A 5 Step Guide to Resetting Your Finances This August

Back to school season means a new start for many; with new routines, new habits and no goals. Making now the perfect time to take a deep dive into your finances and establish new healthier money habits.

Here is Thistle Credit Union’s 5 step plan to refreshing your finances.

Step 1 - Identify and Set Goals

Identifying your goals helps to clarify your priorities and provide direction and motivation, making it easier to know how to move forward. SMART goals are defined as goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Setting SMART goals helps to provide clarity, focus and structure and has been directly linked to higher success rates.

Check out our other blog post for more information about setting SMART goals.

Step 2 - Complete a Personal Financial Audit

A personal finance audit helps you to objectively assess your income, expenses, savings and investments to identify strengths, improve weaknesses and plan for future financial goals. Make sure to check all your bank accounts, reoccurring payments, credit score, full credit report and any outstanding debts or investments. This may feel overwhelming at first but once you have a better understanding of your current circumstances, it should make it easier to establish your next steps.

Step 3 - List Your Prioritises

By creating a list of prioritises, you can focus on what matters most, reduce stress and improve productivity. To prioritise tasks; evaluate their urgency, importance and potential time commitment. Putting the most urgent, important and time costly tasks first ensures that you can get the most critical tasks done first.

Step 4 - Create a Structured Response

Build a Budget That Works for You

When building your budget, it’s important to establish how much money is coming into your account each month, how much is leaving your account each month, where that money is going and how much is left over at the end of the month. By understanding this you can then identify places to cut costs and see how much money you have to play with.

At Thistle Credit Union our free online budgeting tool can help you gain a better understanding of your finances and build a budget that works for you.

Access our free online budgeting tool here.

Consolidate Outstanding Debt

At Thistle Credit Union, our debt consolidation loans are specifically designed for those who are repaying a significant amount of debt by collating your debt into one regular monthly repayment. Our loans are assessed by real people and with no hidden fees or early repayment penalties, borrowing from Thistle Credit Union provides a truly sustainable alternative to traditional lenders.

Learn more about how a debt consolidation loan can help you.

Identify and Close Spending Gaps

Once you’ve build a plan to repay any outstanding debt, you can then move to assessing where you can cut costs. Start by looking at every reoccurring payment, cancel any unused subscriptions and compare utility suppliers to find cheaper alternatives. Then look into your everyday spending habits, could you start making your money coffee at home or bringing a packed lunch to work? These small changes can add up and provide significant savings over time.

Set Up a Regular Savings Contribution

Saving regularly helps to build financial resilience and prevent financial hardship if you were to be hit with an unexpected bill. When you save with Thistle Credit Union, your money is working collectively to help build a stronger financial future for everyone. By saving regularly, you’re doing more than building your own financial security, you’re strengthening a cooperative that exists to support your community.

To begin your regular savings journey, you can set up an automatic direct debit payment to go straight into your Thistle Credit Union account.

Our bank details are as follows:

Account Number: 00319183
Sort Code: 82-20-00

** Please always use your member number as a reference when making payments into your savings account to ensure we can allocate your savings to the correct account.

Step 5 - Keep The Momentum Going

Once you’ve completed all these steps, it’s important to keep the momentum going. Remaining focused on improving your money habits can help to ensure that you feel more in control of your money for years to come.

Click here for more information about Thistle Credit Union or read more from Thistle below.

A Better Way to Borrow

At Thistle Credit Union, our home improvement loans are designed to help you plan ahead, spread the cost sensibly and avoid high-interest credit cards.

Borrowing up to £15,000 and spread repayments over 5 years.

Fixed repayments, no hidden charges and no early repayment penalties.

Applying is straightforward and decisions are made locally by real real people, not algorithms.

Representative Example: