Personal Cash Flow Management: Easy Money Tips

Personal cash flow management is a simple concept to understand, but a difficult one to implement. It involves understanding one’s sources of income and their expenses, and how one manages surpluses and shortfalls. The award-winning experts at Vision Property and Finance have put together 5 tips for how to properly manage your cash flows to ensure your financial goals are realised.

Making more money will not solve your problems if cash flow management is your problem

Robert Kiyosaki

1. Set Realistic Cash Flow Goals

There are a range of factors that need to be considered when setting goals. Your age, occupation, the economy, upcoming expenses, debts and assets can all largely impact the timeline of your financial goal achievement. Be realistic with how these factors are going to impact your income and expenses. In doing so, you’ll be able to understand what level of cash flow management is required to save up for that holiday, car, deposit, etc. Vision has a savings calculator that you can use to plan out these goals with a time frame. Check it out here.

2. Cash Flow Management Requires Budgeting

Being able to determine your incomes and expenses is the best method to control your cash flow, however, it can be a pain to set up, and even more difficult to maintain. Vision has made this easy, with our free budgeting tool, which you can find here. Using this tool, you can set up your bank accounts to automatically assign your income into an established budgeting framework.

3. Tighten Up Cash Coming In, Delay Cash Coming Out

Ensure that when you have money owed, you aim reduce the days in which you receive this money (debtor days) to the lowest amount possible. When it comes to expenses like phone bills, electricity bills and other debts, delay paying these so that they are staggered between pay-cycles. (Make sure these do no count as a late payments or incur any fines or penalties). This will increase cash flows coming in, and reduce flows coming out, improving overall cash flow.

4. Structure Expenses Around Paydays

Structuring your personal cash flow management around your paydays is crucial. If you are paid every second Monday, you should set aside expected, required payments on that same day. This could include things such as rent, groceries and fuel. In doing this, you leave yourself with money that can either be saved or spent. Depending on your savings goals and budgeting, you may be left with a surplus or defecit.

5. Manage Your Surpluses and Deficits

Proper personal cash flow management should hopefully leave you with a surplus at the end of each pay cycle. However, large one-off expenses can occur that can leave you in a deficit. You need to be able to manage both.

Surpluses

Surpluses can be spent how you want to. Looking for a fun one-off discretionary expense? All yours! Want to put it into your savings account to realise your savings goal sooner? Can do! What you may also want to consider is investing. Making your money work for you can be an extra income to account for with your cash flow management For more information on investing, please click here.

Deficits

Deficits can occur when large one-off expenses sneak up on you. These could include the costs of covering a medical problem, a car issue or a fine. These can knock around your planned expenses and cause issues in being cash flow positive for your pay cycle. To accommodate for this, it is vital you have an emergency fund set-up to cover for these expenses.. The size of this fund should yet again be determined by your age, occupation, the economy, upcoming expenses, debts and assets.

Proper personal cash flow management is the foundation of achieving financial freedom. Getting it into action can be difficult. Our award-winning team at Vision Property and Finance is here to help. Live chat with us using our chat functionality, or book in for a free consultation here.