How to get a grip on your finances - 10 tips

It’s so important to do your taxes.

Check your mailbox, online and in real life, for new invoices. This will prevent nasty surprises as you’ll always know what’s expected of you!

Make sure to file away important postal mails, so you’ll be able to find them later on. Also do this with your digital mail. File these documents on your computer or print them out to file them with your postal mail. Make sure to also regularly check websites that send their invoices digitally.

Don’t get yourself in a pickle by stacking your bills. Pay them straight away.

An easy way to pay your bills is to install a standing order on your bank account. You’ll never have to worry about forgetting to pay a bill as it will automatically happen. Another smart thing to do online is disable the negative balance option. The interest rates for negative balances are hefty, you’ll be better off spending your money on something else.

We know it sounds super old fashioned, but checkbooks are the best way to get an overview of your finances.

A checkbook is a notebook in which you record your income and expenses. It records every financial action you take. Every euro you spend, you write down every expenditure straight away.

Many of us will be able to view our income and expenses in our online banking area. But not all our expenses are recorded here. We also use cash. Be sure to record these expenses in your checkbook as well.

You can use a simple notebook as a checkbook or you could record your expenses in Excel. Rather use an app? Read on!

It can be a lot of work to keep a checkbook. So, a good option is to use an online checkbook.

There are a few options to record your finances online, examples are Mijn Geldzaken and Het Huishoudboekje.

To make this even easier, you could use our app to record your income and expenses. For many of us keeping up with our finances is a hassle. Our app automatically records important expenses and your income.

Money disappears unnoticed and it happens really fast too. By checking what you spend your money on regularly, it will be easier to decide which expenses are unnecessary. You can make an informed decision on what you want to spend your money on. Even by just checking your balance a couple of times a week, you’ll get a tighter grip on your finances.

You set a budget so you can plan ahead.

By setting a budget, you immediately realise if you have any financial leeway. In an instant you’ll see in which months you’ve spent a little less or a little more. In budgetary management, when someone else is responsible for one’s finances, budgets are set to gage someone’s financial situation.

To manage your budget, first add up all your types of income and note when they’re added to your account. Then, create an overview of all your fixed expenses and note when they’re taken out of your account. Lastly, estimate how much you spend on other things, such as food shopping and clothes.

After coming up with a budget, you can plan what to spend that money on. If your budget shows that you have some extra money, you could, for instance, decide to work a day less every week. But if it shows that you have no financial room, you can come up with a plan to fix this. A budget plan can also help you when you’re trying to save money.

In general, expenses can be divided into three groups: monthly fixed expenses ( rent, mortgage, energy and subscriptions), irregular expenses (furniture, clothing, appliances and vacations) and household expenses (weekly expenses such as groceries, hairdresser visits, and gifts).

To get a clear overview of your expenses think about which categories you want to include in this overview. If you want to know how much you spend a month on coffee or cigarettes for example, record these expenses as a separate category. If you’re not interested in specific expenses, use more general categories such as ‘daily expenses’.

It’s completely up to you what categories you include. So think carefully about what insights you’d like to gain from your overview.

Now you’re completely up to date with your financial situation, we’ve come up with a last tip for you to stay in control. It’s very sensible to have a financial buffer for unexpected expenses. So, save a little money every month (say, 20% of your income). This will prevent you from financial struggles when your washing machine packs up.

Everyone handles money differently. Take the Good With Money Test (unfortunately only available in Dutch) to see what money type you are. It will give an insight into your pitfalls and the areas in which you can still financially improve.