2018 has just started and most of us need to recover after the Christmas and holiday spending frenzy.

All too often we start the year setting budgets but never end up sticking to them. A large part of the problem is that we don’t know where we’ve spent our hard-earned income and just end up living from pay cheque to pay cheque.

It is possible to mitigate the headaches and stress associated with personal finance by doing some simple number-crunching and planning. You’ll feel a lot more in control and you might even be able to save once you’ve set some goals and start tracking your spending.

So what’s the easiest way to track personal spending, create budgets and stay on top of expenses? If we use XERO for our business, why can’t we do the same for our personal finances?

For only $10/m (another tax deductible expense), why not set up a personal Xero file today? Simply activate your bank feeds, set and import a budget, and you’re ready to go. You can even give your family access – so they can reconcile their spending too.

It will only take a few minutes each week.

In our experience, it’s much easier to stay on top of your finances if you reconcile your bank accounts on a frequent and regular basiss. That way you can remember where you’ve spent money and it will become apparent earlier should you need to start reigning in your spending.

There will always be those unexpected expenses that we just can’t plan for. However, once you start tracking your spending, and have a history of income and expenses, it makes it much easier to plan and budget going forwards.

You can even attach photo images of invoices and receipts. This keeps the tax man happy and means you always have copies of invoices should you ever wish to claim on a warranty.

The added benefits of setting up such a system is that it makes applying for a loan, or preparing the information for your tax return so much easier. Imagine simply giving your broker or tax agent access to your Xero file and letting them get on with it? Too easy!

If this all sounds great, but daunting at the same time, please call your Mukiwa consultant and we will gladly help you. In as little as an hour, we can have you set up and running, meaning you can start to take control of your finances RIGHT NOW.