At the expense of stating the obvious here, let us just say that there are many people who simply fail to follow the advice that is to be imparted in this article. So before you go rushing off to take out a new equity release plan, take this very obvious option on board first of all.
What on earth is this huge secret, I hear you ask? Calm down, it really is not that ground breaking! It is simply a case of keeping a very detailed account of your finances on a monthly basis and this means keeping track of every single penny that comes into and out of your pocket.
To do this, you need to gather-up every single bill and debt you pay for each month. You will also need to find your utilities bills and work out an average for what you pay on the food bill each week.
Get yourself a book whereby you can use a page for every month. At the top of this list - write down how much you pay in mortgage payments or rent. Then you will record your monthly council tax payment, followed by every other debt you pay each month.
You will then need to tally this amount up and this will give you your total outgoings for the month. Leave some space below these entries for the following:
Enter your total income for that month and on the next line, work out what this leaves you for each month. This is your disposable income for that month and is the amount that you cannot go over. Keep some space below to record how you spend this amount of money and when you draw it out. If there is anything left at the end on the month, you can then save this and do with it what you want.
