If you are having difficulties getting out of your own Rat Race and trying to control your finance, the very first thing you should know is your cash flow. Most of us are more or less aware of what is going on with our balance in the bank accounts. But only few of us realize what it takes to actually improve it.
As we are human beings (and humans need reasons to do something!), we usually hear questions like why bother managing your cash flow when we usually get statements every often. The statements we receive usually do not tell us what our actually cash flow is. If we don’t know how much we earn and spend every month, how much we own as assets and liabilites, we wouldn’t possibly know how to increase our cash flow. We might earn more but much more expenses might level up with the increase from income if we don’t know about our own cash flow.
Once you neglect every little details happening in your finance, you are risking your cash flow to go without control. In this post, we break down into five reasons why we should gain control of our cash flow.
1. To have peace of mind. This is the least obvious reason we normally don’t realize. Have you ever experienced waking up in the middle of a night and been worried for how to deal with the mortgage or pay for your tuition fees? If not exactly the same issues, most of us have some nights worrying how much we will be rich or poor in next few years or months or weeks! Although working out the details of your finance and trying to control your cash flow won’t neccessarily make u billionaires overnight, it will certainly relieve some of your pressure from you mind.
2. To avoid spending on unnecessity. When you are not aware of your cash flow, you are least likely to spend accordingly to it. You might end up spending on what you did not plan and this will definitely disappoint you later especially when you plan to acheive financial freedom. There are things in your life which you can consider as luxuries when considering with how much you earn. And you wouldn’t notice spending on them until you manage your cash flow. Most of us feel guilty only when it’s too late to realize how much we could have saved to free ourselves from the rat race.
3. To be aware of financial loopholes. When this one might seem similar to reason no 2, it is completely a matter. Has anyone of you ever felt betrayed by your banks taking out some charges you weren’t aware of before and been angry with yourself for some direct debit payments you forgot to stop? As soon as you start figuring out your cash flow, you will find many aspects of your finance in terms of weaknesses which you could have improved long time ago. It might actually be the many small loopholes that have been preventing your finance’s progress.
4. To create more realistic financial goals. Most of us have new year resolutions such as ‘to buy a house/car/bike/PS3′ etc. However, when do you realize they are achievable? If you have a financial goal which is way more far from what you cash flow, you will end up with much disappointment which will greatly affect your motivation. If you consider your current cash flow when you set up a financial goal. you will have a more realistic goal in your mind and that makes your life exiciting and boosts your morale.
5. To improve future cash flow. This should probably be the basic reason why people start taking care of their cash flow. If you put your finance on autopilot and let it go with the flow, chances are the flow might be going downwards and you might not have any clue about it. The flow itself may already been good without your management. But being aware of every details in your flow would actually result in improving the already-good cash flow.
So what’s next now? Start managing your cash flow. You have nothing to lose really. If you have any reason of your own for this, why not drop it in comments?