The yuletide season is upon us! Few more months to go, can you feel it?

For many, Christmas is not just about the festivities and merriment; it also comes with new hope and dreams for the New Year.
Do you have plans to move into your own house this season? Acquire that brand new car?
Were you looking to get married but was unable to do so because you had to spend your money on other urgent needs earlier in the year?
Keep reading to find out strategies to maximize your income!

Set a budget

One of the best ways to maximize your income and plan for future goals is setting a budget. Once you have an idea of what you spend in a month, the next step is organizing your recorded expenses into a workable budget.
This budget outlines how your expenses matches up to your income, helping you plan spending and limit overspending. In addition to your monthly expenses, be sure to factor in expenses that occur regularly but not every month, such as car maintenance, fuelling etc. From there, you should be able to work out how much money you would need to put away each month.

Record your expenses

After setting your budget, it’s time to record your daily expenses. To effectively set money aside, you need to figure how much you want to spend and how.
Keep track of all your expenses, no matter how little. This means that every coffee, airtime, newspaper and snack you buy, you should be able to account for them. Once you have your data, organize the numbers by categories and total each amount.
You receipts, bank statements and other items can help you with this. With the constant technological advancements, there are now apps that can help you achieve these seamlessly.

Decide on your priorities

After your expenses and income, your goals are likely to have the biggest impact on how you save money.
While doing this, remember your long –term goals and ensure that planning for retirement doesn’t take a back seat to shorter-term needs.
Prioritizing goals gives you a clear idea of where to start saving. For example, if you know you’re going to need to replace your car in the near future, you could start putting money away for one.

Use the right tools

When planning for future goals, it is usually important to use the right third party tools. These tools are not only good for accountability purposes, they also smart ways to earn interest on your funds.
These tools could be in form of fund placement plans which lock in your money at a specific interest rate for a specific period of time.
We know that setting money aside is easier said than done, but it’s possible with the right knowledge and partner.

How do you set funds aside for your goals? Share with us, we would like to know!