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Growing up like most people I hated going to school, I felt like every day was so pointless and constant bullying made my days at school hell. However, now as an adult, I can respect the amount I did learn at school, and wish that I could have worked harder towards my goals instead of counting down the days until I left. Looking back on what we learnt at school and the skills most of us are lacking now is a huge downfall in the education system. We needed to know more about finances, relationships, how to cope with our mental health, sex and how to communicate better with others.
As when we are in school it is when we develop most as a person as these are our younger years leading on to our teens. We needed to learn more about real life, instead of what was in books and although I may know basic algebra, I lack in knowing about actual real life money skills. Such interest rates, money management, credit cards, how to save and even credit scores. Those things are real life and they’re what we need to know. So I’ve decided to share my own personal knowledge on the subjects, the best I can and hope to help others learn more about the topics. I am in no way claiming to be an expert in any of the fields, this is purely my opinion and based on what I’ve learned along the way. I recently wrote the confidence chronicles and how self-confidence can go a long way. Let me know in the comments what topic you’d like to see covered next.
Credit cards aren’t always bad:
I was always made to think credit cards are bad, that they are there for additional bills or things you can’t afford, so they add them to their cards to pay back at a later date. Which to some extent can be true. However, credit cards can be great for your credit rating, they allow you to buy something on them, pay them back each month (in full if possible) and then your rating will grow as it allows you to show you are responsible with money. Luckily for me, in college, our tutor told us about this when we were learning about freelancing. It’s worth going through a comparison site such as Money Supermarket who offer a credit card comparison service based on the information you provide they advise the likelihood of you being accepted for a card without doing a credit check which can damage your score. Most people I know who are attempting to build up their score, usually by their weekly/monthly shop on their card and then pay it back at the end of the month.
Loans are fine, as long you can pay it back:
Sometimes unexpected bills can crop up, like an emergency dentist appointment or an expense which is unavoidable and you can end up needing to borrow money. Most of us have been there and although it’s not a great situation to find yourself in sometimes you have to do it. With things such as payday loans to get you through to payday, the interest can be higher than the amount itself dependant on the time frame in which the loan is going to be taken out for. Finding the correct lender for you is always important, in the past, I’ve gotten a loan with a company I didn’t know much about, and went in a bit blind and went for it, which ended up with me paying back so much more than I owed. With iLoans they help you find the perfect lender for you, with the best APR for your loan. With all loans, there is a cooling-off period, so it is worth finding this out before taking out the loan in case you change your mind.
Set up a spreadsheet to budget:
It’s often easy to get away with spending on payday, but it’s worth creating a spreadsheet which has your earnings on and all of the bills you have coming out (be honest else it won’t work) then it will allow you to see what is left. I include my food shopping on the sheet due to this being a pretty big expenditure each month, I find out the amount to add in monthly by doing an average of the last three months and that way it gives me a rough estimate. With the remaining funds I like to spend on things I may need each month e.g. food out and makeup and then any leftover should go into savings. It’s easy to create a spreadsheet and I enjoy to add colours into mine to make it less daunting.
