John Ellis

How to keep a lid on your finances

BY JOHN ELLIS

FINANCIAL ADVISOR

AS we head toward the end of another year the cost of back to school and the tax bill that needs to be paid in the next few weeks is front and centre of many of our minds.

Half of the Top 10 worries according to a report by insurance rm Zurich is about money. ese are 1. My health – 37% 2. e health of my partner, family, friends etc – 32% 3. My relationship with my partner, family, and friends – 23% 4. How to make my money last until the next time I get money – 19% 5. Debts – 17% 6. e security of my job – 10% 7. Looking after elderly relatives – 10% 8. My salary is enough to support me in the longterm – 10% 9. If my salary is enough to support me and my dependents in the long-term

– 9% 10. How to a ord a new home – 8%

Don’t let debt consume your life. So how can we deal with nancial stress.

Face up to the situation. If it looks like you’re getting into debt, get advice on how to prioritise your debts. When people feel anxious, they sometimes avoid talking to others. Get a snapshot of your nancial health. MABS have some very helpful online calculators at https://mabs.ie/ tackling-debt/

It may seem simple but to keep track of your nances you need to know where your money is going. Many people don’t keep an accurate account of their outgoings. Look for recurring monthly costs like memberships or magazine subscriptions that you don’t need or use anymore. How much are you spending on bank fees? Can you change that? Are your savings earning you even a modicum of interest? It pays to be informed.

Change service providers - research has shown many are missing out on savings of over €2,000 a year by failing to shop around for better value on their household bills, including their bank. You can save substantial amounts of money by shopping around for your service providers or what bank you will do business with. ere is really no excuse when sites like bonkers.ie make it easy for you to compare, and banks are making it simpler to switch.

Go paperless - Electronic/ online bills save companies money compared to sending out paper bills every month, so as an incentive for you to go paperless they discount their rates. It might only be a few Euro a month but every little helps. And you’re saving on your recycling bill and dealing with piles of unnecessary paperwork.

Pay o small debts rst - researchers nd that consumers who use “the snowball approach” to tackle small balances rst are likelier to eliminate their overall debt. So rather than chipping away at a big bill try to get rid of your little debts rst.

Finally, make little changes

- little changes add up to big savings., giving up take-away co ees will save you at least €3 a day. Walking to lose weight is free, as opposed to forking out for a pricey gym membership. Why not try a “zero spend day” once in a while to see if you can go an entire 24-hours without having to tap. john@ ellis nancial. 0868362633

Time management is key for our wellbeing

ANDREW MCDONALD HYPNOTHERAPIST

STRESS destroys both our mental wellbeing and physical health. It can ultimately lead to chronic or even terminal illness. Stressful situations often develop when we feel we don’t have enough time but we can take back control of this with a few easy steps.

First, are you doing too much and do you know how to say “no”? Frequently we feel ourselves up against the clock because we are too obliging and end up with more to do than we can manage. When someone asks you to do something, do you automatically say “yes”? If you can’t say “no”, people inadvertently pile more on you because they assume you can handle it. It isn’t rude or sel sh to say “no”. You know how much you can manage and if you start politely refusing what you think you can’t reasonably achieve, you’re likely to do much better at what you feel you can.

Use to-do lists and prioritise. This saves on time spent trying to remember what you need to do. It also means that important tasks get done first. I’ve got a busy day today, I need to write this article, another for another publication, do jobs around the house, do a day’s work etc. I also want to watch a couple of sports matches. I’ve put these last two at the end of my list for today because, ultimately, if I end up not seeing them, it isn’t the end of the world whereas it’s much more important that I complete the other tasks. It also means that when I do sit down to watch them, I can give them my full attention.

Try to avoid multitasking. Many people think trying to do more than one thing at once is a great way to get things done more quickly. Actually, it doesn’t work like that. You end up doing half jobs which need redoing to get them up to scratch. Allocate a reasonable length of time to do each task and stick to it.

Avoid distractions. You know the pattern. You sit down to do something, then you get an email from work or a text from a friend and this pulls you away from what you rst intended to get done. Sometimes urgent things do happen which need your attention immediately but most of the time we can continue to concentrate on the task at hand and then give what popped up our full attention later.

Don’t procrastinate! We frequently put things we don’t want to do or which seem di cult on the back burner. Avoid doing that like the plague! It only makes what we don’t want to do seem even more daunting and leaves us racing against the clock to get it done rather than being relaxed whilst completing whatever task it is.

We can’t remove all stress from our lives. A little time management goes a long way to reducing it though. Your mind and body will thank you for it.