Having trouble saving? Time to forecast your finances

If forecasting your finances sounds like the kind of dark art that should involve a spell or crystals then chances are you may be struggling to afford the life you want.

This is where realestate.com.au finance experts Ben Kingsley and Bryce Holdaway from the Property Couch can help.

But before we get to their money tips, time for those boring yet important words of warning about your personal circumstances.

This information is of a general nature and does not constitute professional advice. You should always seek professional advice in relation to your particular circumstances.

Now that we’ve got that out the way, let’s look at the simple things that could help you afford to live the life you want.

What are your big rocks?

Life’s big moments are often costly.  Want to get married? You’ll need at least $36,000. How much will that 12-month holiday around the world set you back?

You’d have to have rocks in your head not to plan for these kinds of events, speaking of rocks – what rocks are in your savings jars?

Bryce and Ben say you should begin your financial forecast by visualising all of your spending as coming from several big jars and deciding which big life events or rocks you want to put in those jars.

That sounds like something your gran would say, right? Well her flour jar savings system worked.

Fun fact, credit cards didn’t exist in her day and getting credit from a bank or a store was much harder so her generation had to save cash in actual jars and thus had little debt.

So saving like gran once did probably isn’t a bad idea.

Getting back to your jars, try to think about how much each big rock or life event is likely to cost, this will help you determine how many rocks will fit in your jars.

Plan for the life you want

Once you know what you want, then you can start forecasting and stop living from pay cheque to pay cheque.

“Basically what we’re talking about is, people don’t plan for the future. So they might look at the seven-day forecast and plan their life around that money or that week or that month. What we really should be doing is looking at those seven days as actually seven decades,” says Ben.

Starting with the big rocks helps to see when and where you may need to save. Some goals will take longer to save for than others.

“People have to think about maternity leave, they’ve got to think about whether they want a new car or renovate the kitchen … these are big important decisions that need to be part of their forecast,” says Bryce.

What about the sand & pebbles?

Now that you know what your big rocks are, it should be easier to work out what you need to do with the day to day things or the pebbles and sand that fill our spending jars whether we like it or not.

So things like what you want to spend on food, transport and when to splurge on that night out are all pebbles or bits of sand.  You can determine how big each is because you will know what you need to put aside for that bigger rock or financial goal like saving for a deposit.

Just please, don’t be like Ben and think the Pies will win a flag this year – that kind of forecast is about as reliable as Mystic Meg.

For more from the Property Couch, visit thepropertycouch.com.au or subscribe to the Property Couch podcast, available on iTunes or Android.