if you are home more, then you may need to have the heating on more and you may need it set to a higher temperature as you get older. Being free to do more, you might want to go on more holidays or generally travel more, which will cost more money and you might also want to join more clubs and groups so you do not miss out on the socialising that you will have been used to at work. You may also need to pay a cleaner and gardener to help you out and eventually you may need a carer as well. You will not be able to get a loan easily, if you do not have a conventional income either and so you may want to think about having a sum of money behind you to pay for things like new cars, house renovations or repairs, holidays etc.
  • Calculate what you will get
    The next step is to calculate where you are at with your possible pension payments. It may be that you have been contributing to a government pension through National Insurance contributions and if this is the case you will be able to go to the governments website and find out how much you will be entitled to get when you retire. This figure may assume that you continue to pay in, so don’t take it for granted that you will get this amount as if you do not continue to work and contribute you may not.

You mayalso have money due from work pensions. If you have had any jobs then you may have paid into pension schemes with those employers. You may not have been employed for very long, but even so you may have contributed to the pension scheme and be due some money back. Try to find out the details of each of these and find out how much you may get from those.
You may also have paid into some private pensions and these could give you some income as well.  You should be aware of these and you will be able to add anything that you get from these into your expected income.

You may have other investments that you hope to use towards your retirement income. This might be rental from a second home, a managed fund which will pay an income, investment in a business or something else. Make sure that you include these as well.

  • Research ways to make up any shortfall
    Once you have worked out what you feel you will need financially in retirement and what you feel you will get, you will then need to think about how you might cover any shortfall. Some people might just decide that they will have to continue working or they will massively downsize or hope that they can get a council house. However, these options may prove to not be possible or to be very difficult. It is nice to think that we might have an enjoyable retirement where we can afford the things that we want and have a nice lifestyle. As long as you are not really close to retirement, it should be possible to be able to achieve this if you come up with a decent plan.
    You will need to start by looking at your current income and expenditure. Work out how much money you have coming in and where from as well as how much you spend and what on. This can be quite a big task if it is not something that you have done before but it is always worth being in touch with your personal finances anyway.
    Once you have sorted through this then it will be time to think about what your goals will be, both short term and long term. You may wish to do some or all of the following. Pay off loans, top up savings, make new investments, take out a private pension or pay more into existing pensions. It is not always obvious what might be the right solution though. If you are not sure, then it could be a good idea to pay an independent financial advisor to help you with the decision and they will be able to look at your situation and let you know what they would recommend in order for you to get yourself into a good financial position.