Steps to Improving your financial health

No matter if your $10 in the hole or $100,000 in the hole. There are steps you can always take to improve your financial health.

Here are a few Basic steps you can use to begin to transform you financial situation.

You need to get a clear pictures of your finances and know what you have coming in and what you have going out.

1) The best method for doing this is to set up and create a budget. Most people shutter with fear when they hear the word budget. Simply, a budget is no more than writing out how much money you have coming in (salary, side jobs, child support,etc.) and then how much you are spending and paying out to creditors (gas bill, telephone bill, mortgage bill, car payment, etc)

2) After you have established a budget the next step is to make sure you not spending more money than you have coming in. (if you making $1200 per month and spending $1500 per month then you will never get ahead) You must make changes to insure you have a positive cash flow at the end of each month.

A few methods i recommend for reducing your spending is to reduce some of your excess spending.

a) Eat out a few times less during the month. Pack your lunch for 1 or 2 weeks each month and save the money you would have spent eating at McDonald's or going out to dinner.

b) Turn the Air Conditioning in your house up a few degrees, move the thermostat from 70 degrees to 75 degrees and or turn if up to 78 or 80 degrees when no one is home. This can save you quite a bit of money over the course of 1 year.

c) Shop the Clearance racks when you go shopping for clothing and shoes. I save hundreds of dollars shopping this way. I get the same new clothing and shoes as everyone else, but i just pay must less for them.

d) Instead of going out to the movies with friends, Rent a DVD and have a movie night at your house and everyone bring something for snacks (popcorn, soda, beer, etc.)