Many would agree that the hardest part of transitioning into adulthood is managing your own finances. This is especially true for anyone who has been used to the guidance and support of their parents when it comes to money matters.
When people start making and spending their own money, it’s easy for things to get overwhelming and get out of hand. They start signing up for subscriptions, paying bills, taking out and paying loans – the ins and outs, and the flow of money becomes unbearable, and then soon they’re playing catch-up.
Fortunately, there are many things you can do to manage your finances better, and having a bullet journal is one of them. The Balance notes that bullet journaling is effective in helping you become organized and productive. Aside from allowing you to express your creativity, it can also be easily made to fit your organizational style. Bullet journals help in making you more productive by allowing you to keep track of your goals, as well as inspired and reminded of your passion and dreams. Here are some ways in which bullet journaling can be useful for you when it comes to your finances:
Keeping Track Of Expenses
When you don’t keep tabs on where your money goes, it usually feels like money magically evaporates into thin air. However, when you do, you get an idea of where every single penny goes and are warier the next time you are spending. Through this practice, you can gain insights about where most of your money goes and decide whether that’s really where you want your hard-earned money to be spent. Forbes states that by keeping track of your expenses, you will be able to balance what you want and need right now and what you want and need in the future. You can also save yourself from the shock at the end of the month when your bank statement comes in because you are able to keep track of things in real-time.
Managing Work and Clients
If you are a freelancer or in a job that involves managing clients, bullet journaling can help. A bullet journal can help you keep track of every new and existing client and the work you have to do for them. Your bullet journal can serve as a personal record of your client’s every want and need. Then you can use the record to better your work and keep them satisfied. It can also help you stay on top of things by providing you with to-do lists and trackers for your weekly or monthly work goals. Through this, you’ll be able to anticipate how much your income for the month will be and adjust your budget accordingly. Your bullet journal can also help you stay on top of client payment schedules.
Paying Off Your Loans
When you take on a loan, no matter the size, the most important things you need to remember are your payment schedule and to make monthly payments on time. It’s easy to follow this religiously in the beginning, but it’s even easier to fall behind. After a while, you may even feel like your loan repayments are never going to end. Bullet journaling can help you keep track of how many payments you've made, and the payments you have left. This is especially useful, as LoanMart Ohio explains that some lenders reduce payment and interest rates automatically each month if you never miss a payment.
Planning Purchases and Finances
Having a bullet journal with functional finance spreads will enable you to see how much money comes in and how much you spend each month. You can track your finances whether it is on rent, groceries, utilities, debt payments, or other monetary obligations. With this, you’ll be able to plan future purchases such as gifts, replacement appliances, and the like. You can plan these purchases without needing to get a loan, sacrificing rent, or taking some money out of your savings. Bullet journaling can be a useful tool when saving up. It is useful because it can help you determine how much money to take out of your income every month. Additionally, it can help you determine how long you should do it to be able to have enough money for a single purchase and especially big ones.
Staying On Top of Bills
While traditional bullet journals are minimalist, you can release your creative juices. Additionally, you can dedicate a page or two to make a bills-tracking spread. This way, you can easily track whether or not you have paid each bill for each month, effectively keeping you from incurring late fees that could burden your income. If you refer to our post on the ‘22 Financial Tracking Layouts for your Bullet Journal’ you can find many layouts to inspire your own financial tracking spread. You can choose from having a unified monthly tracker that allows you to collate your bills or one that separates utilities, rent, and subscriptions.
Meet The Author
Annie Wu began bullet journaling in college to keep track of all her deadlines. She found that it was just too valuable a habit to kick. Since then, she's used bullet journaling to keep up with work deadlines, bills, and important events. She works in a humdrum office job in the day and does some freelance writing on the side. She hopes to someday be able to leave her day job and instead write full-time.
