Save Your Finances by Avoiding These 5 Common Mistakes

It’s easy to make mistakes when you aren’t paying a lot of attention to your financial planning, and some errors are more costly than others. Here’s a look at some of the common financial missteps and how to avoid them.

5 common financial mistakes

1. Not having a budget

A budget is your most important personal finance tool: It’s a spending plan based on a list of expenditures against your income, which helps you avoid overspending and going into debt. A budget gives you control over your cash flow, making it easier to put away money for an emergency fund or other long-term financial goals, like buying a house. By sticking with a budget you’ll pay off debt faster, avoid the stress of unknown expenses, be able to splurge guilt-free, and avoid making any financial mistakes.

2. Not comparing your prices

It’s always worth checking if you’re getting the best deals from your current providers, be it electrical, phone or internet. The best way to do this is to compare your current costs to other providers in your area. We’ve partnered with a powerful comparison tool called eConnex to help make this process fast and easy. You can even use your most current electricity bill details to get an accurate comparison. Enter your postcode in the box below to get started.

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3. Not accounting for non-monthly expenses

Regular monthly and daily expenses and bills are easy to track — the phone bill, rent and car payments are regularly scheduled and hard to miss, especially if you’ve signed up for automatic withdrawals. One-off expenses, on the other hand — birthdays, the holidays, holidays — can sneak up on you and put you into debt. When budgeting, look back at your previous expenses and list all recurring expenses that have irregular intervals, like on a quarterly or yearly basis, and incorporate them into your budget.

4. Not paying your credit card bill on time

Missed or late credit card payments can result in even higher interest rates, late fees, or even the loss of your credit card — making them one of the biggest financial mistakes you can make. Missed payments also damage your credit rating, which can help in securing loans or credit cards, especially those with lower interest rates. Your credit rating is also used by landlords, employers, and insurance companies to determine your reliability. Save yourself a lot of bother and automate your payments.

5. Not getting insurance

A cornerstone of financial planning is minimising risk, and that includes protecting the assets that you already own. Fortunately, with insurance, you don’t have to worry about unexpected events or natural disasters damaging or destroying your property or affecting your future earnings. Many people pass on insurance to save money. Skipping on insurance is a terrible idea, however. A wrecked car, stolen property or a lifelong disability can be much more expensive than the smaller monthly costs of your insurance premiums.