Money problems and worries can have a devastating and lasting impact on a person’s life, leading to stress and heartache day after day.
Because of this, it’s incredibly important that you’re not left feeling as if your finances are like a runaway juggernaut: out control. Otherwise, you leave yourself vulnerable to a host of further financial problems from growing debt, worsening your credit score and struggling to put food on the table.
Concerningly, it is becoming more and more common as many people appear to be resorting to ever-more desperate means to keep afloat. In fact, a recent study by Citizens Advice found that one in three adults in the UK have resorted to dipping into their savings in the last three months to cover their living costs.
Meanwhile, figures from the Bank of England show that consumer net borrowing went up from £0.7bn in November to £1.5bn in December 2022. This was driven largely by an additional £1.2bn of credit card borrowing, which rose to its highest monthly level in almost 20 years.
According to debt charity, StepChange, the cost of living crisis was the main reason why new clients made contact during November 2022. But interestingly, the second most common reason for making contact was “a lack of control over finances”.
This lack of control is, of course, inextricably linked with wider cost of living pressures, as many of the factors behind rising costs, such as the inflation rate and the war in Ukraine are clearly issues that most of us can’t do anything about.
But that’s precisely why it’s so important to get to grips with the areas that we can control. For example, do you know how much money you have coming in and are you budgeting accordingly for essentials and non-essentials?
Are you actively getting on top of your debts, paying them down where possible and prioritizing higher interest loans?
While we cannot promise that steps such as these can solve all your financial problems, especially when inflation remains at a 40-year high, it can still make a big difference, not to mention for your mental health and wellbeing.
Getting to grips with your finances can be daunting at first and we understand that, but rest assured, advice and specialist support is out there.
A professional financial adviser for instance will take a holistic look at your finances and give you expert guidance on which steps you can take to navigate the current environment.
That in turn can give you a more confident feeling of being in control as you’ll be across the detail and have an expert on hand who can answer your questions and point you in the right direction.
If you do have any questions, concerns or even interests about managing your finances, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Our advisers will be happy to speak with you.