Yahoo Finance Budgeting can feel like a balancing act. These tips can help
Not only is budgeting incredibly beneficial for our financial health, it’s often a necessity if we want to reach our financial goals, whether these include saving for a home, a dream vacation or that all-important rainy day fund.
Finding the proper balance for your budget can be a challenge, however—especially when emergencies and other unexpected expenses crop up to throw a wrench into your best-laid plans. Together with TD, we’ve compiled a few tips you can use to help find your balance, while still leaving room in your budget for the unexpected—from scheduling regular budget check-ins to leveraging a low interest rate credit card¹ like the new TD Low Rate Visa Card.
Flex your budgeting muscles
One of the most effective first steps you can take is to view budgeting as a habit, rather than a one-time task. By nature, habits require repetitive practice in order to become, well, habitual. In other words: nobody is a natural when it comes to budgeting, not even the savviest savers. They’ve simply built up their budget muscles to the point where it now feels natural and has become second nature.
Don’t expect to get there overnight, but one easy way to start is by becoming more familiar with your regular monthly expenses. Using a low interest rate credit card can help you feel better equipped to tackle expenses while you work on finding more balance with your budget. Your bank may also provide some helpful habit-building resources, like TD's Automated Saving tools, to make starting to save easier.
Ultimately, the more practice you get at budgeting, the more comfortable you’ll become with it, and the more confident you’ll be in your ability to stick with this valuable new habit.
The right credit card can make a big difference
No matter the size of your savings or budgetary goals, there’s no denying that smart spending – and saving – is key to good budgeting. While that may be easier said than done, you can greatly reduce the stress associated with this balancing act by selecting the right credit card for everyday spending.
With the TD Low Rate Visa Card, you can save on interest rates¹ for both purchases and cash advances. Thanks to a limited time offer until September 3, 2024, you can get an 8.99% promotional interest rate on purchases for the first six months of account opening² (a standard rate of 12.90% thereafter) and an annual fee of just $25. Plus, you’ll also have access to flexible TD Payment Plans, giving you extra room to absorb unexpected expenses without compromising the monthly budget you’ve worked so hard to build.
Check in regularly
Want to get better at exercising those budget muscles? Think of it like going to the gym, and create a regular schedule you can stick to; you can make it much easier on yourself by setting a regular day and time to conduct a budget review.
Budget ‘catch-ups’ are most useful when done once a week. This way, you can easily stay on top of things while avoiding any end-of-the-month surprises. Plus, in showing up to do that work, you’ll be in a better position to compare your budget with your actual day-to-day expenses, take note of where improvements can be made and course-correct as needed.
Tools you can use
We live in a tech-driven world, which you can use to your advantage when budgeting to help make those regular check-ins easier to conduct and stick to. Today’s consumer has access to an innumerable amount of apps, spreadsheet templates and other resources that can help us plot out, and meet, our monthly savings goals.
If a budgeting app sounds like your thing, you’ll find a host of both free and paid options out there. These tools can help you create, structure and track your budget, but the real gold comes with some of the budget optimization tools available.
An app like TD MySpend can be a great place to start, as it can be easily connected to your TD credit card accounts to help you track card spending and stay on top of everyday expenses. Not only will this help give you a better picture of your recurring monthly expenses, you can also use this valuable information to help bring more balance to your budget in the event of an unexpected emergency expense.
Don’t just expect the unexpected, have a plan for it
In an ideal world, progress is a linear and smooth path to reaching your goal. In reality, however, that journey often goes a little differently. And even though we may know this, it’s still all too easy to fall into the trap of expecting our budgeting plans to go off without a hitch.
This is where a little extra mental preparation comes in: understand that you may slip up, or an unexpected emergency may arise, and plan accordingly so there’s extra room in your budget if you need it. And if you don’t? Sock that money away for when you do.
This way, even if your budget does get thrown back out of balance, it won’t take you by surprise. If you can accept that hiccups are going to happen, have a plan in place for how to handle them, and a low interest rate credit card that can help provide you with a little added confidence and peace of mind, you should be well-positioned to dust yourself off and get both you and your budget back on track.
Learn more about how the TD Low Rate Visa Card can help you find some balance with everyday and emergency expenses and how you can take advantage of the card’s low promotional interest rate offer here.
Credit Card product information mentioned in this article is applicable to all Provinces excluding Quebec.
¹ When compared to a department store credit card with an interest rate ranging from 24.99% - 29.99%.
² Limited time offer. Account must be opened by September 3, 2024. For more information, visit td.com/lowratecard.
