DON’T waste your life paying off a lifestyle you can’t afford.
Improving your personal finances, buying only what you can afford and cutting out on unnecessary expenses is important.
Here are five red flags that signal you’re living a lifestyle you can’t afford:
1. FOMO dictates your spending
If you always feel the need to buy stuff you can’t afford or don’t even need because you want to fit in or because you don’t want to miss out, then we’ve got news for you – you’re living beyond your means!
“If you have to hide or lie about your spending habits, it means you’re spending over your limit.”
2. Your credit card balances are rising
If you only afford to pay the minimum payment due on your credit card balance and you end up taking longer to pay off your debts, you should know there’s a problem.
Ideally, you should only buy what you can afford at the end of each month.
There’s no harm in owning a few credit cards, but if you have high outstanding balances, you’re in trouble.
3. You hide what you buy
We hate to admit it, but we’ve all been guilty of this. You may have bought new shoes and bags and then hid them so your family wouldn’t know.
Because you know you didn’t need and couldn’t afford them.
If you have to hide or lie about your spending habits, it means you’re spending over your limit.
4. You don’t have cash left at the end of the month
According to Totallymoney.com, you can avoid this by following these simple steps:
- At the beginning of each month, pay some money into your savings account as if you’re paying any other bill.
- You’ll never save if you wait until you have money left over, since you’ll never have money left over.
- Keep a diary of where your money goes each month. This will help you cut on unnecessary spending.
- Try to spend money on necessities only for a whole month and cut out everything else.
5. You’ve never set a budget
Budgeting is vital as it helps you to create a spending plan and follow it.
If you don’t budget, it becomes difficult for you to keep track of your spending and you can end up spending more than you make. And then you rely on making debt.
