by Debbie Domican | Jan 4, 2017 | Blog
With the New Year being the ideal period for looking to the future, now is the perfect time to get serious about your finances. After the excesses of Christmas, January can be a difficult month financially. Experts believe as many as one in four adults could potentially struggle to get by. Sorting your finances can seem daunting, but here are three simple steps to taking back control of your finances this January. Step 1 - Create A Budget A budget is the first step towards having control over your finances because it helps you work out exactly what position you are in. A budget should list all the things that you plan to spend money on each month, and the amount of money that you have coming in. This allows you to see how much money is left once you have paid all your essential bills, expenses, food, and transport for the month. What is left can then either be spent, put towards reducing any debts you have, or saved for the future. Step 2 – Cancel Subscriptions You Are Not Using Seeing all your expenses in one place can also help you identify any areas where you can cut back. Many of the goods and services we spend our disposable income on are paid for via direct debit or subscription. The amount of monthly direct debits or subscriptions that the average user has is on the increase as ecommerce changes the way we buy things. Whilst this is convenient, it can also result in you paying for services that you are not using. Create a list of all...
by Debbie Domican | Nov 10, 2016 | Blog
As you can imagine financial services play a very large part in the majority of people’s lives, this being the majority of people rely on bank accounts to pay bills, receive income, salaries and so forth. However, a minority of people do lack access to the most basic financial products and services, incurring significant costs as a result…financially and from a health perspective. The term ‘financial exclusion’ is used in different ways, although it is most often referred to as a lack of access to a range of financial services. Many people can be affected by financial exclusion, and from this is can be difficult to prise yourself free. Generations of families are seen operating in cash in hand, saving at home, or borrowing from high street high interest lenders. Some families are excluded because of a disability, criminal background, or a lack of financial capability to acquire services. This exclusion is driven by poverty, making living on a low income even more difficult. Generally life becomes more expensive, everyday living is costly, more unstable, poorer choices are made and eventually more stressful, to say the least. The exclusion of financial services very much hurts individuals, and families, it burdens society and disrupts lives into downward spiral. Financial exclusion acts as a boundary or a barrier not just for personal development but for progression for the whole family economically. This way of living can also be detrimental to generations of families, as they learn behaviour, have poorer choices to make and less opportunities to develop. These issues, very often lead to mental health issues, family breakdown or even homelessness....
