5 Ways to Improve Your Personal Finances
By Sarah Ghafoor
2 min readFeb 22, 2021
- Set specific goals: This might be saving up for a big purchase or paying off a particular amount of debt. Try to make your goals detailed by including how much it would cost and when you would like to achieve them. Writing down your goals can keep you motivated and help you stay accountable.
- Create an emergency fund: Dealing with unexpected financial challenges can be especially difficult without an emergency fund. This typically includes 3–6 months of expenses, such as rent, bills and other recurring expenses. Putting your emergency fund in a high-yield savings account can keep your money accessible while still earning interest.
- Start investing: Investing can help you achieve financial goals with options for varying risk tolerances. Investment platforms like Wealthsimple or Questrade are great low-cost options to start a portfolio. You can also consider mutual funds, which are diversified investments actively managed by a financial professional. This is a lower-risk investment than stocks and can be more convenient for new investors.
- Keep track of your spending: It’s easy to lose track of your spending with automated charges and online spending. Tracking your spending can help you develop a realistic idea of where your money is going and which areas you can cut down in. You can start by tracking one spending category, like food or online purchases, and go from there.
- Learn with Project BITS: Improve your financial literacy by attending free boot camps hosted by Project BITS. With topics ranging from budgeting to investing and taxation, BITS offers a series of boot camps designed to teach students financial basics. Stay connected with @project.bits for event details.
