‘Budget’ is not a dirty word! 0 Comments Uncategorized By admin

Dealing with people in tax debt every day certainly keeps you appraised of various market trends and economic impacts on various industries.

What can be surprising though, in this age of sky-high rents and technological progress, is that so few families seem to work to a budget anymore.

Client A – let’s call her Jenny, is a successful contractor based in Wellington. She was finding it difficult to get by on what seemed like a good salary – certainly she didn’t appear to have any designer clothes or extravagant expenses…

However, city life and all of its trappings led to daily trips to the supermarket after work, coffees and Ubers on the run, ‘too-tired’ takeaways 3 or more times per week – all were avoidable and could save serious money – certainly enough to cover ongoing tax contributions.

Many of my clients think they have little left in the kitty at the end of the month, but, where we have introduced budgeting or financial management services, the savings are certainly noticeable – one construction worker client had up to $6,000 extra in his pocket every month!

Everyone can benefit from a budget – not just people who are having trouble making ends meet. It can mean the difference between feeling in control and being able to plan ahead, versus always wondering where your money went and going into overdraft between paydays – or, using your GST savings as cash flow – a sure-fire way to get into trouble with IRD.

Remember, having a budget is about control – and every budget needs some breathing space – it’s not about stripping everything right back, sometimes just a few tweaks to your spending habits are required.

Technology and tools such as Sorted.com make budgeting easy – start today and see how much you could add to your household by making just a few small changes.