With the amount of technology that we have readily available in our homes, saving and investing is easier than ever before. Not only can smartphones and computers help us to understand our spending and general money habits on a greater level to begin with, but the amount of resources and advice that you can find online can really help you to get closer towards financial freedom. That being said, you need to know where to look, and have a solid goal in place so that you can stick to it when planning and saving as time goes on.
To help get you started with your online finance journey, here are some ideas of steps that you might want to take if you haven’t already.
Setting yourself a goal
It’s easy to get carried away in January with a lofty and ambitious new resolution that you’d like to achieve by the end of 2021, but if you set your sights too high too quickly, you’ll potentially feel burnt out and unmotivated before you’ve even begun. When it comes to financial goals, often the smallest, incremental changes can end up rewarding you in the long run (the phrase ‘if you look after the pennies, the pounds look after themselves comes to mind’).
Need help finding a do-able goal for the year with your money? Why not try out one of the many different savings challenges out there, helping you to gamify your spending? The 1P savings challenge, for instance, popularised by the likes of blogger Skint Dad, has you incrementally putting away 1P a day for an entire year, ending up with just under £670 by Christmas. Not bad for a bit of savings-related fun!
Understanding what you can afford
Once you’ve set yourself a goal with your finances that you can work on alongside your normal routine – such as saving up a lump sum or thinking about investment – you then need to understand how much you can reasonably afford. A lot of the best savings accounts – the ones with higher interest rates – require you to store away your funds for set period of time before you can access them, and the same goes for most investment strategies. Make sure that you’ve got a bit of a buffer of cash stored away in a rainy-day fund, so that you’re always prepared in the event of an unforeseen bill or payment.
Working on a financial portfolio
A huge step in reaching financial freedom is building and maintaining a healthy, dynamic financial portfolio. Having multiple income streams coming from different investment opportunities, business side projects, and savings plans means you can stay productive and positive without worrying about financial burden.
If you have the funding, property investment is a great backbone to any financial portfolio. As a physical asset, not only is it typically more long-standing and less likely to dip (especially during uncertain times like these), but if buying a buy to let property, it can also provide you with a regular income stream in the form of rental payments that you can then funnel into other savings pursuits or investments. RWinvest have a range of guides and other content if you want to learn about topics such as the best areas, how much to invest, and whether to think about things like off-plan property when looking forward to the future.
