How to financially plan for 2023

Welcome to 2023! 🥳🎉 You’ve probably made a lot of resolutions this new year, but have you included your financial plan? Have you thought about planning your finances this new year?

Financial planning is an important step in ensuring that you are able to meet your long-term financial goals. Whether you are saving for retirement, a down payment to buy a house, or just trying to build up an emergency fund, having a solid financial plan in place can help you stay on track and make the most of your money.

In this article, we have listed some realistic steps to help you financially plan for the year 2023:

1. Identify and set financial goals.

This is the first step in planning your finances. What exactly do you want to achieve this year with your money? Do you want to pay off debt? Or do you plan to put money together for school? Do you want to start a business? Or do you plan to build up your emergency fund? Without clear goals, it becomes difficult to stay motivated and make progress on your wealth-building journey.

To do this, take some time to reflect on your current financial situation and where you would like to be in the future. This will help you set realistic and achievable goals. For example, when you’ve identified your goal and reflected on your current financial situation, you can set goals like “I will save ₦100,000 monthly in my emergency funds, to meet my  ₦1million goal at the end of the year.”

Once you have successfully identified and set your money goals for the year, you can easily start creating plans to achieve them.

2. Build habits and systems.

Building good money habits and systems can help you to effectively manage your finances and achieve your set goals. Some important tips for building money habits and systems include:

• Set a budget and stick to it: A budget helps you to track your income and expenses and make the most of your money. By creating a budget, you can quickly identify areas you can cut back or save more. This helps to build better spending habits. Make it an important mission to stick to a budget when set.
  
• Automate your finances: This goes a long way to ease the process of managing your money. Set up automated savings and investments with Cowrywise. This will ensure that you stick to your money goals, even when you forget or are too busy. You can do this seamlessly with Cowrywise savings and investment plans. It’s an efficient way to meet your money goals and reduce the risk of missed payments.
  
• Track your spending: Regularly tracking your spending will help you to identify areas where you may be overspending, thereby informing you on adjustments to make to your budget.

By building good money habits and systems, you can take control of your finances and work towards a more financially secure future.

3. Prepare for unplanned expenses.

Emergency situations always arise. It can be as little as an increase in expected prices of items or a hike in your rent, and it can be as much as medical emergencies or job loss. Preparing for unplanned situations like these can help to protect you from financial hardships when they arise. To accurately get this done, you need to:

• Determine how much you need: How much you need to save in your emergency fund will depend on your individual financial situation. A general rule of thumb is to save enough to cover three to six months’ worth of living expenses.
  
• Set up a separate savings plan for emergencies: Consider setting up a separate account specifically for your emergency fund. This will help you to keep your emergency savings separate from daily spending or investments meant for future plans.
  
• Automate your emergency funds: Put this fund on auto-pilot, just as you build habits and systems.

The best news is that you don’t have to make all these plans and calculations on your own, the Cowrywise Emergency Fund is built to seamlessly help you save for emergencies. Check it out right away.

4. Review and adjust your plan.

Just like any other plan, financial plans are prone to change—your financial circumstances and goals can change over time, so it is important to review and adjust your financial plan as needed. Ensure you periodically review your budget, goals, and investment strategy to ensure that you are still on track to achieve your financial objectives.

By following these steps and staying committed to your financial plan, you can set yourself up for financial success in 2023 and even beyond. Simply signup on Cowrywise and we’ll get you started immediately.

Did we miss anything? Or do you have questions? Leave a message in the comment section.