Financial lessons learnt in 2019!

It seems unreal that 2019 is over. This year I have had my share of positive and negative experiences.  I am sure that I am not alone in reflecting on the past twelve months and looking forward to how I can make the most of the upcoming year.

Although some of my insights about 2019 are mainly about personal growth and how to deal with challenging situations, I want to share some financial lessons that I learned in 2019.

Insurance

We tend to place very little priority on paying for life insurance. As there are very strict laws on getting car insurance and other types of insurance these are usually prioritized over life insurance.

This year due to my own personal experiences, I realized that life is so fragile and the life insurance payment that might have seemed unnecessary at the time can help significantly with expenses. Therefore my advice is to choose a plan that best fits your budget and pay it regularly to avoid it being closed due to inactivity.

Savings

I also learnt the value of saving this year.  This was a really rough year for me financially and if I had not been saving regularly it would have been even worse. I learnt that it’s better to put aside enough funds when things are going well so that if the worse happens then you can still pay the bills.

The best move I made was to have several areas where I could put aside funds and in some cases I blocked easy access to the funds by refusing an easy access card and using fixed deposits with thirty and ninety days options.

That is not to say I always made good financial decisions as at times I was guilty of over spending and not sticking to my budget. I learned the hard way when my income dipped that I should have been more discerning with my purchases.

There were simple ways that I did learn to save money. As I often forgot my shopping bags and ended up having to buy bags, I decided to keep bags in my car since you never knew when you might need to have an unexpected shopping trip.  That decision paid off as I started saving money.

I also learned the value of cutting out some costs such as hair care as that was costing me a lot each month.  By learning to do my hair myself I was able to save quite a bit of money.

Do you really need that?

Since my income was reduced in 2019, I started looking for things that I didn’t need at home.  Since the Internet provided most of my entertainment needs, I was able to get rid of the cable bill and just enjoy the local channels.

Then it became a full blown goal of mine to find other areas which I could downsize. Since I had tons of books that I no longer needed, I was able to resell the books which provided well needed funds.

This idea of getting rid of things extended to other items and as a result I was able to sell several items of furniture. There were several vendors who take used items so I avoided the yard sale route. I just didn’t feel up to having people come to my house so this way I got the items sold without the hassle.

Make the most out of what you have!

If I could sum up everything that I learned in 2019, it is that whatever level of income you earn it must be used wisely.  Since life is so unpredictable having a budget can help you to put something aside for that rainy day.

So what financial lessons did you learn in 2019? Let me hear from you!

Teri Ann Renee Paisley

Gleaner online writer

Tags: budget, financial lessons, goals, income